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13 August 2014

 

2014-08-13

Twitter bots catalogue government edits to Wikipedia

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By Gamaliel

Slate reports that Tom Scott, co-creator of the emoji social network Emojli, created a Twitter bot called Parliament WikiEdits to automatically tweet a link to any Wikipedia edits made from an IP address belonging to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Scott's bot initially did not tweet any links to edits made from Parliament and, according to Scott, an "insider" reports that their IP addresses changed. Despite this, Scott's Twitter bot has inspired similar creations for Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, The Netherlands, North Carolina, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, the United States, and other jurisdictions.

A Choco Taco, one of the subjects of an edit from the US Congress

Ars Technica reported on the bot devoted to the United States Congress, congress-edits, created by Ed Summers, an Information Technology Specialist at the Library of Congress. Summers also created the tool Wikistream (see previous Signpost coverage). On his blog, Summers wrote about why he created the Twitter bot. The Washington Post reported on some amusing edits tweeted by Summers' bot, including additions of President Obama's encounter with a man in a horse head mask and Heritage Foundation fellow Brian Darling's alleged interest in "breeding rare long-haired cats". Yahoo! News wrote about edits to the Choco Taco article in a tongue-in-cheek story. io9 joked that "Congress Basically Admits They Are Reptilians".

After an initial spate of reporting on humorous edits from the US Congress, coverage turned serious when one particular IP address assigned to the US House of Representatives, User:143.231.249.138, was blocked. Mediaite reported that the address was used to make a series of edits regarding conspiracy theories, including articles about Bohemian Grove, David Icke, and Lyndon LaRouche. Mediaite speculated that the "conspiracy nut" was "an intern who has questionable judgment". The same address was also used make a number of edits that have been the subject of media coverage, to the Choco Taco article (see above) and the Abby Martin article (see below), and its block log features a series of blocks for disruptive editing and vandalism dating back to 2008. (Ironically, the IP address also created the Wikipedia article on the congress-edits bot on July 15.) Following Mediaite's story, the IP address edited the Mediaite article to label the organization "sexist" and "transphobic". The IP address was blocked by User:Tom Morris for ten days for disruptive editing.

Mediaite reported accurately that only a single IP address was blocked, but many media reports had misleading headlines or inaccurate reporting that gave the impression that multiple IP addresses or the entirety of Congress was blocked. After the expiration of the block, the IP address resumed editing Wikipedia, including an edit on August 5 which labeled Edward Snowden an "American traitor". This particular edit was the subject of news coverage from Ars Technica, Reason, and The Hill. Global Voices Online reports that the same IP address was blocked for a day on the Russian Wikipedia on July 31 for changing the musical notation of the Russian national anthem to that of a "popular Ukrainian chant" which roughly translates to "Putin is a dickwad". Jimmy Wales told BBC News (July 25) that while vandalism has "always gone on and it always will", many in the Wikipedia community felt that congress-edits may have provided an audience for "some prankster there in the office" and that the Congressional IT staff "might be hunting them down this very moment."

Canadian Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II mock-up

The Toronto Star reported on Gov. of Canada Edits, a Twitter bot set up by Nick Ruest, Digital Assets Librarian at York University, which tweets edits made to Wikipedia from the House of Commons of Canada, the Department of National Defence, and Industry Canada. The creation of the Twitter bot prompted Canadian media to examine specific instances of Wikipedia editing from Canadian governmental IP addresses. CTV News highlighted edits that removed information regarding criticism of the Canadian purchase of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter plane, a minor elections complaint concerning MP Shelly Glover, and an ethics complaint against Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu. Vice noted edits removing information about complaints and controversies involving Senator Pamela Wallin, Senator Yonah Martin, MP Patrick Brown, MP Glover, and MP Louis Plamondon. Staffers for Martin and Glover confirmed to Vice that they were responsible for the edits to those articles, stating that they were responding to incorrect information, though Vice noted that their edits removed those items from the article altogether instead of correcting them.

Perhaps the most significant fallout from the Canadian Twitter bot concerns Dean Del Mastro, MP representing Peterborough in the House of Commons. The Ottawa Citizen reports in a story that has been widely circulated in Canadian media that Del Mastro asked the Speaker of the House, Andrew Scheer, to investigate edits made to his Wikipedia article from IP addresses belonging to the Canadian parliamentary network discovered through the Twitter bot. On July 15, an IP address assigned to the Canadian government edited the article to refer to Del Mastro as a "used car dealer" and a "perjurer" who "formerly sold crippled mules". (The Del Mastro family owned a Suzuki dealership and a few days before the vandalism occurred, Del Mastro had testified in his trial regarding charges that he had violated the Canada Elections Act by overspending during his 2008 campaign.) When confronted about the vandalism and the reliable sources policy by a Wikipedia editor, the IP editor wrote "We are the government. We are the only source." Because the IP addresses are temporarily assigned, server logs will have to be checked to discover the culprit. The article was previously edited in November of last year by a different Canadian government IP address to remove material unfavorable to Del Mastro, including a discussion of allegations of fraudulent donations to his 2008 campaign. On August 1, the Citizen reported that Speaker Scheer is investigating the matter.

A Buk-M1-2 SAM system 9A310M1-2 TELAR

Russia was the focus of a number of controversial edits noticed by the media. RT, the Russian television network, noted a number of edits tweeted by congress-edits originating from the US House of Representatives. The article for Crimea was edited to read that "the peninsula was illegally annexed by Russia" and RT America television correspondent Abby Martin was labeled "a Russian propagandist". The Telegraph reported on edits tweeted by Госправки, the Twitter bot devoted to edits from IP addresses belonging to the Russian government. An IP address from the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company edited the Russian Wikipedia to insert the claim that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was "shot down by Ukranian soldiers" and remove the claim that it was instead shot down "by terrorists of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic with Buk system missiles, which the terrorists received from the Russian Federation."

Gawker noted that following a July 21 press conference where Russian military officials stated that a Ukranian Sukhoi Su-25 was in the vicinity of Flight 17 when it was shot down, an IP address belonging to the Kremlin changed the Russian Wikipedia's article on the SU-25 to increase its maximum altitude from 7 km to 10 km, reflecting a claim made during the press conference. Global Voices Online reported on multiple edits from the Russian Federal Protective Service to the German Wikipedia, unsuccessfully attempting to rebrand pro-Russian "separatists" ("Separatisten") into "rebels" ("Aufständische"). Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty wrote that a "war of words" had hit Wikipedia. The New Republic asked "Why won't Wikipedia ban propaganda on its Russian site?" and quoted Dmitry Rodionov, an administrator on the Russian Wikipedia.

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2014-08-13

Disease, decimation and distraction

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By Serendipodous

It's been a grim few weeks. It says something that formerly arresting crises like the war in Ukraine, Boko Haram and the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, despite still being ongoing, have fallen out of the top 10 to make way for the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak and the equally if not more intense conflict against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, whose recent targeting of the Yazidis has spurred the usually war-wary Barack Obama to action. Our users largely sought escape through movies, as Hollywood looked set to have one of its most profitable Augusts ever. Guardians of the Galaxy generated a massive amount of interest on the list, as people sought background information on the relatively unknown Marvel property.

