Wikipedia:Press coverage 2019
Appearance
Wikipedia in the press |
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Please list coverage about Wikipedia itself here, by month.
There are templates at the bottom of the page (commented out in "Edit source").
- Cf. press list kept on Meta: meta:Communications committee/Press clippings
January
[edit]- Apen-Sadler, Dianne (January 2, 2019). "British researcher reveals how she started a Wikipedia page for a woman, person of colour, or LGBT scientist EVERY DAY in 2018 to combat the site's 'lack of diversity'". Daily Mail. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
A physics researcher has tackled the 'lack of diversity' on Wikipedia by starting an entry for a woman, person of colour or LGBT scientist or engineer every day in 2018. Dr Jess Wade, who works at Imperial College London, started the project at the beginning of last year and since then has created more than 450 pages.
- Spiro, Amy (January 7, 2019). "What did Israelis look up on Wikipedia in 2018?". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved January 8, 2019.
In 2018, Israelis tweeted about Netta Barzilai, googled the World Cup and wikipedia-ed... themselves. According to statistics released on Monday by Wikimedia Israel, the most read Hebrew Wikipedia page of 2018 was the page for Israel, with 642,736 views. In a close second was the page for the hit show Fauda, with more than 560,000 views, and then the 2018 Eurovision competition.
- Kampouris, Nick (January 7, 2019). "Wikipedia Reveals What Greeks Searched For in 2018". Greek Reporter. Retrieved January 8, 2019.
The data revealed by Wikipedia showed that Greeks made 358.8 million visits to the website's Greek-language page. "Greece", "Macedonia" and "Alexander the Great" came in first, second, and third on the list respectively.
- McAndrew, Ewan; O'Connor, Sioban; Thomas, Sara; White, Alice (8 January 2019). "From Chinese spies to award-winning geologists, we're making women visible on Wikipedia". New Statesman. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
Just 3,541 Wikipedia editors are considered "very active", and very few of them are female.
- "This algorithm browses Wikipedia to auto-generate textbooks". MIT Technology Review. January 9, 2019. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
Given the advances in artificial intelligence in recent years, is there a way to automatically edit Wikipedia content so as to create a coherent whole that is useful as a textbook?
- Singh, Manish (January 9, 2019). "Wikipedia taps Google to help editors translate articles". VentureBeat. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
Wikimedia says that it will integrate Google Translate, arguably the best translation service on the planet, into its four-year-old content translation tool. The integration also means that Wikipedia's translation tool would now support an additional 15 languages (pushing the overall count to 121), Wikimedia said in a blog post.
- Benjakob, Omer (January 10, 2019). "Why William Shatner Got the Jewish Guilt Treatment Because of Hebrew Wikipedia". Haaretz. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
It's not every day that a Hollywood star gets guilt-tripped on Twitter for not visiting his Jewish family in Israel, but that's exactly what happened to William Shatner this week - and it's all Hebrew Wikipedia's fault.
- Vincent, James (January 10, 2019). "Wikipedia is using Google Translate to make its articles available in more languages". The Verge. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
Google Translate will be integrated into Wikipedia's in-house translation tool at no cost, added as an option alongside the open-source translator Apertium, which has been used to translate some 400,000 Wikipedia articles to date.
- Shamsian, Jacob (January 12, 2019). "'High School Musical' actor Corbin Bleu has more Wikipedia pages than almost anyone else on earth and Reddit may have just solved why". INSIDER. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
In 2016, MIT's media lab conducted a study analyzing the most popular people on Wikipedia. They found the people with the most translated pages on the site. The top results weren't too surprising — Jesus Christ, Barack Obama, Adolf Hitler, Confucius — you know, the usual. But sitting there at No. 3 was Corbin Bleu, the actor most famous for his supporting role in the 2006 Disney Channel movie "High School Musical."
- Benjakob, Omer (January 13, 2019). "Venezuela Blocks Wikipedia After Maduro 'Ousted' From Article, Internet Watchdog Says". Haaretz. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
Venezuela has blocked access to Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, becoming only the second country after Turkey to do so, an internet watchdog claimed Sunday.
- Harrison, Stephen (January 14, 2019). "Happy 18th birthday, Wikipedia. Let's celebrate the Internet's good grown-up". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
On Tuesday, Wikipedia celebrates its 18th birthday. If the massive crowdsourced encyclopedia project were human, then in most countries, it would just now be considered a legal adult. But in truth, the free online encyclopedia has long played the role of the Internet's good grown-up.
- "Wikipedia banned in Venezuela amid political turmoil". Engineering & Technology. January 14, 2019. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
The ban is strongly believed to be related to a dispute over the legitimacy of Nicolás Maduro's presidency acknowledged by the Spanish language version of the free online encyclopaedia.
- "Wikipedia's top searches show people want to know more about royals, superheroes and Freddie Mercury". ABC News (Australia). January 14, 2019. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
Wikipedia's top English searches of 2018 have revealed that people wanted to know more about royals, celebrities and film and television. It follows a trend the site identified in 2017: in the age of binge-watching television series, we're devouring information about our favourite shows and films and their characters — particularly with biopics.
- Sinclair, Klara (January 15, 2019). "GALLERY: Celebrate Wikipedia's 18th birthday by taking a look back at its most comical edits". The Press and Journal (Scotland). Retrieved January 17, 2019.
Wikipedia has held countless comical errors over the years, so to celebrate its passage into adulthood we have put together a collection of its funniest less-than-accurate edits.
- O'Loughlin, Ed (January 16, 2019). "An Irish Burger Chain Claims a Trademark Win Over McDonald's". The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
...Wikipedia entries cannot be considered as a reliable source of information, as they can be amended by Wikipedia's users.
- Gonzales, Angi (January 16, 2019). "The Manhattan Man With an Unusual Hobby: He's a Wikipedia Photographer". NY1. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
The 70-year-old retiree's images are for anyone to see on Wikipedia the free online encyclopedia, created and edited by volunteers around the world, volunteers like himself.
- Brownstein, Bill (January 16, 2019). "Brownstein: Wikipedia to get respect at Concordia University". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
Without question, however, the go-to location for background material in our brave new ether-world is Wikipedia, and it's hardly just students who have come to rely upon this source. Professionals from all walks flock to it.
- Millner, Caille (January 17, 2019). "Wikipedia hasn't lost sight of its mission 18 years after launch". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
"There's a saying in our community that 'It's a good thing Wikipedia works in practice because in theory it's a disaster,'" Lien said. Lien is right. In theory, all of this sounds, at best, disastrously utopian. At worst, it sounds like a Tech 1.0 scam.
- Diphoko, Wesley (January 18, 2019). "CHECK THIS: The rise of Wikipedia … driven by a crucial difference in values". Independent Online (South Africa). Retrieved January 18, 2019.
Most top web companies have betrayed the public trust by how they have utilised user data. In the process, the creators and founders of these leading web companies have amassed wealth for themselves. Among the top 10 web companies, though, there's one that has proven to be trustworthy and that is Wikipedia.
- Sam, Woodhams (January 18, 2019). "Wikipedia Blocked in Venezuela amidst Mounting Political Instability". International Policy Digest. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
Following attempts by users to cite Juan Guaidó as president of Venezuela on Wikipedia, the state-owned telecommunications operator, Cantv, has blocked access to the free encyclopedia platform.
- Annear, Steve (January 18, 2019). "Someone edited the AFC Championship Wikipedia page with a cheeky line about the Patriots". The Boston Globe. Retrieved January 20, 2019.
Technically, they weren't wrong. A Wikipedia user Thursday apparently edited the page explaining what the AFC Championship is by adding a line that bragged about how often the New England Patriots have made an appearance in the postseason game.
- Jemielniak, Dariusz (January 18, 2019). "The Most Influential Medical Journals According to Wikipedia: Quantitative Analysis". Journal of Medical Internet Research. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
Traditional high-impact medical and multidisciplinary journals were extensively cited by Wikipedia, suggesting that Wikipedia medical articles have robust underpinnings.
- Bogage, Jacob (January 19, 2019). "Latest edit to AFC championship Wikipedia page: 'One team gets to play the New England Patriots'". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
As if anyone needed reminding, the Patriots are very good in the postseason. But in case that wasn't clear, someone edited the AFC championship Wikipedia page to emphasis just how frequently they tear through their conference playoffs.
- Dickey, Megan Rose (January 22, 2019). "Google.org donates $2 million to Wikipedia's parent org". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
Google, as well as many other companies, has long relied on Wikipedia for its content. Now, Google and Google.org are giving back.
- Militar, Francesca (January 22, 2019). "Reddit user solves the question – why is Corbin Bleu in Wikipedia's top 3 list?". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
Sure, Bleu has made a name for himself as the confident Chad Danforth in the High School Musical franchise. But to compare his fame and popularity with the likes of Jesus Christ and Confucius is downright bizarre.
- Hamill, Jasper (January 22, 2019). "Sick vandals mark Martin Luther King Day with pornographic attack on Wikipedia page celebrating the great man". Metro (British newspaper). Retrieved January 23, 2019.
The vandals may have wanted to cause maximum shock value, so decided to strike on MLK Day when the Wikipedia page was likely to receive significantly increased traffic.
- "Meet the Man Behind a Third of What's on Wikipedia". CBS News. January 27, 2019. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
- "Olivia Colman reveals battle with Wikipedia over her age". Sky News. January 28, 2019. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
The actress says that not only did the online encyclopaedia get the wrong date and month, it also aged her by eight years.
- Stolworthy, Jacob (January 28, 2019). "Olivia Colman battled with Wikipedia to get her incorrect age changed". The Independent. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
She emailed [Wikipedia] under a false identity so that she didn't appear 'vain' – but didn't get a response.
- Atlan, Michael (January 28, 2019). "L'actrice Olivia Colman en guerre contre Wikipedia pour rétablir la vérité sur son âge". Slate FR (in French). Retrieved January 28, 2019.
Bien décidée à corriger cette erreur, elle racontait avoir envoyé un e-mail en prétendant être une amie d'école car «je ne voulais pas qu'ils pensent que j'étais vaniteuse». Le premier d'une longue série.
- Boyd, Connor (January 28, 2019). "Meet the history-obsessed opera fanatic behind ONE-THIRD of the Wikipedia's English-language entries -and he does it all for free". Daily Mail. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
An Opera lover branded 'one of the most influential people on the internet' from Virginia is responsible for a third of all of the content on Wikipedia. Steven Pruitt, 34, has made 2.5 million edits on the free online encyclopedia and written 35,000 original articles.
- Harrison, Stephen (January 28, 2019). "Why Wikipedia's Medical Content Is Superior". Slate. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
It's not only the general public that turns to Wikipedia for health content. More than 90 percent of medical students, and percent 50-70 of physicians, use the online encyclopedia as a source for health information.
- Sshwedel, Heather (January 30, 2019). "And Now, a Ranking of the Weirdest Things on Richard E. Grant's Sublime Wikipedia Page". Slate. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
Now I'm here to add another item to the list of ways in which Grant is excellent: He has one of the best Wikipedia pages I have ever read.
February
[edit]- Alhadjri, Alyaa (February 6, 2019). "Deputy minister decries edits to qualifications on Wikipedia page". Malaysiakini. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
Deputy foreign minister Marzuki Yahya has decried a flurry of edits made to his academic credentials on his Wikipedia page.
- Levine, Romi (February 7, 2019). "U of T event seeks to boost presence of women scientists on Wikipedia". University of Toronto. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
To mark the upcoming International Day of Girls and Women in Science on Feb. 11, organizers are inviting people to create and update Wikipedia pages with a focus on Canadian female scientists and individuals belonging to marginalized groups.
- Wade, Jessica (February 11, 2019). "This is why I've written 500 biographies of female scientists on Wikipedia". The Independent. Retrieved February 11, 2019.
Whether you want to check a fact or learn something new, Wikipedia will likely be the first place you turn. On English language Wikipedia, only 17.8 per cent of all biographies are about women, and women scientists are particularly badly represented.
- Hocquet, Alexandre (February 14, 2019). "No, Wikipedia didn't get actress Olivia Colman's birthdate wrong". The Conversation. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
The fact checking that journalists can't seem to do is actually made by Wikipedians.
- Ernst, Douglas (February 14, 2019). "Mark Dice battles Wikipedia: Conservative YouTube pundit blocked from debate on his biography". The Washington Times. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
Wikipedia blocked him this week over a years-long debate on what his biography page should contain.
- Másson Maack, Már (February 15, 2019). "Wikipedia co-founder blocked from his Wikipedia account [Update: False alarm!]". The Next Web. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
Update: Turns out it was a simple misunderstanding. Larry Sanger told TNW he accidentally logged in with the wrong username of and older account.
- Hesse, Monica (February 17, 2019). "History has a massive gender bias. We'll settle for fixing Wikipedia". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
"Most male journalists who have two Pulitzers have Wikipedia pages," Oba notes. So when he learned about Mendoza, he wanted to make sure his submission was approved. He backed up the article with an "epic onslaught of credible sources," to craft an airtight argument for her inclusion.