For the full top 25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions.

As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of August 3 to 9, 2014, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages, were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 Ebola virus disease B-class 2,418,063*
Since it was discovered in 1976, the Ebola virus has killed 2,541 people. Compare that statistic to those of a certain other African virus discovered 5 years later, and one realises that a mite of perspective is desirable when discussing epidemics. Ebola is not particularly contagious, many of its more horrific effects have been exaggerated (it does not actually liquefy your internal organs) and it isn't even the most fatal viral disease (that would be rabies). But its lack of treatment, rapid onset and associated images of blood and agony have given Ebola the kind of apocalyptic power that dwellers in previous centuries gave to the plague. And all the perspective in the world will not downplay the seriousness of the current outbreak, which is already one of the longest on record, the first to cross borders, and responsible for more than a third of the above deaths. Our viewers have apparently caught the panic bug, as views to this page are up 16% on last week.

*Includes hits for the Ebola redirect page.

2 Guardians of the Galaxy (film) C-Class 1,033,416
Holding steady at #2, this 2014 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics series opened in the UK on 31 July and the United States on 1 August. As of 10 August, the film's worldwide earnings are just under $240 million. While aided by a rapturous critical reception (it was the third best-reviewed film of the summer, according to Rotten Tomatoes), it fell a steep 67% at its second weekend at the US box office. It remains to be seen whether strong word of mouth will see it through to the end.
3 John Venn Start-class 769,330
The English logician and inventor of the Venn diagram got a Google Doodle on his 170th birthday on 4 August.
4 Tomato soup Stub-Class 727,310
Not the sort of topic one would expect to be sitting alongside blockbuster films, deadly epidemics and vicious conflicts, but there does seem to be a reason for it: a minor controversy has erupted online over rumours that Campbells' iconic version actually contains animal products, to the point where Campbell's had to issue an official denial this week.
5 Yazidi B-Class 481,326
This fascinating ethno-religious group, neither Christian, Muslim nor Jew, but a separate branch of the Abrahamic tree that blends monotheism with Zoroastrianism and the religions of ancient Mesopotamia, have gained worldwide attention at a moment of particular peril, as they face expulsion from their ancient home in Iraq at the brutal hands of the Islamic State.
6 Deaths in 2014 List 386,611
The list of deaths in the current year is always a popular article.
7 Star-Lord C-Class 384,340
The lead character from Marvel Comics' relatively obscure superhero team, played by Chris Pratt (pictured) in the 2014 film, has been largely unknown to the public at large, at least until the aforementioned film started blasting boxoffice records. leading many to learn of his history for the first time.
8 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014 film) Start-Class 373,093
Well, it seems that all the fanboy crying about the trailer aping The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the casting of Megan Fox as April O'Neil, and Michael Bay ruining their childhood was pretty much for show, as the new TMNT movie made $65 million in its opening weekend. Even adjusted for inflation, that's still 70% higher than the Turtles managed in 1990, at the peak of their fame. Doubtless the popularity of Nickelodeon's recent TV reboot helped, but post-GenX nostalgia no doubt played a role as well.
9 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant C-class 358,274
This almost absurdly brutal jihadist group, which proudly posts mass executions it carries out on Twitter, has been disowned even by al-Qaeda. Nonetheless it has managed to carve out a "caliphate" for itself currently about the size of Pennsylvania from what is supposed to be Iraq and Syria. Until now it has met with remarkably little opposition, but now the US is stepping in with airstrikes to help the overburdened Kurds.
10 Facebook B-class 355,751
A perennially popular article.


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2014-08-13

Global Education: WMF's Perspective

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By Pine

Introduction

The Wikimedia Education Program currently spans 60 programs around the world. Students and instructors participate at almost every level of education. Subjects covered include law, medicine, arts, literature, information science, biology, history, psychology, and many others. This Signpost series presents a snapshot of the Wikimedia Global Education Program as it exists in 2014. We interviewed participants and facilitators from the United States and Canada, Serbia, Israel, the Arab World, and Mexico, in addition to the Wikimedia Foundation.

Education presentation by Dr. Martin Poulter of Wikimedia UK

Wikimedia Global Education: WMF's perspective

The Wikimedia Foundation Grantmaking Department seen in March 2014 including the Education team, the Learning and Evaluation team, and grantmaking program officers. Anasuya Sengupta is front center.

Based on email discussions with Anasuya Sengupta, Senior Director of Grantmaking for the Wikimedia Foundation

The spin-off of the United States and Canada program

What was the reason that WMF spun off the US/CAN program into a separate organization, and is there a plan to spin off other regions into separate organizations?

The US and Canada Wikipedia Education Program was spun off by the Wikimedia Foundation into a separate nonprofit foundation, the Wiki Education Foundation, formed in 2013. The decision to do this was taken, in fact, before the Narrowing Focus strategy in which WMF wished to have more programs run by local organizations or volunteers, while continuing to support these programs through resources like grants, program guidelines and evaluation support.
There is no plan to spin off other regions, instead we have focused on transitioning the Wikipedia Education Program team into a facilitative hub for programs in all regions of the world and not a global program implementer. Local leaders manage and drive the program, and WMF staff support their efforts with resources (like online training, booklets and shared learnings), infrastructure (like the education extension) and funding (through the existing grants infrastructure). For example, in the Arab world, the programs in Egypt and Jordan are now entirely run by local volunteers and supported by a Wikipedia Education Program Manager (Tighe Flanagan). As they grow, they may partner with local organizations or develop other local groups that run and manage the day-to-day of their Wikipedia Education Programs. As you will see described in more detail below, we are excited to find that there are over 60 different kinds of education programs being run currently by community members across the world; we hope to share lessons and learning from these across our movement as we go forward, and support them with appropriate tools and materials.

Has spinning off the US/CAN program achieved the intended goals of the change?

Wikipedia Education Program pre-conference at Wikimania 2013
Yes, our goal was to establish a self-sufficient independent nonprofit organization, and the Wiki Education Foundation has achieved this goal.
The spin-off of the US and Canada program is still relatively recent (late last year), so it is too early to say what the ultimate impact will be for the Wiki Education Foundation and for the Wikipedia Education Program team at the WMF.
From the WMF perspective, it has allowed the WEP team to divide its capacity more globally and focus on other high potential programs in other parts of the world. The WEP team is currently conducting outreach with more than 60 education programs in different parts of the world, and we’re learning that education programs can look quite different from one country to another in terms of scale (from just one professor in one university to a nationwide program), scope (focusing on primary or secondary school or rather on university students) and intended goals (teaching students how to use and edit Wikipedia or changing the education policy and mindset by having Wikipedia editing be part of new teacher training). For instance, Wikipedia Education Programs are quite different in the US, Israel, Mexico and Serbia, yet they are successful their own way.
The Wiki Education Foundation is now firmly established and growing, with the capacity to not only support current activities but expand its reach in US/Canada. While the spin-off has allowed both teams to focus in different ways, they continue to work together in partnership around the movement’s education goals.

The Wikipedia Education Program and WMF strategy

How does the Global Education program fit into WMF's strategic framework?

Wikipedia Education Collaborative kickoff meeting in Prague, Czech Republic, March 2014
Education is at the core of the Wikimedia Foundation’s mission. It is also in alignment with the strategic framework that guides the Foundation’s work and priorities. One major achievement of the Wikipedia Education Program globally has been to increase the diversity of community and content -- through geography, gender and language.
In particular, the programs in the Arab region have had remarkable success in increasing contributions from female students in the global south. For the Fall 2013-2014 semester (for which we have the most recent and complete statistics) women were in the majority of participants in Egypt and Jordan, 88% and 69% of total students, respectively. This has been a great trend for the program in that part of the world.
Education programs have also consistently added content to Wikipedia and sister projects in language versions that need growth and in topic areas that are not comprehensively covered (especially in the US and Canada, through targeted content contributions to the English Wikipedia).

The Wikipedia Education Program and Grantmaking

Grantmaking lunch at Wikimania 2013

Does having the Global Education program inside of the Grantmaking portfolio make sense? Global Education is not a grant program, is it?

The Grantmaking department is about much more than money. The team is fundamentally about supporting the growth of community and content in our global movement through different kinds of resources: connecting ideas, people and programs through tools, skills and funds. While we certainly support the movement through various kinds of grants designed for different needs (from online individual projects to offline group activities), it is not enough to provide money without supporting strategies for making sure these funds are effectively utilised - what does this money do, how does it help support our strategic goals? We want to make sure that we provide support to different kinds of projects and programs run by our movement in order to make them more impactful, and for our communities to learn from each other.
Most significantly, we want to establish a spectrum of support from facilitating the growth and development of communities and content (for which we know the Global Education Program can be a powerful strategy), to funding successful programs, to analysing the impact of these programs and establishing good practices and guidelines. This is why the addition of the Global Education Program to the department makes so much sense; it’s a great opportunity to create an integrated strategy for supporting our communities with a variety of different kinds of resources. In particular, the department focuses on diversity as critical to our goal of achieving both increased participation and quality of content: 80% of our edits currently come from 20% of the world; we cannot achieve the sum of human knowledge with only a slice of human knowledge represented on the world’s biggest free knowledge platform. The Global Education Program, in partnership with our communities in the Global South and elsewhere, can help us in working towards our mission in ways that scale globally, but continue to be locally relevant.

The Wikipedia Education Program in Africa and Asia

What presence does the Global Education program have in African and Asian nations? Does WMF intend to expand the Global Education program in African and Asian nations?

Celebrations of the 12th anniversary of Nepali Wikipedia in 2014
Indonesian Wikipedians volunteering at a social media festival in 2013
”Attendees of a Wikipedia workshop. Epukiro Post 3 Junior Secondary School, Omauezonjanda, Epukiro”, Namibia, in 2013
The Wikipedia Education Program team at the Wikimedia Foundation supports local movement volunteers and community organisers who run, manage, nurture and grow their own programs so that they have a positive impact on Wikipedia and the sister projects — we are no longer program implementers (like we discussed above with the spinning off of the US and Canada program, for example). The Wikipedia Education Program is flexible and open to supporting a variety of models and initiatives, from universities to high schools, from the formal professor-led model to more GLAM-like projects that include campus edit-a-thons, wiki teach-ins and tutorials, wiki schools, wiki clubs, and wiki camps. We would love to see different kinds of education programs take off in Asia and Africa, and are eager to work with these communities to see how we can expand there, in particular by supporting and growing existing activities and interest.
Current activity in Africa and Asia can be summarized in the following snapshots:
In Africa, Egypt has had an active Wikipedia Education Program since the launch of the Cairo Pilot in January 2012. To date (Fall 2013/14 is the most recent semester for which we have complete data, as Spring 2014 is still ongoing through the summer), over 566 students have participated in the program in Egypt, and student activity on-wiki has nearly doubled from the first semester (17,180.13 bytes/student) compared to the most recently semester (33,514.93 bytes/student).
Wikimedia South Africa has been working on getting various educational activities going, working with learners at Sinenjongo High School getting a wifi Kiwix system up and running there and they have also started organising after school Wikipedia editing sessions. There is also an effort to get a Wikipedia course going at the University of Cape Town. WMZA has said that education is its next focus, especially thinking about how to integrate Wikipedia Zero as well.
In Namibia, a small education program has been running since 2010, managed by a Wikipedian, Peter Gallert.
In Asia, Nepal has been actively working on their education program. They have piloted an ingenious tool that can be used for volunteer recognition, called the Wikipedia Drivers License. Armenia, Israel and Jordan (all Western Asian countries) are also active with their respective education programs.
There is also community interest into starting an education program in Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
Africa and Asia are where we’re seeing the most potential for collaboration between Wikipedia Zero and local education initiatives.

Education Program volunteers

Participants at the Arab World Education Hackathon in Jordan, May 2014

How do you plan to expand the number of trained ambassadors to meet global demand?

In general, we at the WMF support programs that are run by local members of the community. Recruiting and training of volunteers is part of most education programs, and we have developed materials to help with training and onboarding ambassadors (like the online trainings, for example). Local programs (and program leaders) are ultimately responsible for recruiting.

The future of the Education Program

How does WMF intend to evolve the global Education Program over the next few years?

Over the next few years, we want to see programs continue to grow and have a positive impact on Wikimedia projects. Currently we know there are more than 60 different education initiatives around the world that are using Wikipedia in classroom settings.
The team at the WMF is set to support these programs around the world in different capacities depending on their needs — strategic planning, sharing best practices, connecting new programs with established programs to share their knowledge and mentor each other, and using technical tools and infrastructure (including the Education Extension and Wikimetrics) as well as our growing suite of educational materials and online references.
We will work in close collaboration with the Learning and Evaluation team as the movement focuses more on measuring impact, so we can continue to have an accurate picture of the difference that student contributions are making to the projects. Having the Wikipedia Education Program as part of the diverse Grantmaking team will also — we hope — encourage community members and organizations to take advantage of the full suite of support that grantmaking offers, including financial support through grants.
A neknomination, originally an online game with a requirement that an alcoholic drinking challenge be completed in 24 hours, was adapted by some South Africans to promote random acts of kindness. In response to an open letter from Sinenjongo High School in Cape Town in South Africa and a neknomination, the cellular network provider MTN Group agreed to provide free data access to Wikipedia through the Wikipedia Zero program. This video shows the students reading their open letter and the video response from MTN.


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2014-08-13

Promised the moon, settled for the stars

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By Harry Burt
This year's Wikimania was hosted at the Barbican Centre in London, a sprawling conference centre and prime example of 1980s brutalist architecture.
Wikimania 2014 was held last week in the Barbican Centre in London. Below, the Signpost's former "Technology report" writer Harry Burt (User:Jarry1250) shares his thoughts on a bustling conference.

Prologue: hackathon

The pre-Wikimania Hackathon proved popular, with developers flooding the fourth floor for its introductory session.