- Cooper, Jasmine (February 18, 2019). "He's the man behind a third of what's on Wikipedia: Steven Pruitt". WGN. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
Pruitt is an American volunteer Wikipedia editor who has made nearly 3 million edits on Wikipedia and written 35,000 original articles. He was also named as one of the 25 most important influencers on the Internet by Time magazine in 2017.
- Armstrong, Annie (February 21, 2019). "Art + Feminism to Host Sixth Annual Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon in March". ARTnews. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
Next month, the Museum of Modern Art will be one of many New York institutions playing host to the sixth annual Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon, in which attendees create Wikipedia entries for female artists.
- Ball, Hannah (February 21, 2019). "Wikipedia is useful tool for fact gathering". Tri-County Times. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
While it's not accepted as a source in high school or university research papers (or news articles), Wikipedia is a wealth of knowledge that many use for quick facts when they're curious about something, or when they want to settle an argument. The articles themselves may not be accepted as sources, but the links at the bottom of the articles are usually fair game.
- Crawford, Amy. "One Tool in the Fight Against Wikipedia's Notorious Gender Bias". Smithsonian. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
But there might just be a 19th-century solution to this 21st-century problem: prosopographies, now-obscure collections of biographical sketches of prominent men and women.
- Tuckey, Ian (February 24, 2019). "Kepa's Wikipedia page changed as fans hit out at Chelsea keeper after he sensationally refuses to be subbed against Man City in Carabao Cup final". The Sun. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
One Wikipedia amendment labelled the 24-year-old "the most unprofessional b*****d in the world" and added: "His mum didn't teach him any manners."
- Skinner, Adam (February 25, 2019). "Kepa Arrizabalaga appointed 'manager of Chelsea FC' as trolls hack Wikipedia page". The Express. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
Kepa Arrizabalaga refused to be substituted and one fan changed his occupation on Wikipedia!
- Haysom, Sam (February 25, 2019). "The 'Green Book' Wikipedia page is being mercilessly trolled after Oscars win". Mashable. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
Shortly after Green Book won Best Picture, its Wikipedia was amended. For a while, the title was changed to "Lying White Guilt Trash".
- Shepherd, Jack (February 25, 2019). "Green Book's Wikipedia page sabotaged in protest at Oscars Best Picture win". The Independent. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
Following Green Book's victory at the Oscars, pesky Internet users changed the film's Wikipedia page. Screenshots of the film's page with the title changed to "Lying White Guilt Trash".
- Aschaiek, Sharon (February 26, 2019). "Advancing academia with Wikipedia". University Affairs. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
Wikipedia has generally been dismissed or distrusted by academia. But now in its 18th year, the non-profit, open-access online encyclopedia has grown exponentially to become one of the leading providers of online content, making it difficult for academic institutions to ignore.
- Hitt, Jack (February 28, 2019). "Inside the Secret Sting Operations to Expose Celebrity Psychics". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
Collectively, the group, which has swelled to 144 members, has researched, written or revised almost 900 Wikipedia pages.
- Stromberg, Matt (February 27, 2019). "The Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon Comes to Southern California Museums This March". Hyperallergic. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
The demographics of those contributing to digital databases, however, often reinforce traditional hierarchies, with only 16% of Wikipedia editors identifying as female by some estimates.
- Finkel, Jori (February 28, 2019). "Women are written into online art history at expanded Wikipedia edit-a-thons across Southern California". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
If you have ever been annoyed by the fact that some minor Star Trek characters have substantial Wikipedia entries while some major women artists do not, you have noticed the dramatic gender gap on the popular crowd-sourced website—where over 85% of contributors are men. Enter Art+Feminism, a global group founded in 2014 to try to close that gap with edit-a-thons where volunteers can learn how to write and post entries.
- Aloi, Daniel (February 28, 2019). "Edit-a-thon March 8 raises profile of women and the arts on Wikipedia". Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
Kingsbury, who created murals in the Willard Straight Hall lobby and on West Campus from 1925-30, is no longer missing from the online encyclopedia. Editors at Cornell have produced several new pages in previous edit-a-thons, for her and Cornellians such as Olive Tjaden, art historian Claire Holt and artist Clara Seley.
March
[edit]- Farber, Anna (March 1, 2019). "Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon to Promote Marginalized Artists". The Oberlin Review. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
Wikipedia is a source hailed for its informational scope and critiqued for its accuracy, but critics and supporters alike will both agree that it is widely used. Despite its wide reach, Wikipedia has less information on women and people of color in the arts than it should.
- Singer, Daliah (March 2019). "A Boulder Group Is Rewriting History—one Wikipedia Article at a Time". 5280. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
Just 17.8 percent of the site's English-language biographical entries profile ladies. But it's an error worth correcting, which is why Boulder's Inclusipedia is working to ensure women's contributions to history are no longer lost to time.
- Swain, Frank (March 4, 2019). "Wikipedia's civil wars show how we can heal ideological divides online". New Scientist. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
Social networks have developed a reputation as bitterly polarised places, populated with churlish arguments over clashing politics. Yet an analysis of millions of Wikipedia articles suggests that ideologically diverse groups can not only cooperate effectively, but also produce better work than homogenous groups. How did Wikipedia succeed where much of the online world failed?
- Pinkstone, Joe (March 5, 2019). "How editing Wikipedia pages could make for the 'perfect article': Process encourages healthy debate among people with different political views, Harvard expert says". Daily Mail. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
Wikipedia pages are refined and made more accurate by people striking up a healthy debate, despite having very different political views, an expert says.
- Bodkin, Henry (March 5, 2019). "Wikipedia could provide early warning for species extinction". The Telegraph. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
The early warning signs that a species is becoming extinct is more likely to come from Wikipedia in the future than scientific research, the results of a new study suggest.
- Hotchkiss, Sarah (March 5, 2019). "Wikipedia Needs More Art and Feminism, and These Edit-a-Thons are Here to Help". KQED. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
Thankfully, Art + Feminism arrived on the scene in 2014, a campaign that helps people around the world organize in-person gatherings to teach others how to become Wikipedia editors. The groups, usually set up in libraries with access to plenty of books and other physical citations, contribute updates to Wikipedia entries related to art and feminism.
- Mason, Amelia (March 5, 2019). "At The ICA, A Wikipedia 'Edit-A-Thon' Aims To Close The Gender Gap". WBUR. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
The genius of the crowd-sourced online encyclopedia is that anyone can edit it. But not everyone does.
- Eucker, Ava (March 5, 2019). "UNC libraries give feminism a voice with Wikipedia edit-a-thon". The Daily Tar Heel. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
Organizers gave a lesson on the usage and ethics of Wikipedia editing to the 24 volunteers who met at the Sloane Art Library on Monday, and resources were compiled to aid writers in their efforts to revamp the online pages, said Veronica McGurrin, president of AMLISS.
- Üdre, Anna (March 5, 2019). "Battleground Wikipedia". StopFake. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
For a few hours on 24 January the English-language Wikipedia page of the newly-elected Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš was incorrect on a key point: his nationality was listed as American. A Latvian Russian politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) known for supporting Moscow's views then used this fabrication to try to raise anti-American sentiment on social media.
- Intagliata, Christopher (March 6, 2019). "Animal Migrations Track with Wikipedia Searches". Scientific American. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
Every spring, migratory birds flood back to where they breed. That migratory behavior is accompanied by some human behavior: "In English-language Wikipedia, the page views for migratory species like the indigo bunting or the Baltimore oriole tend to peak in the spring when those birds arrive in the United States on their breeding grounds."
- Ohaegbu, Chimedum (March 6, 2019). "Indigenous Writers Edit-a-Thon creates online change through Wikipedia edits". The Ubyssey. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
As an open-access tool that has helped catapult obscure and obvious topics to the forefront of public imagination, Wikipedia — while the scourge of some professors — is an important way of sharing information. Like any human endeavour, though, it is susceptible to erasure and homogeneity.
- Morrison, Tom (March 6, 2019). "Women's Day project aims to 'smooth out' Wikipedia". Chatham This Week. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
An international campaign to improve female representation on Wikipedia will be coming to Chatham this Friday for International Women's Day.
- O’Reilly, Nicola (March 7, 2019). "Why we're creating Wikipedia profiles for BAME scientists". Nature. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
A week or so after the diversithon, my article was published — a proud moment indeed. Since the event, it has been a pleasure to see the pages written by other participants being published.
- Murray, Jeff (March 7, 2019). "Corning Museum of Glass to host Wikipedia editing event Sunday". Star-Gazette. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
However, less than 10 percent of content contributors are women, according to the Corning Museum of Glass, which wants to see more women participating, especially when it comes to glass-related topics.
- Harrison, Stephen (March 7, 2019). "The Internet's Dizzying Citogenesis Problem". Slate. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
Although Heilman considers Wikipedia's medical content to be of surprisingly good quality, he was concerned—because he didn't just find DrugBank copying and citing Wikipedia; he had also found several examples of Wikipedia likewise copying and citing DrugBank.
- Nevett, Joshua (March 7, 2019). "PSG added to Wikipedia list of 'bottling companies' after stunning defeat to Man United". Daily Star. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
Saint-Germain trolls have jokingly added the club to a list of "bottling companies" on free encyclopedia Wikipedia.
- "Volunteers work to bolster Canadian women's biographies on Wikipedia". National Post. March 8, 2019. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
St.Onge pointed to a Wikipedia article suggesting that the site's gender bias reflects the fact that most volunteer editors are men. Librarians and archivists have been working to address this underrepresentation by trying to recruit new and diverse contributors, she said.
- Raguin, Chantal (March 10, 2019). "Cornell Celebrates International Women's Day with Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon". The Cornell Daily Sun. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
First-time editor Alexa Saylan '22 was drawn to the event's "message of inclusivity, especially about editing women with different cultural backgrounds, different gender identities, etc."
- Feinberg, Ashley (March 14, 2019). "Facebook, Axios And NBC Paid This Guy To Whitewash Wikipedia Pages". Huffpost. Retrieved March 1, 2019.
One of Wikipedia's more well-known rules is its prohibition on editing pages that you have any sort of direct connection to. This, along with the fact that it's humiliating to get caught editing your own Wikipedia page, is usually enough of a deterrent to companies and public figures looking to inject a positive spin. But those looking to get around the site's conflict of interest rules aren't totally without options.
- Gallagher, Brian (March 14, 2019). "Wikipedia and the Wisdom of Polarized Crowds:A lesson in how to break out of filter bubbles". Nautilus Quarterly. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
In their new Nature Human Behaviour paper, "The Wisdom of Polarized Crowds," Evans and Teplitskiy concluded that polarization doesn't poison the wells of information. On the contrary, they showed politically diverse editor teams on Wikipedia put out better entries—articles with higher accuracy or completeness—than uniformly liberal or conservative or moderate teams.
- Clench, Sam (March 14, 2019). "Zali Steggall fights back against ugly edits to her Wikipedia page". News.com.au. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
Online trolls have been editing independent candidate Zali Steggall's Wikipedia page to falsely claim she has appeared in nude photoshoots. [...] The page's revision history shows the edits started on Sunday and continued throughout the week. Each time they were undone, the culprits would reinsert them.
- Noack, Rick (March 14, 2019). "Why Wikipedia will go offline for 24 hours in Germany". Washington Post. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
Online encyclopedia Wikipedia's German edition will go offline for 24 hours next Thursday, as its authors try to rally Europeans against a proposed European Union law that would tighten online copyright regulations. Critics fear that the directive could pose risks to freedom of speech in Europe.
- Meyer, David (March 21, 2019). "Why Four Versions of Wikipedia Have Deliberately Gone Dark". Fortune (magazine). Retrieved April 1, 2019.
Four language editions of Wikipedia are blacked out Thursday: German, Danish, Czech, and Slovak. The outage is not due to a technical error. It's a protest against a new law that's likely to be approved by the European Parliament next Tuesday.
- Piwowarski, Allison (March 26, 2019). "19 Questions I Have About 'Us' After *Just* Reading The Wikipedia Synopsis". Bustle. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
But I truly do believe there is an audience out there — my people — who do not like horror movies, but like to know about horror movies. Which is why I often turn to Wikipedia summaries for details and plot lines I'd like to be able to discuss in public with friends, but not be scarred for life, upping therapy to thrice a week.
- Harrison, Stephen (March 26, 2019). "The Notability Blues". Slate. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
The dynamic list includes 800 women whose draft Wikipedia pages were recently declined because they failed to meet the English encyclopedia's notability policy for articles. In other words, based on the sources provided, these women were deemed not important enough to merit a Wikipedia page.
- Prescott, Virginia; Rivera, Elena (March 29, 2019). "High Museum Tackles Wikipedia's Representation Of Women". Georgia Public Broadcasting. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
On Saturday, March 29, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta joins cultural institutions across the country for the "Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon." Community members will be able to add information to Wikipedia entries on feminism and art.
- Ó Séaghdha, Darach (March 29, 2019). "The Irish For: The Irish language version of Wikipedia is going strong". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
Having a well-stocked larder of Wikipedia articles in a minority language is worthwhile for a number of reasons. First of all, it is useful for learners and those returning to Irish to have subject matter that ties in with their interests to ease them in, and the comprehensive nature of an encyclopedia is ideal for this.
April
[edit]- "Two Ghanaians Translate Wikipedia Pages into Local Dialect Akan". News Ghana. April 1, 2019. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
Wikipedia has huge amount of information about people, places, and events among others mainly in English. The initiative to get articles translated into the Akan language seems crucial in making information accessible in local Ghanaian languages.
- Joel, Beall (April 1, 2019). "Wikipedia knew about Kevin Kisner's win hours before it happened". Golf Digest. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
For future historians searching for the inflection point of the battle between humans and technology, let it be known the warning shot was fired on March 31, in the year of our Lord 2019. That was when Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that became the de facto source of all information (and misinformation) predicated Kevin Kisner would defeat Matt Kuchar at the WGC-Dell Match Play 3&2 hours before it happened.
- "Translating Wikipedia pages into a local language in Ghana". Deutsche Welle. April 3, 2019. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
A group of Ghanaians have taken part in a 'translatathon' to create Wikipedia articles written in Akan – the most widely spoken indigenous language in Ghana.
- "Dermatology students improve Wikipedia entries on skin disease". EurekAlert!. April 3, 2019. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
A group of medical students recruited to improve Wikipedia articles on skin-related diseases, saw millions more views of those stories following their editing, highlighting the value of expert input on the popular web encyclopedia.
- Loussikian, Kylar; Hutchinson, Samantha (April 3, 2019). "'A strong campaigner': the beauty of Wikipedia". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
In December 2015, someone in Parliament House — perhaps also hoping to "keep the community updated" — removed references to a period where Gibbons appeared likely to lose control of key branches in her electorate.
- Takala, Rudy (April 4, 2019). "Takala: Evidence of pay-to-play operation scrubbed from Wikipedia". The Daily Caller. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
Evidence showing major news organizations paid to selectively edit their own Wikipedia pages has been wiped from the website over the last several weeks, leaving few signs it ever existed.
- Robertson, Adi (April 5, 2019). "Former Senate staffer admits to doxxing five senators on Wikipedia". The Verge. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
The man who edited Wikipedia with several senators' private phone numbers and addresses has pleaded guilty to computer fraud and other offenses.
- Cohen, Noam (April 7, 2019). "Want to Know How to Build a Better Democracy? Ask Wikipedia". Wired. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
PITY THE POOR public-relations specialist hired to influence what is said about his clients on Wikipedia. The sprawling, chaotic storehouse of knowledge is governed by thousands of independent-minded volunteers committed to being neutral and allergic to self-serving manipulators.
- Jacobs, Julia (April 8, 2019). "Wikipedia Isn't Officially a Social Network. But the Harassment Can Get Ugly". The New York Times. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
For Wikipedia's editing community, the website...is a kind of social network where users debate the minutiae of history and modern life, climb the editorial hierarchy and even meet friends and romantic partners. It is also a place where editors can experience relentless harassment.
- Melendez, Lauren (April 8, 2019). "Students create Wikipedia pages for underrepresented artists at Penn Libraries event". The Daily Pennsylvanian. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
Penn Libraries hosted a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon with Black Lunch Table on Friday in an effort to fill in gaps in the online documentation of contemporary artists of color and their work.
- Ritenhouse, Duke (April 10, 2019). "Wikipedia seems to think Steve Alford is the Wolf Pack's basketball coach". Reno Gazette-Journal. Retrieved April 14, 2019.
Wikipedia.org, the internet's well-known quantum encyclopedia, seems to think Steve Alford is Nevada's newest men's basketball coach. For the record: Neither Nevada nor Alford has said any such thing.
- Adler, T.D. (April 12, 2019). "Wikipedia Editors Post Fake News on Summary of Mueller Probe". Breitbart.
After learning Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election found neither collusion with the Trump campaign nor President Trump obstructing the investigation, anti-Trump editors on Wikipedia downplayed the investigation's conclusions.
- Zaringhalam, Maryam; Wade, Jess (April 12, 2019). "It matters who we champion in science". Washington Post. Retrieved April 29, 2019.
Within 48 hours, Bouman was celebrated across international media, her new Wikipedia entry has been translated into about 20 languages, and there have even been exuberant calls for her to win a Nobel Prize. In Bouman's expression, we were reminded of the pure joy that comes with discovery. It is no surprise that the photo went nearly as viral as the image she helped produce. The world had a new hero.
- Nabeel, Gilgamesh (April 13, 2019). "Iraqis leading efforts to enrich Arabic Wikipedia". Al-Monitor. Retrieved April 14, 2019.
With our project, the Arabic Wikipedia is ranked 17th, preceded by the Ukrainian Wikipedia," said Rayyis. He added, "There are more than 400 million Arabic speakers, while Ukrainian is spoken by about 35 million people worldwide. We are proud of translating the full English Wikipedia content on biological evolution into Arabic — more than 500 essays.
- Daly, Gavin (April 14, 2019). "IDA defends itself in Wikipedia war of words on tax". The Sunday Times. Retrieved April 14, 2019.
Sammon said: "Wikipedia enables people to edit articles anonymously so there is no way to know who or what is behind Britishfinance. It seems clear that only a well-resourced professional entity would be capable of making this number of edits over such a period. From analysis of the edits, it is clear that this person or persons do not have an interest in presenting Ireland's economic model in a positive light.
- "IDA caught in Wikipedia war of words over tax and Brexit". The Irish Times. April 14, 2019. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
IDA Ireland has paid for changes to Wikipedia pages about itself and its chief executive amid growing concerns about anonymous editing that portrays Ireland's tax regime negatively, the Sunday Business Post reports.
- O'Connell, Hugh (April 14, 2019). "IDA pays to change Wikipedia pages about agency". The Sunday Business Post. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
IDA Ireland has paid for changes to Wikipedia pages about itself and its chief executive...
- Koren, Marina (April 15, 2019). "The Dark Saga of Katie Bouman". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
Bouman's Wikipedia page was once flagged for deletion because the site's standards found that she was "not notable" enough. Now it carries a paragraph detailing her viral story and the harassment that followed, like a cautionary tale for other women in the sciences.
- Alahna, Kindred (April 16, 2019). "Internet users edit Cathedral's Wikipedia page to say it is to 'on fire and dying inside' after inferno rocks Paris". The Sun. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
Internet vandals mocked the relevant incident at Notre-Dame de Paris by updating the functional status of the Wikipedia article page in the infobox as On fire and dying inside.
- Harrison, Stephen (April 16, 2019). "How Katie Bouman Shook Wikipedia". Slate. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
British physicist Jess Wade created Bouman's Wikipedia page on April 10, coinciding with the black hole photo announcement. Two days later, the page was nominated for deletion. The few editors who argued adamantly that Bouman's page should be deleted mostly said she lacked sufficient notability as an academic to have her own article.
- Lubbock, John (April 24, 2019). "FEATURE: Wikipedia needs your help to make Kurdish visible online". Kurdistan 24. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
We cannot make Wikipedia pages about Kurdish women if the press is not reporting on them. If you are a journalist, please consider how you can personally help to redress this bias and write about people like Fanya Ismail so that Wikipedia can use your articles as citations
- Jarvis, Claire (April 25, 2019). "What a Deleted Profile Tells Us About Wikipedia's Diversity Problem". Undark Magazine. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
So when Wade first set out to write the profile, she put out a call on Twitter seeking more references. But she ran up against a common problem of writing about underserved populations on Wikipedia: Due to widespread forces of inequity, underserved populations receive less media attention and fewer accolades than their white, male peers and are therefore less likely to meet Wikipedia's criteria for notability.
- Schiano, Chris (April 27, 2019). "'Americans of European Heritage Exclusively': Identity Evropa Front Group Meetings Leaked". Unicorn Riot. Archived from the original on 2019-04-28. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
The American Identity Movement has continued Identity Evropa's attempts to coordinating members editing the group's Wikipedia page to be more favorable to AmIM/IE. The group's leaders expressed fears that the Identity Evropa Wikipedia page would simply be renamed to the American Identity Movement, which threatens their attempts to distance themselves from the earlier organization.
- Reynolds, Matt (April 29, 2019). "A bitter turf war is raging on the Brexit Wikipedia page". Wired. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
While Westminster remains mired in endless Brexit deadlock, over on the Brexit Wikipedia page things are even less amicable. Editors are parrying death threats, doxxing attempts and accusations of bias, as the crowdsourced epic has become the centre of a relentless tug-of-war over who gets to write the history of the UK as it happens.
- Sadeque, Samira (April 29, 2019). "Wikipedia just won't let this Black female scientist's page stay". The Daily Dot. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
The drive to get Phelps' name on Wikipedia was initiated by a Jess Wade, a postdoctoral researcher in physics in the U.K., who has a mission to make women scientists visible on the internet—starting with their Wikipedia pages, which many people rely on for information.
- Ha, Anthony (April 30, 2019). "Golden unveils a Wikipedia alternative focused on emerging tech and startups". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
Jude Gomila, who previously sold his mobile advertising company Heyzap to RNTS Media, is taking on a new challenge — building a "knowledge base" that can fill in Wikipedia's blind spots, particularly when it comes to emerging technologies and startups.
- Ferguson, Kate; Baker, Neal (April 30, 2019). "'NOT ENOUGH' Web giants slammed for failing to tackle self-harm online as Wikipedia snubs government summit". The Sun (United Kingdom). Retrieved May 2, 2019.
A Whitehall insider told The Sun: 'Wikipedia did not bother to show up and Samaritans (charity) have said they have not been very good at engaging with them.'
May
[edit]- Peterson-Ward, Jennifer (May 1, 2019). "Is Wikipedia stealing the news?". University of Sydney. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
"Similarly, in terms of professionalism, contributors don't answer to journalism codes of ethics and the hierarchy that has formed is based on seniority and meritocracy, where editors gain administrative privileges according to the culture of Wikipedia. This raises some ethical concerns."
- The, LNP Editorial board (May 7, 2019). "Public employees shouldn't be tasked with writing glowing entries for elected officials' Wikipedia pages [opinion]". LNP. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
Staff members for Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale and Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa — all Democrats — and Republican Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman have, among their other duties, the task of editing their bosses' entries on Wikipedia, the online collaborative encyclopedia. Salaries of these staff members are paid for by taxpayers, LNP staff writers Junior Gonzalez and Carter Walker reported Monday.
- Walker, Carter; Gonzalez, Junior (May 7, 2019). "Wikipedia flags Pa. Attorney General Josh Shapiro over glowing, staff-written bio". LNP (newspaper). Retrieved May 8, 2019.
On Tuesday the Wikipedia community first flagged a glowing bio of the Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, saying it may "rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject" and could have been written in return for payment, both of which violate its terms of use. In Shapiro's case, edits were made by a communications staffer.
- Halsne, Chris (May 7, 2019). "Ominous note on STEM Wikipedia page a possible warning of school shooting". KDVR. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
Nine days ago, someone added chilling notations to the Wikipedia page of the STEM School Highlands Ranch which was the site of a multiple victim school shooting on Tuesday.
- O'Sullivan, Eilish (May 7, 2019). "Threatening text added to Wikipedia 8 days before STEM school shooting". The Daily Dot. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
Multiple students were injured and one student was killed in a mass shooting at a Colorado STEM school on Tuesday. The shooting may have been alluded to on the school's Wikipedia page eight days prior.
- Wilson, Kyle (May 8, 2019). "Wikipedia has a Google Translate problem". The Verge. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
Used correctly, the tool can save valuable time for editors building out understaffed editions — but when it goes wrong, the results can be disastrous. One global administrator pointed to a particularly atrocious translation from English to Portuguese. What is "village pump" in the English version became "bomb the village" when put through machine translation into Portuguese.
- Harrison, Stephen (May 9, 2019). "WikiLeaks Is Not a Wiki". Slate. Retrieved June 15, 2019.
WikiLeaks' use of wiki has hurt the Wikipedia brand. As Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, has said, "I wish they wouldn't use the name, they are not a Wiki." Both the general public and public officials have at times mixed up the two websites.
- "Wikipedia blocked in China in all languages". BBC. May 14, 2019. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
Internet censorship researchers found that Wikipedia had joined thousands of other websites which cannot be accessed in China. The country had previously banned the Chinese language version of the site, but the block has now been expanded.
- Gonzalez, Oscar (May 14, 2019). "The Great Firewall of China blocks off Wikipedia". CNET. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
Multiple reports confirm China blocked Wikipedia across all language URLs sometime in late April. The country is using DNS injections to prevent its citizens from accessing the online encyclopedia, according to a report from the Open Observatory of Network Interference on May 4.