As has become traditional, Wikimania proper was preceded by a two-and-a-half day hackathon, with entry at slight additional cost. While there had been concerns from hackathon organisers about what percentage of those registered would actually attend, it was clear from the word "go" that it would be alright on the night: the introductory session on Wednesday morning was packed, and numbers remained high throughout Thursday and into Friday. For attendees it was an opportunity to get in some 'hacking'—any coding of an interesting nature, including work on tools, gadgets, MediaWiki and its extensions—meet other developers, and enjoy the comfortable (if slightly unusual) surroundings of the Barbican's tropical conservatory and garden room. On a warm summer's day, it felt like a greenhouse—not least because, in a very real sense, it was.

Nevertheless, the social atmosphere was Wikimania at its best: light, enthusiastic and welcoming to those more unfamiliar with the movement and its goals, here including an impressive assortment of journalists. Staff proved approachable, mixing freely with volunteers—indeed, the sessions served as a reminder that Wikimedians are peculiarly lucky in that regard. Such positivity even crept into sessions as potentially fraught as that led by the Foundation's Fabrice Florin, a presentation and chat about the development direction of the controversial Media Viewer extension. Although there were minor quibbles, like the sprawling Barbican making it difficult to move from registration (floor: -1) to venue (floor: 4), or the deployment of sandwiches at lunch ("originally supposed to be lasagne", Ed noted critically) and nothing at dinner, it was an uncomplicated unconference executed well. Even the WiFi held up, as it did throughout the conference—more or less.

Opening session and keynotes

Conference Organiser Ed Saperia opened Wikimania proper with a brief discussion of its main themes and their inspirations.

The opening session of Wikimania, held alongside a welcome drinks reception on the Thursday evening, could roughly be divided into two halves. The first consisted of four speakers (Ed Saperia, Wikimedia UK Chief Executive Jon Davies, Jimmy Wales and Lila Tretikov) enlisted to give short welcome speeches. Apart from an off-the-cuff remark from Wales that he wished the press would talk "less about the monkey" and more about the substantive issues raised in his pre-Wikimania press conference, the burden of getting the packed auditorium to tear themselves away from their phones/tablets/buzzword bingo cards fell to Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International and sole keynote speaker of the Thursday evening session. Though many of Shetty's remarks fell on sympathetic ears, it was his allusions to certain problems of scaling—the forced creation of staff headquarters in developing nations; the difficulties of running a global institution alongside local chapters—which stood out and it was a shame that Shetty did not share more of his considerable experience during the keynote itself.

Salil Shetty provided the opening keynote of Wikimania 2014, discussing the development and growth of Amnesty International, which he heads.

Shetty was arguably the most prominent of the non-Wikimedia names on the list of featured speakers—surprising, perhaps, for a conference that had won the bidding process promising speakers including Clay Shirky, Cory Doctorow, Lawrence Lessig and even Stephen Fry (see related Signpost coverage). Nevertheless, the speakers eventually organised proved sufficient to regularly fill and continuously entertain the cavernous Barbican Hall. The final lineup thus included Danny O'Brien (along with Wales, one of the two survivors of the original London bid), Jack Andraka, and, able to draw on the UK's well developed civil society infrastructure, representatives of the thinktank Demos, Code Club and Young Rewired State among others: an admirable and effective lineup, if not quite the "VIP speakers (academics, politicians, media, entertainment)" originally described by Jimmy Wales in July 2012. In a Wikimania first, all of the featured speakers' presentations were reliably streamed live and recordings rapidly made available online, a real boon considering Wikimedia's global appeal and the months-long delays from previous Wikimanias.

Other tracks

Wikimania 2014's eight tracks offered access to speakers on a wide variety of subjects—here, author and associate professor of journalism Andrew Lih discusses the difficulties of getting more video onto Wikimedia wikis.

In total, Wikimania 2014 claimed some 200 sessions over 8 simultaneous tracks, replete with the inevitable scheduling and organisational headaches. The organisers will be pleased with the variety they achieved: notable themes including open access, open data, technology, GLAM and diversity were all well-represented, while smaller topics (the legal aspects of Wikipedia, for example) seemed neatly stitched into accessible 90 minute blocks. The Barbican's cavernous layout and the comfort of its designed-for-purpose auditoria thus conspired to make these blocks, rather than individual sessions, the primary unit of time management—to the benefit of some of the more niche interest talks on the programme. Each talk seemed ably staffed by the conference's apparently vast team of volunteers, both technically and in terms of sticking to their timetables. The blocks were then in turn punctuated by coffee breaks, lunch, and on some days (but confusingly not all) dinner. Although hackathon attendees quickly got used to the "packed lunch" format, it was the dinners that particularly stood out, including bitesize burgers, skewers and sea-bream tacos (to name a few), served in reasonable quantity but alas with the purity of queuing to which many native Britons (the author included) are accustomed.

Aided by the high overall attendance (an estimated 2000, making London the largest Wikimania to date) all the sessions seemed to receive good levels of participation; there were not enough chairs, for example, to incorporate everyone attending an event on copyright, not usually a floor filler. Saperia added that hundreds of those tickets had been sold in the final days before the start of Wikimania proper—a reminder that it was not just hardcore Wikimedians in attendance. For those unable to attend a talk that they would have liked to—and with eights tracks, that included many attendees—slides and numerous recordings are now available. The quality of the talks varied, but around a high mean; early evidence suggests numerous standout sessions (the author would recommend Brandon Harris' unique performance style, though his two talks were of very different kinds). Unsurprisingly many attendees also turned to Twitter to add their comments to those of a hyperactive Wikimania social media team, with an estimated 21,000 tweets using the #wikimania or #wikimania2014 hashtags over the course of the three day conference.

Closing speeches

The Wikimania 2014 group photograph, taken immediately before the closing speeches

After a brief video in support of the students of Sinenjongo High School in their WMF-supported campaign to get Wikipedia Zero more widely adopted in the Global South, Jimmy Wales once more took to the stage to give his "state of the wiki" remark. Most pertinent of these was his comment that too often what is intended as a minimum bar serves to define the normal and thus to hive off as supererogatory many of the virtues for which Wikimedia ought to strive: not just mere civility, Wales suggested, but "kindness, generosity, forgiveness, compassion", a "morally ambitious" programme he said, but an achievable one. He also noted YouGov research that indicated the British public trusts Wikipedia more than both the tabloid and quality press.

Wales' annual Wikimedian of the Year award went this year to Ihor Kostenko, a prominent Ukrainian Wikipedian and journalist tragically killed in the civil unrest that engulfed the capital Kiev earlier this year (see Signpost special report: "Diary of a protester—Wikimedian perishes in Ukrainian unrest"). It was a poignant and appropriate choice, although in a hat-tip to potential future controversy over the awarding of the honour, Wales promised to ensure a more "democratic" process was in place ahead of Wikimania 2015. After presenting some of the hosting chapter (Wikimedia UK)'s annual awards of their behalf, attention turned more fully to next year's event, with a brief introductory video shown by the Mexico City team. Of its slogans, "our venue: Vasconcelos library" and "gay friendly" received the most enthusiastic support among the thousand-strong audience.