- Ciaccia, Chris (May 14, 2019). "Doris Day Wikipedia page defaced with graphic image after her death". Fox News. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
The Wikipedia page of Doris Day was defaced with an extremely graphic image by hackers minutes after news reports that the former actress had passed away. The image was up for approximately two minutes before it was removed, and some users took to Twitter to express their outrage that the page was not being properly monitored.
- Horowitz, Josh (May 15, 2019). "Online encyclopaedia Wikipedia blocked in China ahead of Tiananmen anniversary". The Star (Malaysia). Retrieved May 16, 2019.
Individual Wikipedia articles about sensitive issues, such as 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square and the Himalayan region of Tibet, have long been blocked in China, however, even while the main site is accessible.
Original article via Reuters. - Dube, Jacob (May 15, 2019). "China bans Wikipedia before 30th anniversary of 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising". National Post (Canada). Retrieved May 16, 2019.
In another move to restrict what its citizens see online, China has banned the wikipedia.org domain just weeks before the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests.
- "Using Wikipedia for assignments? Expect a zero grade in Oman". Times of Oman. May 15, 2019. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
Times of Oman spoke to university teachers and lecturers in the Sultanate, who said that their universities had strict checking procedures to ensure their students were not found using copy-pasting information from Wikipedia, instead of doing the research required to actually understand the subjects they were studying.
- "Wikipedia Is Now Banned in China in All Languages". Time. May 15, 2019. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
Reporters Without Border's 2019 World Press Freedom index ranks China at 177 on a list of 180 countries analyzed.
- Thaker, Aria (May 16, 2019). "Indian election battles are being fought on Wikipedia, too". Quartz (publication). Retrieved May 16, 2019.
Last week, Time magazine released a cover story critical of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, penned by writer Aatish Taseer. Soon after, Taseer's Wikipedia page was vandalised to falsely state that he is a public-relations manager for the Indian National Congress, the country's leading opposition party, fact-checking website Alt News reported. The same Wikipedia user also changed the page to claim that Taseer's latest book, about Brahmins in Varanasi, "divides Hindus."
- "Wikipedia 'doing very well financially': Co-founder". The Jakarta Post. May 17, 2019. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales said Thursday that the free online encyclopedia is in good financial shape, although increasing mobile phone use may cut into future donations.
- Schucht, Eric (May 20, 2019). "A Brief History of Jewish Philadelphia's Wiki Page". Jewish Exponent. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
When it comes to the Philadelphia Jewish community, there are many articles on notable people, synagogues and congregations. A conglomeration of all these articles can be found on a page titled "History of the Jews in Philadelphia."
- Ralph, Pat (May 20, 2019). "Brooks Koepka's Wikipedia page has been edited…and the result is hilarious". Golf Magazine. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
The latest Wikipedia page to receive the honor? Brooks Koepka's, as someone decided to add that he now owns the PGA Tour and is the father of Golf Channel analyst/commentator Brandel Chamblee after his victory in the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage Black on Sunday.
- Harrison, Stephen (May 21, 2019). "Why China Blocked Wikipedia in All Languages". Slate. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
Reuters and PC Mag noted that the timing of the block seems to coincide with the Tiananmen Square protests, which ended violently on June 4, 1989. When Wikipedia's official account tweeted that the reasons for the total block were "unknown to us," a Shanghai-based user responded, "Don't be daft."
- Coltin, Jeff (May 22, 2019). "For 15 minutes, Michael Blake had a glowing Wikipedia page". City & State. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
Late on the Saturday night before the New York City public advocate special election, someone made a flurry of updates to the Wikipedia page of Assemblyman Michael Blake, one of the leading candidates in the race.
- Ball, Caroline (May 23, 2019). "Teaching intelligence: putting Wikipedia at the heart of a class". Times Higher Education. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
Wikipedia is one of those topics that can cause instant division among academics. Some of us love it; some swear they never use it (although we all know everyone does). However we feel about it, the debate usually centres on its value as a source of information.
- Dowd, Katie (May 23, 2019). "Someone who is not a Warriors fan edited Kevon Looney's Wikipedia page". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
Someone who is certainly not a fan of the Golden State Warriors recently made an (admittedly pretty funny) edit to Kevon Looney's Wikipedia page.
- Lowen, Mark (May 23, 2019). "Wikipedia petitions ECHR over Turkey ban". BBC News. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
Wikipedia is taking Turkey to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over a two-year ban imposed on the site in the country.
- Al-Heeti, Abrar (May 23, 2019). "Wikipedia takes Turkey to court over two-year ban". CNET. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia, said Thursday that it's asked the European Court of Human Rights to lift Turkey's ban. The Wikimedia Foundation says it's doing this to promote "knowledge and freedom of expression as fundamental rights for every person."
- Pitel, Laura (May 23, 2019). "Wikipedia takes Turkey to European human rights court". Financial Times. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
Announcing the move on Thursday, Katherine Maher, the chief executive of Wikimedia, said the decision to turn to the Strasbourg-based court followed two years of discussions with Turkish authorities and a fruitless challenge in the country's highest court.
- Silva, Logan (May 23, 2019). "Help Students Evaluate Wikipedia as a 21st Century Research Skill". KQED. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
The class was excited at their newfound powers, but then they noticed that the edits they were making were being removed. A horrified silence followed—somebody was monitoring them! A Wikipedia moderator was taking down edits because there was too much activity on a single article.
- Iqbal, Jawad (May 24, 2019). "Banning Wikipedia is China's latest act of censorship". The Times. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
Repressive regimes everywhere are now following China's lead when it comes to censorship and social control. Turkey blocked Wikipedia in 2017. Iran, Uzbekistan and Venezuela have followed suit in blocking online platforms. Online content must be accessible globally without restriction to prevent web censorship becoming the new norm.
- "Take Wikipedia with a pinch of salt, co-founder says". Times of Malta. May 25, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
Speaking to Times of Malta, Dr Sanger said Wikipedia had been dubbed by some as "the original fake news". However, he said, he always found the term to be "a bit of a misnomer".
- Mak, Aaron (May 28, 2019). "Donald Trump's Wikipedia Entry Is a War Zone". Slate. Retrieved May 28, 2019.
It's one of the most popular pages on the internet. But behind the scenes, editors are fighting a brutal, petty battle over every word.
- Lee, Dami (May 29, 2019). "North Face tried to scam Wikipedia to get its products to the top of Google search". The Verge. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
The North Face, in a campaign with advertising agency Leo Burnett Tailor Made, hatched a scheme to get its products to the top of Google Images by replacing Wikipedia photos with its own product placement shots.
- Kaushik, Tushar (May 29, 2019). "Project Tiger: Wikipedia ropes in locals to contribute articles in Indian languages". The Economic Times. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
BENGALURU: Hundreds of people from across the country are generating online content in local Indian languages and are even competing in 'editathons' that pit contributors of different languages against each other.
- Hern, Alex (May 30, 2019). "North Face criticised for replacing Wikipedia pics with branded shots". The Guardian. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
Clothing firm The North Face has been accused of digital vandalism after an ad agency surreptitiously inserted the company's products into Wikipedia articles about Brazilian mountains.
- Slatt, Nick (May 30, 2019). "North Face apologizes after openly gloating about gaming Wikipedia for free advertising". The Verge. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
In a marketing campaign idea that even the least savvy internet user could have told you was a terrible idea, the North Face decided to announce publicly earlier this week how it gamed Google Search results to promote its products by uploading photos of them to high-traffic Wikipedia entries.
- Mervosh, Sarah (May 30, 2019). "North Face Apologizes for Adding Its Own Photos to Wikipedia to Promote Its Brand". The New York Times. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
Every company dreams of free advertising, and the North Face seemed to have found a clever way to get it. All it had to do was edit Wikipedia.
- "North Face apologises over Wikipedia 'hack'". BBC News. May 31, 2019. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
Clothing firm North Face has apologised for manipulating Wikipedia to make images of its products more prominent in Google results. Its ad agency put images of models wearing North Face gear on Wikipedia pages about remote locations.
- Fearn, Rebecca (May 31, 2019). "Wikipedia Is Getting More Female Footballer Profiles, Thanks To This Much-Needed Initiative". Bustle. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
Journalist Rebecca Myers reported on the project, which seemingly took place today, and saw Adidas team up with Wikimedia (a company that supports Wikipedia) to add more women football players to Wikipedia. Shockingly, only about 3% of female footballers are currently profiled on the website.
June
[edit]- Pugh, William (June 1, 2019). "Sick trolls change tragic Arsenal hero Reyes' Wiki profile to 'benchwarmer' after he is killed in car crash". The Sun. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
SICK TROLLS changed Jose Antonio Reyes' Wikipedia profile to 'benchwarmer' just moments after the tragic news of his death was announced.
- Keall, Chris (June 2, 2019). "The North Face apologises for Wikipedia stunt". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
US retail giant The North Face - which bought NZ's Icebreaker for more than $100 million in 2017 - has apologised for a publicity stunt that exploited Wikipedia.
- Weaver, Corinne (June 5, 2019). "Wikipedia Edits Tiananmen Square Massacre To 'Protest'". NewsBusters. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
Wikipedia is already banned in China. So why is the site kowtowing to Chinese propaganda on an entry?
- Morris, Natalie (June 7, 2019). "Writers are adding the history of women's football to Wikipedia to 'close the gender gap'". Metro (British newspaper). Retrieved June 7, 2019.
Ahead of the Women's World Cup, which starts on Saturday, adidas has partnered with Wikimedia UK to ensure that the history of the women's game is properly recorded.
- Abgarian, Almara (June 7, 2019). "Adidas to tackle lack of female football representation - starting with Wikipedia". Stylist. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
The much-anticipated FIFA Women's Football World Cup starts tomorrow (6 June). Ahead of the event, which will run for a month until 7 July, Adidas has partnered with Wikipedia to improve representation of women in football online.
- Benjakob, Omer (June 8, 2019). "There's a lot Wikipedia can teach us about fighting disinformation". Wired. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
In March 2018, editors on Wikipedia English noticed that someone had been making odd changes to an article about Maria Butina, a Russian woman suspected of being an agent of the Kremlin in the US.
- Urwin, Rosamund (June 9, 2019). "Male Wikipedia editors are deleting women, says Sandi Toksvig". The Times. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
Interviewed by Julia Gillard, the former Australian prime minister, on her new podcast, Toksvig said: "There are about 350,000 uber-volunteers and they tend . . . to be the same kind of guy . . . sitting in his pants. They are actively editing women out and women's achievements are not being inputted."
- Harrison, Stephen (June 14, 2019). "How Should Wikipedia Cover When Brands Manipulate Wikipedia?". Slate. Retrieved June 14, 2019.
In a May video ad, the North Face and its advertising partner, Leo Burnett Tailor Made, explained the scam: Before traveling, people typically search the destination on Google, and Wikipedia ranks highly in the search results for both webpages and images. So the North Face uploaded photos to the Wikipedia pages of popular destinations that included the company's clothing and equipment.
- Vishwanathan, Gautam (June 15, 2019). "Wikipedia: a no-go that could see students end up with a zero". Times of Oman. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
Their professor had found evidence of Nasser and his team lifting material from Wikipedia for their assignments. Fresh into the world of university education, the group felt their thoughts swirl as they entered a quandary over what to do next.
- Dubas-Fisher, David (June 15, 2019). "Premier League's most searched players and clubs on Wikipedia revealed". Daily Mirror. Retrieved July 13, 2019.
Harry Kane is the biggest name in the Premier League, judging by his Wikipedia page views. The Tottenham star's English language Wikipedia page has had 4,791,022 page views over the last 12 months.
- Baker, Sam (June 19, 2019). "Making space for female scientists' voices online, in the media and in person". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
The researchers interviewed 25 established women Wikipedia editors and found that they face everything from constant reversals to their edits to unwanted sexual advances and in extreme cases, stalking, doxing (having one's personal information publicly exposed) and death threats.
- "Edit-a-thon aims to put more Yale women on Wikipedia". Yale News. June 26, 2019. Retrieved July 13, 2019.
Manton will speak at a Yale Women Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at Yale School of Management on July 9 that seeks to help shift the balance, particularly by increasing profiles of notable alumnae.
- Bernstein, Joseph (June 27, 2019). "The Culture War Has Finally Come For Wikipedia". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
The once-derided open-source encyclopedia is the closest thing the internet has to an oasis of truth. Now a single-user ban has exposed the deep rifts between Wikipedia's libertarian origins and its egalitarian aspirations, and threatened that stability.
- Jat, Anita (June 27, 2019). "India vs West Indies: Fan edits third umpire's Wikipedia after controversial Rohit Sharma dismissal". India Today. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
An upset fan edited third umpire Michael Gough's Wikipedia page after he controversially ruled Rohit Sharma out during India's 6th mach of the 2019 World Cup against West Indies in Manchester on Thursday.
- "India vs West Indies, World Cup 2019: Fan edits Michael Gough's Wiki page after Rohit Sharma's dismissal". Hindustan Times. June 28, 2019. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
Irked by the third umpire's dismissal verdict for opener Rohit Sharma during India's World Cup match against West Indies in Manchester on Thursday, a fan edited Michael Gough's Wikipedia page.
- "Cricket World Cup 2019: Angry fans vandalise third umpire's Wikipedia page after Rohit Sharma decision". Fox Sports (Southeast Asian TV network). June 28, 2019. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
A particular fan had a very "unique" approach when it came to exacting revenge on the third umpire, Englishman Michael Gough. The fan whose identity is unknown, made some edits to the Gough's Wikipedia page, as you can see right here:
- Davis, Adam (June 28, 2019). "Reading Wikipedia Summaries Of Movies And TV Shows Is Better Than Watching Them". Buzzfeed. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
It's so much easier to scan Wikipedia summaries of all the new TV and movies and be done with it.
- Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (28 June 2019). "What can Wikipedia tell us about human interaction?". Techxplore.com. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
Have you ever visited a Wikipedia page to answer a question, only to find yourself clicking from page to page, until you end up on a topic wildly different from the one you started with?
July
[edit]- London, Daniel A. (July 2, 2019). "Is Wikipedia a complete and accurate source for musculoskeletal anatomy?". Surgical and Radiologic Anatomy. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
While Wikipedia is an easily accessible resource for a large number of people and much of the anatomic information is appropriate, it cannot be considered to be an equivalent resource when compared to anatomic texts.
- Harrison, Stephen (July 2, 2019). "Wikipedia's "Constitutional Crisis" Pits Community Against Foundation". Slate. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
The banning of a single editor is roiling Wikipedia.
- Adler, T.D. (July 3, 2019). "Google 'Toxicity Detection' Tool Rated Wikipedia Comments to Women as More Hostile". Breitbart.
Google's Jigsaw research division and the Wikimedia Foundation collaborated on an automated "harassment detection" tool called Detox to help identify hostile comments on Wikipedia. Users recently found the tool would rate comments directed at women as more hostile than the same comments directed at men.
- Krämer, Katrina (July 3, 2019). "Female scientists' pages keep disappearing from Wikipedia – what's going on?". Chemistry World. Retrieved July 5, 2019.
In Phelps' case, her name didn't appear in the articles announcing tennessine's discovery. She wasn't profiled by mainstream media. Most mentions of her work are on her employer's website – a source that's not classed as independent by Wikipedia standards and therefore not admissible when it comes to establishing notability. The community consensus was that her biography had to go.
- Viswanath, Jake (July 3, 2019). "The 'Midsommar' Wikipedia Page Has The Full Plot Summary For Those Too Afraid To Actually See It". Bustle. Retrieved July 5, 2019.
Luckily for us cowards, we can still at least pretend that we've seen it because the Midsommar plot summary is on Wikipedia, and it proves exactly why people who get easily terrified by horror movies shouldn't bother.
- Highfield, Roger (July 4, 2019). "We're all to blame for Wikipedia's huge sexism problem". Wired (magazine). Retrieved July 5, 2019.
Wikipedia is a powerful tool for democratising access to science – but with the spread of editors and articles still heavily skewed towards men, the online encyclopedia has a huge diversity problem.
- Kovalev, Alexey (July 5, 2019). "Revenge of the editors Wikipedia has blocked a group of users who edited Russian-language articles to praise local governors and take down opposition activists". Meduza. Retrieved July 9, 2019.
On July 2, Mikhail Gruznov petitioned Wikipedia to investigate the 12 accounts he believed were making a coordinated effort to discredit opposition figures and strengthen pro-government ones.
- Hancock, Farah (July 10, 2019). "The travelling Wikipedia salesperson". Newsroom. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
Wikipedia is the internet we were all promised. Knowledge available to all, free of charge. Mike Dickison has spent the year showing New Zealand institutions how they can set tax payer funded-material free from cabinets and hard drives for all to learn from.
- Hocquet, Alexandre (July 10, 2019). "On the job with a Wikipedian in residence". The Conversation. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
Each Wikipedian in residence position is unique, a collaboration between the host institution and the Wikipedian involved. That said, my impression is that there have been more WiR positions in Europe than in the United States, and that European WiR have tended to focus on the release of public domain images, rather than on editing content.
- Koncienzcy, Rebecca (July 12, 2019). "ITV's Lorraine Kelly fuming at Wikipedia mistake". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved July 13, 2019.
She said: "Actually, I had to correct Wikipedia because they had me down as Matthew Kelly's mum. "And to this day, he still comes up and greets me with 'Mother!'"
- "Marsa Wikipedia page edited to describe town as 'Africa in Malta'". Times of Malta. July 12, 2019. Retrieved July 13, 2019.
Marsa's Wikipedia page entry has been edited to describe the town as 'Africa in Malta'. Social media users, who spotted the changes, said it was "disappointing" to see "racist comments" end up on a page accessed by many for factual information.
- Salam, Maya (July 19, 2019). "Most Wikipedia Profiles Are of Men. This Scientist Is Changing That". The New York Times. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
Fewer than 20 percent of biographies on Wikipedia in English are of women, according to Women in Red, Wikipedia's gender gap-bridging project. Jessica Wade, a British physicist troubled by that number, made it her mission to help change it.
- Duncan, Charles (July 19, 2019). "A Trump campaign tweet, the capacity of ECU's coliseum, and what it did to Wikipedia". The News & Observer. Retrieved July 20, 2019.
At one point, the online crowd-sourced encyclopedia said: "The facility underwent a complete renovation prior to the 1994-95 season and currently seats 8,000 people (except when Donald Trump shows up and Brad Parscale declares that the capacity is over 20,000 people)."
- Silver, Stephen (July 23, 2019). "'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' Wikipedia Entry Repeatedly Vandalized With False Plot Summary". Inquisitr. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
Days before it arrives, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has set off a very strange battle on, of all places, Wikipedia. And it has shown what the limitations are of Wikipedia as a source of information.
- Dumaraog, Ana (July 23, 2019). "Justice League: Wikipedia Debates Deleting Page About the Snyder Cut". Screen Rant. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
Wikipedia members debate whether or not the existence of a separate page for the Justice League Snyder Cut is justified. It's no secret that Zack Snyder's final DC film has a convoluted history.
- Lovett, Jamie (July 24, 2019). "Wikipedia Is Considering Deleting Justice League Snyder Cut Page From Their Site". Comicbook.com. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
A Wikipedia page dedicated to the Snyder Cut saga and all versions of the Justice League movie has been flagged for possible deletion. A debate about the page's existence is raging between some of the Wikipedia moderators and writers.
- Bain, Cassandra (July 25, 2019). "Most Wikipedia profiles are about men - these women in Australia are hoping to change that". SBS World News. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
But despite the massive number of biographies it holds, only about 18 per cent of people profiled on Wikipedia are women, and the majority of Wikipedia editors are men in North America.
- Wylie, Brooke; Willis, Olivia (July 26, 2019). "Australian researchers join global movement to improve visibility of women in STEM". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
On Thursday, dozens of women working in health and medical research joined forces at the University of Sydney to build or update the profiles of accomplished Australian female scientists. It was the first local "Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon" for the sector, and is part of a growing global movement to increase the visibility of women, who currently make up just 18 per cent of all biographies on the platform.
- Remi E. De Leon (July 28, 2019). "Fact-checking and collaboration in the age of Wikipedia". Philippine Star. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge," Wikimedia founder Jimmy Wales famously explained in a 2004 interview. "That's what we're doing."
- Novak, Matt (July 30, 2019). "Wikipedia Editors Fight Over What to Call America's Concentration Camps". Gizmodo. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
Wikipedia's "List of concentration and internment camps," includes everything from the gulags of the Soviet Union to the Muslim camps of modern China.
- Webb, Whitney (July 30, 2019). "How a Small Group of Pro-Israel Activists Blacklisted MintPress on Wikipedia". MintPress News. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
In recent years, this alliance between pro-Israel partisans and Wikipedia has stepped up, largely in response to the growth of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to pressure Israel to comply with international law with respect to occupied Palestine and the blockaded Gaza Strip.
- Robertson, Adi (July 30, 2019). "A Wikipedia spoiler war created a ridiculous fake ending for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood". The Verge. Retrieved July 31, 2019.
And on Wikipedia, an invaluable source of movie synopses, this gap gave rise to a heated edit war with its own odd twist. Nobody was supposed to reveal Once Upon A Time In Hollywood's ending. So somebody on Wikipedia made one up.
- Wu, Nicholas (July 30, 2019). "John Delaney's Wikipedia vandalized to say he died at the Democratic debate". USA Today. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
Some time afterward, Delaney's Wikipedia page was vandalized to say he had died at the Democratic debate at the hands of Warren.
- Curtis, Cara (July 31, 2019). "Wikipedia bios for women scientists are more likely to be flagged for removal". The Next Web. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
It's also a time when women who have carved out their career in science are struggling to get acknowledgement for their work and discoveries as Wikipedia is removing the biographies of women scientists.
- Nicholson, Tom (July 31, 2019). "There's Been A Huge Fight Over The 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' Wiki Page". Esquire. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
Over the last few weeks, the bloody retribution of Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction has been played out on Wikipedia.
- Chiles, Adrian (July 31, 2019). "I was surprised to read about my marriage to Maria Walsh – I've never met her". The Guardian. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
It all started three years ago with a Daily Mail story that centred around me leaving a pub with a woman probably described as "a mystery brunette". ... Someone had put it on my Wikipedia page.
August
[edit]- Benjakob, Omer (August 2, 2019). "On Chinese Wikipedia, a bitter battle rages to define the Hong Kong protests". Wired. Retrieved August 4, 2019.
While English Wikipedia made do with one article about the protest movement and one about the bill, on Chinese Wikipedia editors rushed to open articles for each and every protest as it occurred, creating a running timeline of the movement's development.
- Hennessy, J.R. (August 5, 2019). "Please use proper citation when discussing bloodthirsty human/reptile chimeras". The Outline. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
It's there because it's fun. We might as well have some, as long as the notability guidelines are respected.
- "Ashes 2019, England vs Australia: Fan edits umpire Joel Wilson's Wikipedia page, terms him 'blind'". Hindustan Times. August 5, 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
As if West Indies umpire Joel Wilson's wrong decisions in the Ashes were not enough to add trouble to his life, a notorious sporting fan recently did some mischief with his Wikipedia page.
- "Ashes 2019 Umpire Joel Wilson's Wikipedia Page Vandalised". CNN-News18. August 6, 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
Umpiring errors took centre stage in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston and, as is often the case nowadays when an individual is in the centre of a significant sporting event, their mistakes reflected on Wikipedia.
- Harrison, Stephen (August 7, 2019). "Welsh Wikipedia Gives Me Hope". Slate. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
Like other language editions, Wicipedia is a separate website with its own content, not simply a translation of English Wikipedia, a distinction that matters for both users and big tech companies.
- Hoa Ngo, Duy (August 8, 2019). "Can Wikipedia Be Used to Derive an Open Clinical Terminology?". Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
In order to establish the extent of the coverage, a team of expert clinical terminologists manually mapped a clinically-relevant subset of SNOMED CT to Wikipedia articles. The results show that approximately 80% of the concepts are covered by Wikipedia.
- Bowden, Bill (August 11, 2019). "Wikipedia entries won't let Harrison shed unsavory past". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
Wikipedia has become a battleground for Harrison's reputation. Mayor Jerry Jackson wants Harrison to be known as the "Best Small Town in America." But others want Harrison to be known as the national headquarters of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
- Vago, Mike (August 18, 2019). "Plenty of sci-fi futures are now in the past". The A.V. Club.
Wikipedia considers song lyrics legitimate speculative fiction. Most notably, Prince's lyric "two-thousand-zero-zero party over oops out of time" from 1982's "1999," "predicts a coming apocalypse."
- "Taylor Swift lost to Ben Stokes in Wikipedia search battle". Sportstar. August 28, 2019.
Stokes' heroics in the third Test at Headingley in Leeds became the talk of the town and he became more searched on Wikipedia than American singer Taylor Swift for a short time.
- Harrison, Stephen (August 29, 2019). "VideoWiki Challenges Wikipedia's Traditional Text Focus". Slate. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
At Wikimania, Shetty and Furst, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon based in Canada, made the case that it was high time Wikipedia dedicated more energy to video. Even in 2019, an estimated 750 million people around the world are illiterate, according to UNESCO. By limiting its encyclopedia to text and a few photographs, Wikipedia was failing to reach this large audience.
September
[edit]- Rahim, Zamira (September 6, 2019). "Wikipedia down: Online Encyclopedia not working as pages fail to load for some users". The Independent. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
A cyber attack on Wikipedia forced the website offline in several countries on Friday.