The Wikimania closing party contained its fair share of free drinks, loud music—and decidedly questionable dancing.

The speeches (including brief remarks by WMF Chair Jan-Bart de Vreede) were followed by the Wikimania closing party, an event backed by reasonable but not excessive amounts of free alcohol, and a selection of musical accompaniments in a variety of styles. Indeed, such entertainment was provided on each evening of the conference, interspersed with comedy performances on a technology theme. The latter especially was a brave choice, and the organisers will be forgiven if the jokes fell a little flat, or the dancefloor was a little empty. Patrons were also able to take advantage of the hackathon rooms—left open well into the night—or escape outside where attractive fountains punctuated the cold brutalist structure of the Barbican estate. The more adventurous tried the City of London's wallet-busting public houses, if only for novelty value.

Epilogue: looking back

For some, the impact of Wikimania will be direct: a bustling community village featured an array of chapters eager to sign up new members, as well as a variety of non-WMF projects looking for exposure. For most, however, the effect is more subtle, subsisting in a set of renewed relationships, vague recollections and hearsay. It is difficult to see how Wikimania 2014 could have failed to impress the casual onlooker, with its sheer scale an obvious statement of intent. Of course, such a statement must also be paid for, and the debate over the financing of Wikimania, which necessarily took a backseat role for the duration of the conference, may yet cloud what should be enjoyable memories of an enjoyable Wikimania.

The same is true of the announcement, on the final day of the conference, that the WMF would be using technical measures to override local administrators on the German Wikipedia: as one European chapter member remarked, "at least it will give us something to talk about [at the closing party]". Such worries aside, it was an impressive conference that promised the moon but had to settle for the stars.

Alternatively, in true British understatement, it was "not too bad, actually".

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2014-08-13

Media Viewer controversy spreads to German Wikipedia

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By Neotarf
Erik Möller (Eloquence) at Wikimania 2014

Wikimedia Foundation staff members have now been granted superpowers that would allow them to override community consensus. The new protection level came as a response to attempts of German Wikipedia administrators to implement a community consensus on the new Media Viewer. "Superprotect" is a level above full protection, and prevents edits by administrators.

A community Meinungsbild, or Request for Comment, resulted in agreement that the new Media Viewer should be deactivated for now, until such time as existing problems had been fixed, but that logged-in users should have the ability to switch it on in their preferences. But when an administrator on the German Wikipedia attempted to turn off the Media Viewer, the Wikimedia Foundation turned it back on, using the new superprotect user right to lock in the WMF's version. In turn, Wikimedia Foundation Deputy Director Erik Möller was blocked for a month on the German Wikipedia for ignoring the RfC outcome.

Developments surrounding the Media Viewer have been reported in the German press at "'Superprotect': Wikimedia behält das letzte Wort bei Wikipedia" (Super Protect: Wikimedia has the last word at Wikipedia), "Superschutz: Wikimedia-Stiftung zwingt deutschen Nutzern Mediaviewer auf" (Superprotection: Wikimedia Foundation forcing Media Viewer on German users), and "Wikipedia: Superprotect-Streit spitzt sich zu" (Wikipedia: Superprotect dispute escalates).

The German Wikipedia community responded by starting a "user survey", as the Foundation had already said it would ignore an RfC/Meinungsbild; it is scheduled to run until 21 August. In the first 72 hours of the survey, over 500 users voted for the main proposal to remove superprotect from the German Wikipedia.

The four proposals, which are all passing by wide margins, are:

1. The Foundation is requested to remove superprotection with immediate effect from all pages in the German Wikipedia that currently have it applied.
2. The Wikimedia Foundation is requested to immediately remove the superprotect right from the staff user group.
3. The Wikimedia Foundation is requested to revert the software change(s) that introduced the superprotect group right at their earliest convenience (e.g. during the next software update).
4. The Wikimedia Foundation is requested to ensure that in future, new group rights that enable the holders to shut out elected group rights holders (i.e. administrators, bureaucrats, checkusers, oversighters and stewards) will only be given to user groups whose members have also been elected by the local (or, where appropriate, international) community.

The Media Viewer technical group stated publicly on the German Wikipedia—before the RfC even started—that they would not implement a rollback, so the actions of the WMF should not have come as a surprise.

An individual with knowledge of the situation told the Signpost that there have been a significant number of valid complaints about the Media Viewer, but the technical group has committed to tackling them by September. Furthermore, the WMF has implemented a separate system for all their tests ("Beta features"), where the technical department can experiment with new projects and asks for community feedback. Logged-in users will see it next to the preferences section. While the beta was introduced right after the VisualEditor was removed as the default from the English Wikipedia, it was disabled for the last nine months on the German Wikipedia—a consideration in the recent WMF actions on that site.

A request for comment at Commons has already resulted in the Media Viewer being disabled for logged-in viewers as the default.

A similar situation on the English Wikipedia resulted in the Arbitration Committee agreeing to open the Media Viewer RfC case. The ArbCom case has been inactive since the superprotect announcement. Interestingly, the evidence page has several links to usability tests done on the Media Viewer before it was released, including three videos (between 10–20 minutes each) to learn more about the understanding of reader experience the team developed before deploying the software: User 1, User 2, User 3.

Oddly, none of the users was ever able to click on the link to the file description page—something one would expect to need in order to use an image to write a Wikipedia article.

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2014-08-13

Red links, blue links, and erythrophobia

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By Josh Milburn
Does this picture fill you with dread? Maybe you're struggling with erythrophobia. Don't worry! Help is available.

Erythrophobia is the fear of, or sensitivity to, the colour red. Recently, I have seen more and more erythrophobic Wikipedians; specifically, Wikipedians who are scared of red links. In Wikipedia's early days, red links were encouraged and well-loved, and when I started editing in 2006, this was still mostly the case. Jump forward to 2014, and many editors now have an aversion to red links.

In a few places, a dislike for red links has been codified. The featured list criteria require that "a minimal proportion of items are redlinked". The main page does not contain red links, even when they would otherwise be appropriate. Similarly, the featured portal criteria require that "[r]ed links are limited in number and restricted to aspects that encourage contribution". While these kinds of requirements are not found in the English Wikipedia's featured article criteria, they are found in the criteria on other Wikipedias.[1] Moving away from written guidelines, through participation in review processes, I have encountered numerous editors nervous to add red links to articles they've written, and editors who have asked me to remove red links from articles I have written.

The aversion some people feel to red links is at odds with our central guidelines on the subject. To summarise Wikipedia:Red link:


So, removing red links to topics which should have an article is contrary to our explicit guidelines on the topic, and red links should be added to articles where appropriate.

What's so great about red links?

It might be clear by now that I like red links, and I share the view common on Wikipedia several years ago that red links are a really good thing. Red links serve many important roles on Wikipedia, and any sentiment against red links will reduce their effectiveness and damage Wikipedia.

  1. Red links "serve as a clear indication of which articles are in need of creation". Let's say I have a list of articles which have been requested for creation, but I am unsure where to start. WikiProject Kenya, for instance, has a list of requested articles. Leviathan Cave[2] and Fred Kubai[2] are both requested, but while Leviathan Cave has no incoming links from the article space, Fred Kubai has six. This gives me a quick indication that Fred Kubai may be a more important topic, or at least a more valuable addition to existing articles than Leviathan Cave.
  2. Red links encourage article creation. When people see a red link to a topic they know or care about, they're more likely to create that article than if they don't see a red link. This is a common sense intuition, but has also been demonstrated in studies of Wikipedia, which have suggested that "the connection between redlinks and new articles is a collaborative one ... adding redlinks actually spurs others to create new articles".[3]
  3. Red links remind us that Wikipedia is a work in progress. Wikipedia will never be finished, as there will always be new topics to write about. New species will be described, new artists and sportspeople will come to prominence, new discoveries about human history and society will be made. Not only that, but there are a great number of articles on established topics yet to be created. I just opened a mushroom field guide, and at the top of the page was Russula badia.[2] We shouldn't hide the fact that the project is not, and will never be, finished. Even our logo is incomplete. Red links are analogous to the missing puzzle pieces; just as the logo would lose its character if "completed", Wikipedia loses much when red links are perceived as undesirable.
  4. Articles containing red links are ready for the target article's creation. If I were to create an article on Marton, Cumbria,[2] I shouldn't have to search out pages which mention Marton, but which do not link to it. The links should already be there in the form of red links. I see a few articles already link to it, while other pages which should, including a template used on related articles, do not. This is regrettable. Why should we worry about updating articles and templates when we can just use red links?
  5. Readers expect links. Say someone is reading about British band Curiosity Killed the Cat. They click to read about Keep Your Distance, the band's first album, but do not know why there is no link to the band's second album, Getahead.[2] If there was a red link, the reader would know there was no article to find. If they didn't know what a red link was, they could click on the link, where they would see that there was no article there. And if that reader happens to think Getahead was one of the best albums ever made? Well, there's a nice explanation of how to write your first article right at their fingertips...

Why don't people like red links?

Like its logo, Wikipedia is, and always will be, incomplete. We gain nothing from pretending otherwise.

So, if red links are such an important and positive part of Wikipedia, why do some people dislike them? There seem to be a few reasons, but all, I think, are mistaken.

  1. Red links show that Wikipedia is incomplete. This is actually one of the best things about red links. As above, Wikipedia will always be incomplete, and its logo is designed to reflect that. We should not be afraid of red links in our articles; they do not make our articles worse. Blue links are preferable to red links, but appropriate red links are preferable to no links.
  2. Red links are ugly. This certainly sounds like a case of erythrophobia. If you have an aesthetic objection to red links, you are welcome to adjust your CSS file so that "red" links are a happier colour. (Okay, that was too sarcastic. Perhaps red links being ugly is a good thing, as it encourages both the editor and other potential article writers to turn those links blue.)
  3. Red links affect the stability of articles. This seems to be motivation behind the failed proposal at Wikipedia:Stable versions, which, despite the fact it is contrary to our actual guidelines on red links, I have seen cited in discussions. While it is true that an article with red links will be "unstable" in the sense that linked articles might change drastically, this is just as true of articles with blue links.
  4. There aren't many red links about any more. People will imitate the style of other articles they read, and, if prominent articles don't have red links, users will not add them to other articles. There aren't many red links about any more not only because more articles are getting written, but also because people are starting to believe that red links are a bad thing.
  5. Guidelines discourage them. This simply isn't true; our guideline on red links actively encourages them.

What about lists and portals?

I have mostly focused on discussing articles up until this point, but articles are not the only kinds of content on Wikipedia. The featured list criteria and the featured portal criteria both contain mentions of how red links should be limited. It is worth asking whether that is a good thing. Perhaps lists and portals serve a particular navigational purpose to which red links can be detrimental. However, disambiguation pages and navigation templates, both of which serve a navigational purpose, routinely contain red links; indeed, it is one of their advantages that they can contain red links, while categories cannot.

Given that portals and red links share an aim of encouraging contribution, they should surely go together naturally. Restricting red links to areas of the portal specifically geared towards encouraging contributions means that portals follow the lead of the main page, which is really a portal itself. That said, some portals do contain red links, so it seems that the criterion is not too strictly enforced.

As for featured lists, the potential consequences of a requirement that "a minimal proportion of items are redlinked" are strange, if the criterion is properly enforced. An expert lichenologist could spend many hours producing a list of all known lichen species in Scandinavia. The list could contain all pertinent information, impeccably sourced to the most up-to-date literature on European lichen. Each species would warrant a link to its own article, but Wikipedia's coverage of lichen is a long way from complete. Would it really be right for us to deny this list featured status just because of the presence of red links? Surely not: red links are a part of Wikipedia, and a positive thing. This list would serve to encourage further work on Scandinavian lichens, and red links could only help with that.

What is to be done?

Red links are going the way of the dodo. But, together, we can save them!

"But wait," I hear you say. "That's all well and good, but what does it have to do with me?" Well, hopefully, you'll want to join me to bring red links back. There are three easy steps we can take.

  1. Stop removing red links. If a link points to what could and should be a free-standing Wikipedia article, do not remove that link, even if it is a red link. If you really don't want to see the red link there, create a sourced stub. Sometimes, a red link is even preferable to a redirect, as redirects can be misleading, even when they point to the most sensible available target.
  2. Start creating red links. While working on articles, if you see a location where there should be a link, add a link; even if the link will be red.
  3. Educate. If you see someone removing red links, explain to them why this is a bad thing; show them Wikipedia:Red link, or even this page. If you're reviewing an article that has unlinked items, recommend that red links are introduced. If someone is reviewing an article you have written and suggests that red links be removed, explain to them why this is a bad idea.

And there we go. If we all take these simple steps, we can bring back red links, and all of the benefits they bring to Wikipedia. So, are you with me? Is it time to bring red links back into fashion?

Footnotes

  1. ^ For example, on the Indonesian Wikipedia, featured articles cannot have "too many" red links (thanks to Crisco 1492 for translation), while on the Simple English Wikipedia, in very good articles, "there must be no red links left".
  2. ^ a b c d e At the time of writing, this link was red. By the time you read this, someone may have created this article.
  3. ^ See this 2008 Signpost article by Ragesoss.


Josh Milburn is a PhD candidate in philosophy at Queen's University Belfast. His research concerns animal rights and political philosophy. On Wikipedia, he has written 14 featured articles and has been involved with the good article process, the featured article process, the featured picture process and various other projects. He has been a WikiCup judge since 2009.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author only; responses and critical commentary are invited in the comments section. Editors wishing to propose their own Signpost contribution should email the Signpost's editor in chief.

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2014-08-13

Monkey selfie, net neutrality, and hoaxes

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By Andreas Kolbe and Gamaliel
The notorious Milanese mobster Renato Vallanzasca, whose article on the Italian Wikipedia was removed from Google's search results

The Observer reported (August 2) that Google would "restrict search terms to a link to a Wikipedia article, in the first request under Europe's controversial new 'right to be forgotten' legislation to affect the 110m-page encyclopaedia." This was followed by a profile of Jimmy Wales the day after, detailing his opposition to the legislation. The BBC, The Daily Telegraph and others followed with their own reports on the Wikipedia link Google have removed.