- Martinelli, Marissa (September 6, 2019). "Xkcd Creator Randall Munroe on the Joys of Overthinking Everything". Slate. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
Munroe has such a wide-ranging array of interests that talking to him is a bit like going down a rabbit hole on Wikipedia—a site that he has obviously spent a lot of time on and often finds its way into his comics.
- Cavanagh, Michaela (September 7, 2019). "'Malicious attack' takes Wikipedia offline in Germany". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
Users in Germany trying to access Wikipedia were faced with an error message and frustration. The online encyclopedia was paralyzed by a "massive and widespread" DDoS attack.
- Stanley, Alyse (September 7, 2019). "Wikipedia Goes Dark Across Europe, Middle East After DDOS Attack". Gizmodo. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
Wikipedia went offline Friday afternoon and into Saturday morning after a cyber attack forced an international shutdown. The outage affected millions of users across Europe and in parts of the Middle East.
- Benjakob, Omer (September 7, 2019). "In First, Cyberattack Takes Wikipedia Offline; Outages Still Reported Across Globe". Haaretz. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
Millions across the world could not access Wikipedia over the weekend in what some say was the first successful cyber attack against the online encyclopedia
- "Turkey's top court set to rule on Wikipedia ban". Ahval. September 7, 2019. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
Turkey's Constitutional Court is set to convene on September 11 to discuss Wikipedia, which has been banned in the country for over two years.
- Winder, Davey (September 8, 2019). "Wikipedia Taken Offline As Malicious Attackers Strike". Forbes. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
Wikipedia has also just been hit by a "malicious attack" that took it offline across many countries. Here's what is known so far.
- "Wikipedia offline after 'malicious' attack". New Straits Times. AFP. September 8, 2019. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
WASHINGTON: Popular online reference website Wikipedia went down in several countries after the website was targeted by what it described as a "malicious attack."
- Cortez, Kevin (September 9, 2019). "Somebody translated fussy Wikipedia edits into soothing ambient music". The A.V. Club. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
But, by a long shot, its most interesting project is Listen To Wikipedia, in which every edit made per second on Wikipedia is translated into a chime, ding, or pleasant twang that orchestrates a symphony of music translated from data.
- "Turkish High Court to Review Wikipedia Appeal against Ban". Voice of America. September 11, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
Turkey's highest court on Wednesday began considering an appeal by Wikipedia aiming to reverse the Turkish government's more than two-year ban on the online encyclopedia.
- Zekavat, Sina (September 11, 2019). "Persian Wikipedia: an independent source or a tool of the Iranian state?". openDemocracy. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
The story began while I was reading the English Wikipedia page on 'Iranian involvement in Syrian Civil War'. Out of curiosity, I decided to compare the English version with the Persian one to see how much the two pages correlate or differ.
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- "Turkish court considering Wikipedia appeal against ban". The Westmorland Gazette. September 11, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
Turkey's highest court is scheduled to review Wikipedia's appeal against the Turkish government's more than two-year ban on the online encyclopaedia.
- Koshy, Jacob (September 12, 2019). "Science Ministry to go on a Hindi Wikipedia blitz". The Hindu. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
There are about 50 lakh Wikipedia articles in English and only 125,000 comparable ones in Hindi, according to the DST, the nodal agency that funds civilian science research.
- Broderick, Ryan (September 24, 2019). "This Website Will Turn Wikipedia Articles Into "Real" Academic Papers". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
The digital product agency MSCHF released a site called M-Journal on Tuesday that will turn any Wikipedia article into a "real" academic article. You can screenshot it, you can cite it — and you can send a link to your teacher.
- Stanley-Becker, Isaac (September 24, 2019). "Checking the Web on Hunter Biden? A 36-year-old physicist helps decide what you'll see". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
It was Friday night, and a physicist in the Northeast cast an eye over the Wikipedia page for Hunter Biden, the former vice president's son suddenly at the center of a national political crisis.
- "This site turns Wikipedia pages into 'legit' academic papers". The Next Web. September 25, 2019. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
With all that knowledge readily available, it's no wonder someone has built a site that turns any Wikipedia entry into a "legit" academic paper.
- "Russia may get 'autonomous Wikipedia' in four years". Belsat TV. September 27, 2019. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
As reported earlier, the Russian government intends to replace Wikipedia by its own 'national-level scientific, educational encyclopaedic portal'.
- Shaw, C. Mitchell (September 27, 2019). "Wikipedia Editor Scrubs Citations to The New American from Hunter Biden Page". The New American. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
One of the most recent examples of that — and one near to the heart of this magazine — involves biased editing of Wikipedia to remove damning information about Hunter Biden because of citations of The New American magazine.
- "Event held in Japan to increase Wikipedia articles on women". Japan Today. September 30, 2019. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
The Swedish Embassy in Japan hosted an event Sunday to increase articles on women in the online collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia with the aim of narrowing the gender gap on the internet.
- Eaton, Joshua (September 30, 2019). "Wikipedia page falsely claims Jim Jordan a NAMBLA founder after Trump defense". Roll Call. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
Rep. Jim Jordan's Wikipedia page Monday morning falsely claimed he founded the North American Man Boy Love Association, a group that advocates for sexual relationships between men and young boys.
- Kelner, Simon (September 30, 2019). "On Jewish New Year, I understand why religion must look like an increasingly attractive prospect". i. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
On balance, I don't mind Wikipedia giving my religion such prominence. When the country is split down the middle, and there's no prospect of healing the divisions, I'm keeping the possibility open of handing over my fortunes to a higher authority.
October
[edit]- Beduya, Jose (October 2, 2019). "Wikipedia edit-a-thon Oct. 6 to honor women in STEM". Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
"Compared to Cornell male professors," she said, "a large number of women professors at Cornell don't have Wikipedia pages, and it's a reflection of the greater issue."
- Jensen, Tim (October 2, 2019). "Enfield Singer Hits the Big Time - She Gets Listed On Wikipedia". Patch Media. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
Cassandra Kubinski, valedictorian of the Enfield High School Class of 2001, has made it onto Wikipedia, listed as "an American pop artist, songwriter and actress.
- Benjakob, Omer (October 3, 2019). "The Fake Nazi Death Camp: Wikipedia's Longest Hoax, Exposed". Haaretz. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
"It's a conspiracy theory," says Prof. Jan Grabowski, a Polish-Canadian historian from the University of Ottawa, when asked about the legend behind the death toll. Yet both claims appeared, almost without interruption, for 15 years on the English-language version of Wikipedia in what is said to be Wikipedia's longest-standing hoax.
- Markay, Lachlan (October 3, 2019). "Book Alleging Biden Corruption in Ukraine Lifted Passages From Wikipedia". The Daily Beast. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
That chapter contains four passages that are largely copied from the Wikipedia page for Daley's son Patrick. The book's footnotes cite news stories that are cited in the same Wikipedia page, but the language appears to be lifted from the latter.
- Binder, Matt (October 3, 2019). "Wikipedia has only granted one takedown request. Here it is". Mashable. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
Comparitech discovered in its study that since Wikimedia started tracking this information in 2012, it has only granted a single non-DMCA content takedown request.
- Hutchins, Aaron (October 3, 2019). "Why universities are hiring "Wikipedeans-in-Residence"". Maclean's. St. Joseph Communications. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
What we needed to do was start thinking critically about Wikipedia and work to make it better rather than just say 'don't use it.'
- Gordon, Jamie (October 4, 2019). "TRICKIPEDIA Arsenal whiz Gabriel Martinelli has Wikipedia page hilariously changed to 'love child of Pele and Romario' after Standard Liege goal heroics". The Sun. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
ARSENAL whizkid Gabriel Martinelli announced himself with a first-half double last night - and his Wikipedia page appears to explain why.
- "Wikipedia's 'longest-running hoax' about fake Warsaw death camp revealed". Cleveland Jewish News. October 5, 2019. Archived from the original on 5 October 2019. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
Wikipedia had an entry for more than 15 years on its English-language website about a death camp in Warsaw during the years of the Holocaust that did not exist in real life, Haaretz reported on Friday.
- "Wikipedia page on fake Warsaw concentration camp was 15-year hoax — report". The Times of Israel. October 5, 2019. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
An investigation of the article by Haaretz uncovered a much wider problem — a concerted effort by Polish nationalists to alter hundreds of entries on the site to improve Poland's wartime reputation.
- Cheng, Ching-Tse (October 5, 2019). "Wikipedia becomes a battleground for Taiwan and China". Taiwan News. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
Wikipedia has become a battlefield between Taiwanese and Chinese, who are clashing over sensitive topics such as the identities of Taiwan and Hong Kong.
- Nikolic, Isabella (October 5, 2019). "China and Taiwan go to war over Wikipedia edits as hundreds of changes to description of the island territory are uncovered". Daily Mail. Retrieved October 6, 2019.
Hundreds of recently uncovered Chinese edits to Taiwan's Wikipedia page have revealed the country's attempts to claim ownership of the state.
- Miller, Carl (October 5, 2019). "China and Taiwan clash over Wikipedia edits". BBC News. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
BBC Click's investigation has found almost 1,600 tendentious edits across 22 politically sensitive articles. We cannot verify who made each of these edits, why, or whether they reflect a more widespread practice. However, there are indications that they are not all necessarily organic, nor random.
- Brest, Mike (October 8, 2019). "Trump's detention facilities show up on Wikipedia's list of internment and concentration camps". Washington Examiner. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
The Trump administration's detention facilities that house migrants who were apprehended while crossing the border illegally appear on Wikipedia's list of internment and concentration camps.
- Arzumanov, Sophie (October 8, 2019). "Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon Celebrates Women in STEM". The Cornell Daily Sun. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
Bryant estimated that 2,000 words were added to about 36 entries on Sunday, and three to four new entries were drafted for notable female Cornell faculty and alumni.
- Staples, Louis (October 10, 2019). "Someone updated Agatha Christie's Wikipedia page to recognise Coleen Rooney's detective skills". The Independent. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
Following the news, someone has made a hilarious edit to the Wikipedia bio of crime author Agatha Christie.
- Tufayel, Ahmed (October 10, 2019). "NBC hired 'Wikipedia whitewasher' to downplay connections to Matt Lauer, Weinstein, Ronan Farrow says". Newsweek. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
This included, according to The Hollywood Reporter article published Wednesday, "employing a Wikipedia whitewasher to 'unbraid references to Oppenheim, Weinstein and Lauer' after the allegations became public."
- Nesbitt, Andy (October 10, 2019). "Howie Kendrick's Wikipedia page got hilarious update after game-winning grand slam in NLDS". USA Today. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
It didn't take long for someone to have fun with Kendrick's Wikipedia page, as he was labeled "Executioner of the Los Angeles Dodgers."
- O'Dornan, David (October 11, 2019). "Hoaxers alter Gregory Campbell's Wikipedia page to list him as a staunch republican". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
The DUP's Gregory Campbell was yesterday the target of an online stunt in which his Wikipedia page was changed to say he was a member of Sinn Fein and had a republican background.
- Ghafouri, Kambiz (October 11, 2019). "Critics Say Some Persian Wikipedia Content Manipulated By Iran's Government". Radio Farda. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
Some of the Iranian Wikipedia contributors had previously accused some members of the Persian editorial team of systematically editing the texts in a way that the Islamic Republic's alleged crimes are not mentioned.
- Dumaraog, Ana (October 12, 2019). "Justice League: Snyder Cut Fans Demand Wikipedia Remove Negativity About Them". Screen Rant. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
It's understandable Snyder Cut fans would want to control the narrative about their efforts, particularly the ones that didn't participate in the negative activities mentioned in the Wikipedia page, but without following Wikipedia's established editing guidelines and finding common ground with other editors on the talk page, any attempts to brigade or mass edit the page by fans will likely be reverted by other editors.
- Achakzai, Jamila (October 13, 2019). "Content added to Wikipedia about Pakistani women". The News International. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
Islamabad : More than 40 volunteers both men and women gathered at a Swedish Embassy event to add more content to Wikipedia about Pakistani women.
- Ferrara, Dominick (October 14, 2019). "Sloan Art Library wants your help in its Wikipedia editing workshops". The Daily Tar Heel. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
"We find that there is a strong alignment of missions between the work of libraries and the work of Wikipedia," Jack said.
- Young, Brian (October 17, 2019). "Campaigns and groups ignore Wikipedia at their peril". Campaigns and Elections. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
The greatest sin of all is that some candidates, campaigns, and politicians have chosen to ignore Wikipedia altogether as a messaging opportunity. There are numerous consultant groups and how-to pages peppering Google Search results for "How to create a Wikipedia page" that could help candidates and groups with less resources.
- Ryan, Lauren (October 18, 2019). "Someone has changed the Cardiff Met Wikipedia to call them 'leeches that ruin Wednesdays'". The Tab. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
It comes after Cardiff Uni students have become increasingly frustrated at Cardiff Met and USW students for allegedly causing long queues and disruption at Cardiff Uni's SU YOLO nights on Wednesdays.