The Wikimedia Foundation receives notifications from Google on the pages in question, and decided to make these public as part of its transparency reporting. The pages affected included:

The removal of a Google search result link does not affect the existence of an item on Wikipedia, and searches made on google.com, Google's US site, remain unaffected.

An AfD for the Gerry Hutch biography was closed as Keep per the Snowball clause.

Who owns the copyright to this selfie?

The New York Times and The Washington Post were among the first to comment (August 6) on the Wikimedia Foundation's first transparency report, which details requests for user data, content alteration and takedown that the Foundation has received. Further reports appeared in The Guardian, with strong quotes from Jimmy Wales, Geoff Brigham and Lila Tretikov describing the legislation as Orwellian and tyrannical, and in The Daily Telegraph, which focused on the Wikimedia Foundation's refusal – referenced in the transparency report – to delete a monkey's "selfie" from Wikimedia Commons. The image was prominently displayed at Wikimania, and a number of Wikipedians, including Jimmy Wales, took selfies of themselves next to the picture. The Foundation argues that the photographer who set up the equipment cannot claim copyright, as a monkey operated the camera.

The story went on to attract attention in many other publications, with some legal experts questioning and others endorsing the Foundation's reasoning; a Commons deletion discussion was closed as Keep.

Wildlife photographer David Slater put his side of the story on Technology.ie and ITN. He asserts that the Foundation's legal reasoning is based on tabloid reports from 2011 that took liberties with the facts of how the images came about, which he described in 2011 on his website. He told Amateur Photographer that he set up the shot, mounting the camera on a tripod:


The tripod set-up was also referenced in a 2011 article in The Guardian, the first quality newspaper to run the story at the time.

Amateur Photographer further reported on August 11 that Slater has struck a deal with "Picanova, a German printing company that plans to give away a canvas print of the monkey, worth £27.40, to anyone visiting its website. Slater says a 'significant percentage' of what he receives from Picanova will go towards the animal's conservation. Picanova has pledged to donate £1 to a Sulawesi black macaques conservation project for every print ordered."

Slater says he has been in touch with a number of lawyers in both the UK and the US; it looks likely that the case will go to court. (Andreas Kolbe)

"Rule by a thousand Gradgrinds"

The Guardian published a number of articles timed to coincide with Wikimania, in addition to the two mentioned above. One (August 6) was a profile of Lila Tretikov, which noted some of her early troubles in her role as Executive Director. This was followed by an unusually critical assessment of Wikipedia in an editorial titled "The Guardian view on Wikipedia: evolving truth" (August 7). Noting the drop in editors since 2007, the problem of "self-selecting cliques", and that Wikipedia seemed to lavish more care on a list of pornographic actresses than on a list of women writers, The Guardian opined:


There were three further Guardian pieces the same day. One asked, "Whose truth is Wikipedia guarding? This vast tree of knowledge is nurtured predominantly by young white western males with a slight personality defect". The second was a profile of Wikimedia UK chief John Davies, who pointed out that the "UK produces 20% of all articles" in Wikipedia, while the third noted that "Wikipedia edits made by government sought to minimise high-profile killings".

The following day, August 8, an article by Julia Powles in The Guardian said, "Jimmy Wales is wrong: we do have a personal right to be forgotten"; there was also a profile of Erik Möller and Wikipedia Zero, and Dan Gillmore, who spoke at Wikimania, invited people to "waste a day on Wikipedia. It's good for the future of humanity."

This was followed by John Naughton's article "Wikipedia isn't perfect, but as a model it's as good as it gets" (August 10) and a piece on "Histropedia" (August 11), a "tool to visualise history unveiled at Wikimania." (Andreas Kolbe)

Wikipedia Zero—violating net neutrality?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Accessnow.org have raised questions over whether Wikipedia Zero, the Wikimedia Foundation program to provide free access to Wikipedia to Internet users in the developing world, violates net neutrality.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation stated its views on the issue on July 24, saying:


This was followed by a Wikimedia Foundation blog post by Erik Möller (August 1) outlining the operating principles of Wikipedia Zero—no exchange of payment, no selling of Wikipedia Zero as part of a bundle, no exclusive rights granted to any carrier, and openness to collaboration with other public-interest sites. Möller argued,


Accessnow.org's Raegan MacDonald strongly disagreed with Möller's reasoning:


The debate is sure to continue. (Andreas Kolbe)

"I accidentally started a Wikipedia hoax"

E J Dickson from The Daily Dot reported (July 29) her amazement that a joke about children's book character Amelia Bedelia that she and her friend Evan had added to Wikipedia more than five years prior was still in the article—and that in the intervening years, it had come to be quoted as far away as Taiwan by an English professor, cited in "innumerable blog posts and book reports", and was now even spread by the current author of the children's book series, who had taken over writing duties when his aunt Peggy Parish, the originator of the series, had died.


Even though the vandalism was over five years ago, a Wikipedia administrator blocked the IP address responsible for the edit after Dickson's article appeared. John E. McIntyre of the Baltimore Sun lamented that "a lie is halfway around the world before truth has got its boots on". (See also How many more hoaxes will Wikipedia find? and the related book review in the July 30 issue of the Signpost.) (Andreas Kolbe)

John Seigenthaler dies aged 86

John Seigenthaler in 2005

On July 11, John Seigenthaler died at the age of 86. Obituaries in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Tennessean, The New Yorker, and many other media outlets describe him as a crusading newspaper editor and "one of the towering figures in modern American journalism." Seigenthaler's eventful life included spending 42 years at the Nashville newspaper The Tennessean, working for US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and getting beaten with the Freedom Riders in Mississippi, being founding editorial director of USA Today and founder of the First Amendment Center, writing books on US President James K. Polk and the Watergate scandal, and even saving a would-be bridge jumper from suicide as a young reporter. Seigenthaler is a significant figure in the history of Wikipedia due to the 2005 Wikipedia Seigenthaler biography incident (see previous Signpost coverage on the event and its aftermath). Following the creation of a fallacious Wikipedia biography by an IP editor which falsely accused him of being a suspect in the assassinations of both U.S. President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy, Seigenthaler brought media attention to bear on the issue of what Seigenthaler called "Internet character assassination". In the wake of the controversy, Wikipedia enacted numerous significant changes, including the wide-ranging biographies of living persons policy and preventing IP editors from creating new articles. The Nashville Scene presents a conversation with Seigenthaler regarding his experience with Wikipedia. (Gamaliel)

Famous and not so famous people struggling with their Wikipedia articles

The Bangalore Mirror and the New Indian Express reported on demands for a police investigation into vandalism to the Wikipedia article of renowned Indian actor and politician Ambareesh. Ambareesh starred in 208 films before turning to politics and currently serves as Minister of Housing for Karnataka. On June 16 and 17, an IP editor vandalized a number of articles related to Indian film, including slurs about Ambareesh alleging that he was an insane alcoholic whose "TV interviews offer comic relief to those who are fans of other actors." The vandalism to Ambareesh's article was not removed until July 5. The Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) promised that "We will take up the issue with the cyber police." (Gamaliel)