- Blatman, Daniel (October 18, 2019). "Opinion // Israel, It's Time to Call Off the anti-Polish Hunt". Haaretz. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
The story has existed on Wikipedia for 15 years, as Benjakob writes. Haaretz termed it the greatest hoax in the history of the online encyclopedia. But it bears remembering that in the course of the period in question, Poland had a number of governments.
- Ryan, Lauren (October 18, 2019). "The Cardiff Met Wikipedia now says they're better than 'Tories at Cardiff Uni'". The Tab. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
This has happened less than an hour since the page was discovered as saying that Cardiff Met students are "leeches that ruin Wednesdays."
- Savides, Matthew (October 18, 2019). "SA high commission in London labelled 'headquarters of racism' in Wikipedia edit". The Times (South Africa). Retrieved October 21, 2019.
The South African high commission in London is the "headquarters of racism" - if a sneaky Wikipedia edit is to be believed.
- Brynjolfsson, Erik; Collis, Avinash. "How Should We Measure the Digital Economy?". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
Our research found that the median value that U.S. consumers place on Wikipedia is about $150 a year—but the cost is $0. That translates into roughly $42 billion in consumer surplus that isn't reflected in the U.S. GDP.
- Bariso, Justin (October 25, 2019). "Why Amazon's One Million Dollar Donation To Wikipedia Is a Lesson For Us All". Thrive Global. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
It makes a lot of sense that Amazon would make such a large donation to Wikimedia. After all, Amazon Alexa, the company's popular smart assistant, freely leverages Wikipedia to answer countless questions for millions of users per day.
- "Justice minister rant on 'biased' prosecution seems partly taken from Wikipedia". The Times of Israel. October 30, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
Part of Justice Minister Amir Ohana's Tuesday attack on state prosecutors who operate under his purview, in which he accused them of blindly persecuting public officials they feel threaten their standing, appears to have been gleaned almost directly from an entry in Wikipedia.
- Internet Archive page links:
- Cory, Doctorow (30 October 2019). "The Internet Archive's massive repository of scanned books will help Wikipedia fight the disinformation wars". Boing Boing.
- Bailey, Lila (2019-10-30). "Fighting Misinformation Online". Internet Archive.
- Kaser, Rachel (October 31, 2019). "Internet Archive makes it easy to read books cited on Wikipedia". The Next Web. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
The Internet Archive this week announced it was partnering with Wikipedia to link the latter's book citations to the former's redoubtable library.
November
[edit]- Little, Ivan (November 1, 2019). "Wikipedia prank gives Eamonn Holmes previous career as football star". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
"Despite their protests, Holmes decided against football, quitting the Bees to pursue a career in the media," said the pranksters, whose entry has now been deleted from Eamonn's Wikipedia page
- Finley, Klint (November 3, 2019). "The Internet Archive Is Making Wikipedia More Reliable". Wired. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
Now, thanks to a new initiative by the Internet Archive, you can click the name of the book and see a two-page preview of the cited work, so long as the citation specifies a page number.
- Lekach, Sasha (November 4, 2019). "Wikipedia citations get way more legit with the addition of books". Mashable. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
In a Tuesday post about "weaving books into the internet," the San Francisco-based non-profit explained how it was taking digitized versions of books and matching them with corresponding Wikipedia citations, so long as those citations reference specific page numbers.
- Shapiro, Sarah (November 4, 2019). "Is Wikipedia telling the truth?". The Daily of the University of Washington. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
"We realized how many of our collections didn't have Wikipedia pages or historic coverage in general," Conor Casey, head and curator of the Labor Archives of Washington at the UW, said.
- Porter, Jon (November 4, 2019). "The Internet Archive is adding digital previews of book sources to Wikipedia articles". The Verge. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
A new initiative from the Internet Archive makes it easier to check citations on Wikipedia by linking to digitized previews of the books being referenced. When a scan of a book is available this should make it far easier to that a source is saying what the Wikipedia article is claiming.
- Martyr, Kate (November 5, 2019). "Putin proposes to replace Wikipedia with 'reliable' Russian version". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
Days after a new law in Russia came into effect meaning Russian government authorities can isolate its own internet, the Russian president said he wanted a Russian version of Wikipedia with 'reliable information.'
- "Vladimir Putin calls for 'reliable' Russian version of Wikipedia". The Guardian. November 5, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
Vladimir Putin has called for the creation of a more 'reliable' Russian version of Wikipedia.
- "Interview: Wikipedia founder Wales laments die-offs in local press worldwide". Deutsche Welle. November 6, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
'You cannot write a good Wikipedia article about a small town if there is no longer news about this small town. This [trend] will impact the quality of Wikipedia long-term,' Wales was quoted as saying
- "Putin Wants to 'Replace' Wikipedia With 'Reliable' Russian Version: 4 Takeaways From Speech". The Moscow Times. November 6, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
President Vladimir Putin convened a meeting of Russia's language council Tuesday, where he warned that there is a war against the Russian language, recommended replacing Wikipedia and called for the introduction of uniform language norms.
- "Wikipedia photo of Man is a Mallu guy. Twitter seems to have found him out too". India Today. November 6, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
Chances are very less that you knew that a Wikipedia page for the term 'Man' exists on the Internet. But all thanks to a tweet, this information is now viral.
- "Wikipedia, Internet Archive join hands to help you verify traditional text citations online". Gulf News. November 6, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
California: As a majority of Internet users refer to Wikipedia for their regular dose of information, the company has decided to join hands with The Internet Archive to help make the free-to-edit content easy to verify.
- Al-Heeti, Abrar (November 7, 2019). "Wikipedia integrates digital book previews to help verify citations". CNET. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
Verifying a citation on Wikipedia can be as easy as clicking the online source linked within a page. But what if a citation calls back to a physical book instead, one you'd typically need to find at a library or bookstore?
- Esfandiari, Sahar (November 7, 2019). "Putin proposed replacing Wikipedia in Russia with a 'Big Russian Encyclopedia' days after passing a law to let him cut off the entire country from the web". Business Insider. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to replace Wikipedia with a 'Big Russian' version of the online crowd-sourced encyclopedia during a meeting in Moscow on Tuesday.
- Jena, Smrutisnat (November 7, 2019). "Indian Twitter Has Broken After Finding Out That Wikipedia's Photo Of 'Man' Is A Mallu Dude". ScoopWhoop. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
Twitter has been going nuts ever since and has been asking her questions why she was on the page anyway and how she could tell he was a Mallu.
- "Putin wants to replace Wikipedia with 'reliable' Russian equivalent". Euronews. November 8, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has backed the creation of an online 'Russian encyclopedia' with 'reliable information' to replace Wikipedia.
- Cohen, Noam (November 11, 2019). "Socked Into the Puppet-Hole on Wikipedia". Wired. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
For nearly two years I've enjoyed having a nice, get-right-to-the-point article on Wikipedia that describes me as an American journalist and mentions my book. Whenever I click on the article—as one does, five or 10 times a day—I am greeted by a photo of myself that was taken at a conference in Argentina 10 years ago.
- "Wikipedia the latest battleground in Lebanon's protests". Arab News. November 11, 2019. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
Activists on Monday managed to change a section heading of the Wikipedia page "Parliament of Lebanon" to "Lebanese Robbery."
- Abraham, Rohan (November 12, 2019). "Can't rely on Wikipedia for information? A new initiative may help verify entries with book previews". The Economic Times. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
A new initiative from the Internet Archive will facilitate easier and faster fact checking by linking citations on Wiki pages to digitized previews of books, articles and research papers being referenced.
- Kantor, Jessica (November 13, 2019). "Wikipedia still hasn't fixed its colossal gender gap". Fast Company. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
[Jess] Wade argues that the issue isn't that these women are any less notable than a man, but that Wikipedia's notability guidelines mandate strict standards that favor old white men.
- Boyle, Kelli (November 14, 2019). "Only Maren Morris Could Make a Song About Jimmy Kimmel's Wikipedia An Instant Hit". E!. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
Naturally, she slayed the performance, but the song itself was, er, well, let's just say the lyrics sounded a bit familiar. Morris started the song off with, "James Christian Kimmel, born Nov. 13 1967, is an American television host and producer!"
- Rodgers, James (November 16, 2019). "Russian Plans To Replace Wikipedia: Echoes Of Russia And America's Troubled History". Forbes. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
Vladimir Putin's suggestion that Wikipedia be replaced with a Russian version seems like a patriotic attempt to promote Russian scholarship. It also offers a reminder of the way that limited access to information has historically contributed to tension between Russia and the U.S.
- Spencer-Mylet, Sidney (November 18, 2019). "Re-editing Wikipedia in the name of Pacific Northwest womxn". The Daily of the University of Washington. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
The event concluded with 66 new references added, 17 articles edited, and seven new ones created, including one pending on UW photomedia professor Rebecca Cummins. Cummins is a prominent professional artist in the Northwest with installations all over the state, including public works for the Washington State Arts Commission and Seattle Public Utilities.
- Izadi, Elahe (November 20, 2019). "'The Crown' has returned, and once again we're falling down Wikipedia rabbit holes". Duluth News Tribune. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
Visits to Wikipedia pages related to the first several episodes in Season 3 of "The Crown" spiked after the show's return, according to data provided by the website.
- Zhang, Jane (November 20, 2019). "How Baidu built an encyclopedia with 16 times more Chinese entries than Wikipedia". South China Morning Post. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
Wikipedia Chinese, [sic] blocked by China's Great Firewall, does not have a content review system like Baidu Baike though. The latest version of entries is automatically published after submission. Experienced Wikipedians then volunteer to review the changes as content patrollers later.
- O'Connor, Tom (November 21, 2019). "Russia is building its own Wikipedia after Putin says the country needs one". Newsweek. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
'We need a national reference system so that people have resources other than Wikipedia at their disposal,' Yampolskaya, who last year went on to become head of the Russian lower house of parliament's culture committee, said, berating mobile game Pokémon GO as 'the devil's work and the product of a global conspiracy.'
- D'Souza, Vincent (November 24, 2019). "Alva's College students win laptops for making strides in Kannada, Tulu Wikipedia". The New Indian Express. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
Under Project Tiger 2.0 aimed at encouraging Wikipedia communities to create locally relevant and high-quality content in Indian languages, WMF in collaboration with Google gifted laptops to 50 best contributors from across the country.
- Vago, Mike (November 24, 2019). "Wikipedia tries to cover the last 10 years of music in one overstuffed page". The A.V. Club. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
This column is more than 300 entries into our 5,973,574-week series, and this might be the worst-written Wikipedia article we've yet come across.
- Fonseca, Brian (November 25, 2019). "Somebody messed with Pat Hobbs' Wikipedia page: He's a 'weasel' with an ego that 'killed Rutgers football'". NJ.com. Retrieved November 28, 2019.
With the mob lighting up the message boards and social media and calling for Hobbs' job, one fan took to Wikipedia to make his point.
- Sharma, Manas; Scarr, Simon (November 28, 2019). "How Hong Kong's keyboard warriors have besieged Wikipedia". Reuters. Retrieved November 28, 2019.
A Reuters analysis found a seven-fold surge in edits of the Hong Kong Police Force page over the 10 months to October, compared with a year earlier. Similar spikes occurred in articles about the protests and Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam.
- Sharma, Manas; Scarr, Simon (November 28, 2019). "Wiki wars: Hong Kong's online frontline". Reuters. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
More edits eventually improve Wikipedia articles and changes can be publicly tracked to aid transparency, said Samantha Lien, a spokeswoman for Wikimedia Foundation, the not-for-profit entity that operates Wikipedia.
- Balch, Oliver (November 28, 2019). "Making the edit: why we need more women in Wikipedia". The Guardian. Retrieved December 4, 2019.
Another grantee using Wikimedia's cash to bring balance to its pages is Whose Knowledge?, a global initiative designed to give voice to marginalised communities in public knowledge.
December
[edit]- Holmyard, Braydon (December 1, 2019). "Leafs fans vandalizing Wikipedia keep editors hopping". Toronto Star. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
Vandalizing Wikipedia articles has become common in the sports world, where a screenshot of even a short-lived edit to an article can go viral on social media.
- "Russia plans to replace "unreliable" Wikipedia with its own version". MIT Technology Review. December 3, 2019. Retrieved December 4, 2019.
The announcement can be seen as part of a wider push by the Russian government to exert more control over what its citizens see and do online. The ultimate goal is to make Russia's internet independent from global structures and able to withstand attacks from abroad, as per a new law that came into force on November 1.
- Wai, Khin Su (December 4, 2019). "Experts see more opportunities for growth for Myanmar Wikipedia". The Myanmar Times. Retrieved December 4, 2019.
Butch Bustria, who is in charge of Wikimedia's Southeast Asia and Pacific regions, said that as many as 30 regular writers now contribute to Myanmar Wikipedia, which is written in the Myanmar, Mon and Shan languages.
- Southworth, Phoebe (December 7, 2019). "Physicist embroiled in sexism row with Wikipedia after female scientists she wrote profiles for 'not notable enough'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
Dr Wade has accused Wikipedia of being "biased" against women because the majority of its content editors are "white men in North America".
- Edmunds, Chantalle (December 8, 2019). "Physicist accuses 'white men in North America' Wikipedia editors of sexism for flagging her profiles of prominent female scientists as 'not notable enough'". Daily Mail. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
However, last week, 50 of Dr Wade's entries were flagged by Wikipedia editors for not being prominent enough to stay on the site.
- Deer, Jessica (December 10, 2019). "'A way to keep our language alive': How the Atikamekw Nation uses Wikipedia to promote its language". CBC News. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
What started out as a high school computer science project has grown into the only active Wikipedia in Canada operating in an Indigenous language.
- Psyllides, George (December 11, 2019). "Supreme Court upholds appeal, finding initial ruling based on Wikipedia pages". Cyprus Mail. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
His basic premise was that 'during the interview and the examination of his application … the asylum service official was misinformed about the events taking place in Iran at the time since her information did not come from reliable sources but from unreliable ones like Google and Wikipedia.'
- Schmidt, Christine (December 12, 2019). "This is how Report for America ended up funding a community Wikipedia editor (!) at a library (!!)". Nieman Lab. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
'We know that Wikipedia is one of the most successful info sources on the planet. We know that if we'd go look at the impeachment hearings article, we know that dozens if not hundreds of people have gone over that and had discussions and make it solid," said John Bracken, the executive director of the Digital Public Library and the former vice president of technology innovation at the Knight Foundation.
- Harrison, Stephen (December 13, 2019). "The Very Respectful Wikipedia Battles Over "OK Boomer"". Slate. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
It seemed worth investigating the OK Boomer Wikipedia page to see if there were in fact signs of a fully digital, young-versus-old bloodbath. What I found instead was a generally respectful editorial process and a few young people who were contributing in good faith.
- Dunn, Katherine (December 13, 2019). "Election Results Mean All Nighters For Politicians, Pundits—And Wikipedia Editors". Fortune. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
Through a discreetly marked doorway in the east London neighborhood of Shoreditch, a small group of volunteers gathered Thursday, prepared for a long night facing down a daunting and often unglamorous challenge: update Wikipedia, and do it fast.
- Ong, Alexis (December 13, 2019). "Hypertext Transfer: How Wikipedia and its Forerunners Inspired a New Kind of Game". Electronic Gaming Monthly. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
Still in development, Neurocracy will be the first Wikipedia-style game of its kind, with Truyens planning to incorporate original multimedia and full-motion video into its final episodic form.
- Levy, Rachel (December 13, 2019). "How the 1% Scrubs Its Image Online". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 15, 2019.
The hedge fund of billionaire Ken Griffin, Citadel LLC, hired Status Labs to edit information on Wikipedia in 2015 about the fund's investments and Mr. Griffin's art collection, according to a person familiar with the matter.
- Moore, Matthew (December 14, 2019). "The Crown sees Wikipedia surge on British history searches". The Times. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
The former prime minister's Wikipedia entry has been viewed more than 1.8 million times in the four weeks since the launch of series three of the royal saga, in which he is played by Jason Watkins.
- Kleinman, Jake (December 18, 2019). "There's already 'Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker' spoilers on Wikipedia". Inverse. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
If you don't want to know how Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ends, you should probably just stay off the internet entirely until you see the movie for yourself. Case in point, even Wikipedia has Star Wars spoilers.
- Nkanjeni, Unathi (December 18, 2019). "Gatvol South African alters Medupi's Wikipedia entry". The Times (South Africa). Retrieved December 19, 2019.
South Africans are clearly still livid with Eskom's load-shedding - and employing creative ways to let it be known One gatvol South African made clear his displeasure by altering the Wikipedia page for the chronically challenged Medupi power station.
- Speare-Cole, Rebecca (December 19, 2019). "Sir Keir Starmer at centre of Wikipedia 'millionaire' row ahead of expected Labour leadership bid". Evening Standard. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
Sir Keir Starmer's Wikipedia page has been edited to remove references to him being a "millionaire".
- Matthews, Alex (December 19, 2019). "WIKISNEAKS Sir Keir Starmer's Wikipedia page edited to remove reference to being a 'millionaire' ahead of Labour leadership bid". The Sun (United Kingdom). Retrieved December 19, 2019.
SIR Keir Starmer's Wikipedia page has been edited to remove a reference to him being a "millionaire" ahead of his bid to be Labour leader. The text was taken off the site early on Tuesday morning and was reportedly tracked back to an internet address in North London.
- Robinson, Martin (December 19, 2019). "Who doesn't want to be a millionaire? Labour leadership contender Keir Starmer in Wikipedia WAR over how rich he is: Claim is added then removed three times in two days". Daily Mail. Retrieved December 22, 2019.
Sir Keir Starmer is at the centre of a 'Wikipedia-war' today as the word 'millionaire' was repeatedly removed from his official page.
- Feinberg, Ashley (December 20, 2019). "Pete Buttigieg's Campaign Says This Wikipedia User Is Not Pete. So Who Is It?". Slate. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
Pete Buttigieg, the young, telegenic mayor of South Bend, Indiana, prides himself on being the only millennial currently vying for the presidency, and his path up to this point has been a fairly deliberate one. Luckily for Buttigieg, there is at least one person carefully looking out for his needs on Wikipedia—someone who has followed his political career from its very beginning, and whose interests and connections track his own with eerie sympathy.
- Read, Carly (December 20, 2019). "Labour's Keir Starmer embroiled in row after 'millionaire' reference on Wikipedia removed". Daily Express. Retrieved December 22, 2019.
But he has already found himself embroiled in a scandal after a reference to him being a millionaire was added and removed from his Wikipedia page several times.
- Rahman, Khaleda (December 21, 2019). "'Home Alone 2' Wikipedia page changed to say Donald Trump is the first cast member to be impeached". Newsweek. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
'On December 18th, 2019 Donald Trump became the first cast member of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York to be impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives,' the Wikipedia entry for the film briefly read.
- Francis, Nathan (December 21, 2019). "Someone Changed The Wikipedia Page For Home Alone 2 To Troll Star Donald Trump". Inquisitr. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
It was quickly changed back and the reference removed, but not before a screenshot of the entry made its way to Twitter and gained some viral interest.
- Holmes, Juwan J. (December 22, 2019). "Internet ponders if Mayor Pete (or devoted friend) was behind his Wikipedia edits". LGBTQ Nation. Retrieved December 22, 2019.
In an investigative report for Slate. reporter Ashley Feinberg concluded that at least one person worked behind two different accounts to provide inside information on Buttigieg and his associates.
- Hamilton, Isobel Asher (December 23, 2019). "Elon Musk fact-checked his own Wikipedia page and requested edits including the fact he does 'zero investing'". Business Insider. Retrieved December 23, 2019.
Elon Musk has been perusing his Wikipedia page and suggesting edits.
- Reisinger, Don (December 23, 2019). "Elon Musk Took Issue With His Wikipedia Page, So He Asked the Community to Fix It. They Did". Inc. Retrieved December 23, 2019.
A tweet here and there helps Musk improve his Wikipedia page.
- Vincent, James (December 23, 2019). "Go read this Slate report on presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg's mysterious Wikipedia supporter". The Verge. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
As far as crimes of vanity go, editing your own Wikipedia page is an extremely relatable one. After all, who doesn't want some control over their public image? But if you're hoping to be president of the USA, what at first seems like a slight misdeed becomes something more revealing (even if it pales in comparison to the known activities of the current president).
- Cao, Sissi (December 23, 2019). "Elon Musk Says His Wikipedia Page Is 'Insanely' Inaccurate". Observer. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
Thanks to its open collaboration nature, Wikipedia was quick enough to respond. At 7:25 p.m. on Sunday, exactly five hours after Musk posted his first tweet, a Wikipedia user deleted the word "investor" from Musk's knowledge page using a mobile device, according to Wikipedia's edit history.
- Knowles, Hannah (December 24, 2019). "How the reporter who found Mitt Romney's secret Twitter has turned online sleuthing into a beat". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
The dissection of the Wikipedia edits, like many of Feinberg's online adventures, is couched in probabilities. Unlike some of her best-known stories, it hasn't solved a mystery: It leaves readers with multiple possible scenarios and a request that anyone with further information shoot Feinberg an email.
- "Court rules Turkey violated freedoms by banning Wikipedia". Associated Press. December 26, 2019. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
Turkey's highest court on Thursday ruled in favor of Wikipedia, saying the Turkish government's two-year ban on the online encyclopedia constitutes a violation of freedom of expression, the state-run news agency reported.
- "Turkey's top court says Wikipedia ban is violation of rights". Hürriyet Daily News. December 26, 2019. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
Due to the ban on access to the site, the individual application to the Constitutional Court by Wikimedia Foundation was replied by the Court on Dec. 26 as a violation of freedom of expression.
- McKernan, Bethan (December 26, 2019). "Turkey's Wikipedia block violates human rights, high court rules". The Guardian. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
The Turkish government's block on Wikipedia is a violation of freedom of expression, the country's high court has ruled, paving the way for the two-year-old ban to be lifted.
- Kimball, Whitney (December 26, 2019). "The Dumbest Wikipedia Edit War of the Dumbest Decade". Gizmodo. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
The battle over Donald Trump's rightful place in the presidential tallness hierarchy has waged on over the past several years, without ceasefire, on the Wikipedia page "Heights of presidents and presidential candidates of the United States"—an edit war so bitter and petty and senseless that only our current president could have manufactured it.
- Friedman, Dan (December 26, 2019). "Heroes of the 2010s: Wikipedia". Mother Jones. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
There is no more useful website. It is browsable and rewards curiosity without stealing your preferences and selling them to marketers. It is relaxing to read. It's wrong sometimes, sure. But you can check the sources. It has footnotes.
- "Wikipedia ban: Top court calls for Turkey to lift block". BBC. December 26, 2019. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
The Constitutional Court voted by 10-6 that the ban violated freedom of speech. It is expected that the authorities will lift it accordingly.
- Zaveri, Mihir (December 26, 2019). "Turkey's Ban on Wikipedia Is Unconstitutional, Court Says". The New York Times. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
The Turkish Constitutional Court — the highest court that could consider the issue — ruled in favor of Wikipedia after the online encyclopedia's lawyers argued that the ban violated the right to freedom of expression, which is protected by the Turkish Constitution, according to Stephen LaPorte, the legal director for the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia.
- Sánchez Nicolás, Elena (December 27, 2019). "Turkish court overturns Erdogan's ban on Wikipedia". EUobserver. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
Turkey's Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday (26 December) that the Turkish government's block on Wikipedia is a violation of freedom of expression, in a legal victory against the two-year-old ban.
- Dash, Sanchita (December 27, 2019). "Here's why Wikipedia is threatened by India's new data protection bill". Business Insider. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
Wikimedia, the non-profit group that runs Wikimedia, is worried about India's new data protection law. It has written to Indian IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad about its concerns.
- Aviles, Gwen (December 27, 2019). "'Avengers', Billie Eilish and Chernobyl among top Wikipedia articles of 2019". NBC News. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
According to Wikipedia, the list largely centers around television and film with indie pop singer Billie Eilish as one outlier in the top 10.
- Stanley, Alyse (December 27, 2019). "Wikipedia's Year-End List Shows What the Internet Needed to Know in 2019". Gizmodo. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
More than 260 billion people Wiki'd something or other in 2019, and the overwhelming majority of them apparently shared a similar question: What the hell did I just watch?
- Sonnemaker, Tyler (December 28, 2019). "These were the people and events that made the internet curious in 2019, according to Wikipedia". Business Insider. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
Marvel films (and superhero flicks in general) as well as HBO shows and celebrity deaths all featured prominently in the top spots.
- Broker, Ziyad (December 29, 2019). "Turkey's Wikipedia ban ruled a violation of freedom". Daily Times (Pakistan). Retrieved December 30, 2019.
However, Turkey had argued that in refusing to remove the allegations from their platform, Wikipedia was taking part in a campaign to influence and distort the international view of the country.
- Hacohen, Hagay (December 29, 2019). "Netanyahu wins Wikipedia, No. 1 search in 2019". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the number one item Hebrew Wikipedia users search for, ahead of the State of Israel and even the Marvel Universe, a press release on behalf of Wikipedia Israel reported on Sunday.
- Mehrotra, Karishma (December 30, 2019). "Wikipedia writes to IT Minister: New govt guidelines will severely disrupt our model". The Indian Express. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
The nonprofit that funds Wikipedia has said its model would be "severely disrupted" by the intermediary guidelines that India intends to institute by the middle of next month.
- "UP Police's Wikipedia page 'vandalised'". The Times of India. 30 December 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
The tweet read "We value the Wiki principles of sharing of information but will take steps to prevent such vandalism. We are trying to identify the culprit.