Cam Winton campaigning in 2013

Minnesota Public Radio reported on the discussion regarding the notability and proposed deletion of an article about Cam Winton, fourth place candidate in the 2013 Minneapolis mayoral election with 11 percent of the vote. MPR spoke with User: Antonymous, who added the proposed deletion template to the article on July 17, and Winton, who has edited the article as User:CamWinton. Winton's article was created in 2013 by User:Mnmln, who has edited no other articles and, according to Winton, was a friend of his who created the article to promote Winton's campaign. Last year, the article was submitted to Did You Know by a different user and appeared on the front page of Wikipedia on October 24, 2013, twelve days before the November 5 election. Following the publication of MPR's story, the proposed deletion template was removed by another user on July 21. (Gamaliel)

Ansel Elgort

Actor and teen heartthrob Ansel Elgort (Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars) lamented on Twitter on July 12 "I would do anything to get my wikipedia page to not say i am a model. just because ive done photo shoots for acting like any other actor [...] doesnt make me a model. can one of you amazing people take that shit off there? I will be forever thankful" [1] The listing of Elgort's occupation as "model" was inserted into the article in February by an editor who also added a section titled "Modeling Work" which included information about these photo shoots. When Elgort tweeted, the article was already semi-protected following an edit war over who got to hold the occupation of Elgort's girlfriend, so the talk page was inundated with edit requests to the point that one editor joked "The next IP that makes an edit request should have a needle stuck in his or her eye". Protection expired and over the next two days, established editors argued whether or not the sources supported calling Elgort a model while they clashed with IP editors and new accounts over the issue, some trying to assist Elgort and others to prolong the edit war by inserting "model" as occupation again. The edit war seems to have died down following further protection and a growing consensus by established editors that the occupation of "model" seemed inappropriate. Cosmopolitan reported on Elgort's dilemma and he tweeted a link to their article with the comment "Hey guys!! No one ever buy @Cosmopolitan again! [...] and you you follow them unfollow them! They write stupid articles like this..." (Gamaliel)

Andrew Jacobs, the New York Times correspondent for China, wrote in the Times on August 2nd about a sentence in his Wikipedia article claiming that "Since 2008, Jacobs has written over 400 articles, the vast majority of which portray China in a negative light," which was first inserted into the article in November 2013 and has been repeatedly been removed and restored. Jacobs connects the sentence to a general sentiment in China against Western media and "hostile foreign forces". The account inserting that sentence was indefinitely blocked for violating the Biographies of living persons policy on May 25. Following the publication of Jacobs' piece in the Times, Jacobs' biography was submitted to Articles for deletion; it was ruled a "keep" on August 10. (Gamaliel)

In brief

  • Could Wikipedia help crowdsource politics?: Motherboard looked (August 14) at a concept discussed in a Wikimania presentation by Carl Miller, about "how to make Wikipedia matter in the weightiest decisions society makes". The article was skeptical, highlighting Wikipedia's numerous biases. Dariusz Jemielniak's talk at Wikimania, in which he expressed his belief that "an expert could not win a debate on a top-level Wikipedia page", was also referenced. (Andreas Kolbe)
  • Poor coverage of Middle-Eastern culture: The National (Abu Dhabi) commented (August 13) that Wikipedia's coverage of Middle-Eastern culture was often poor, and encouraged people in the Middle East to pick up their "virtual pen". (Andreas Kolbe)
  • Superprotect: Heise and Golem reported (August 12) on the current clash between the German Wikipedia community and the Wikimedia Foundation over the Media Viewer, which has seen Wikimedia Foundation Deputy Director Erik Möller blocked for a month in the German Wikipedia for ignoring community consensus. A follow-up article by Heise on August 16 noted that the situation had escalated further, with hundreds of German Wikipedia users participating in a community survey now endorsing a demand that the Wikimedian Foundation immediately remove superprotection from any pages in the German-language Wikipedia. See this week's News and notes for more detailed coverage. (Andreas Kolbe)
  • Civil servants editing football: The Independent wondered (August 12) why civil servants are editing Wikipedia pages on Scottish footballers. (Andreas Kolbe)
  • More reliable than the BBC?: The Telegraph (August 12) and the International Business Times (August 11) were among publications to discuss a recent survey which showed that the public trusted Wikipedia authors more than it did BBC journalists. (Andreas Kolbe)
  • Medical content: Medical Xpress reported (August 11) that "Cancer Research UK urges medical community to help make Wikipedia more accurate". CRUK currently have a Wikipedian in Residence, who is working with CRUK medical experts to check and improve the accuracy of Wikipedia's articles on cancer. (Andreas Kolbe)
  • Seife interview: Salon discussed (August 9) Wikipedia and the internet with journalism professor Charles Seife, author of the book Virtual Unreality recently reviewed in the Signpost. (Andreas Kolbe)
  • Sniffles is missing: Lancaster Newspapers humor columnist Larry Alexander wrote (August 9) about omissions in his Wikipedia article, including his boyhood rabbit named Sniffles and his encounters with Robert Wagner and Ringo Starr. (Gamaliel)
  • Wikipedia protest hits wrong note: PC Pro Technical Editor Darien Graham-Smith criticised (August 8) Wikipedia's decision to draw special attention to articles delisted from Google. He said, "I don't see a philanthropic charity pursuing a worthy endeavour. I see a global, privately owned organisation arrogating for itself an absolute right to collect and publish personal information, without regard to context or consequence. And I find that very concerning indeed." Bustle also commented, highlighting arguments on both sides of the debate. (Andreas Kolbe)
  • Gaza conflict: Euronews highlighted (August 7) language-dependent biases in Wikipedia's reporting on the 2014 Gaza Conflict, based on a comparison of the Hebrew and Arabic Wikipedia articles. (Andreas Kolbe)
  • My Wikipedia biography said I was not man enough to impregnate my wife: A BBC Newsnight interview with Jimmy Wales on the right to be forgotten took an unexpected turn when the interviewer, James O'Brien, revealed that his own Wikipedia biography had said for some time that he had not been "man enough to impregnate his wife by natural means" (August 6). The vandalism lasted for several weeks, and was reinserted several times without being promptly reverted. (Andreas Kolbe)
  • Help! I'm a Wiki-geek: Nimrod Kamer wrote in the London Evening Standard (August 6) about his addiction to "tinkering with the truth online—even on his own page". (Andreas Kolbe)
  • Wiki wars: In the run-up to Wikimania, the BBC (August 5) looked at Wikipedia's often fractious working environment, the community's unbalanced demographics and the resulting imbalances in Wikipedia's coverage, as well as some of the measures taken to improve matters. (Andreas Kolbe)
  • Men's rights on Wikipedia: Caitlin Dewey in The Washington Post looked (August 4) at the involvement of men's right activists on Wikipedia, and Wikipedia-based activism in general. (Andreas Kolbe)

    Alexander City, Alabama
  • Alexander City, Alabama article vandalised: As reported by the Alexander City Outlook (August 1), Alexander City (population around 15,000) was "punked" on Wikipedia. The vandalism, attributing the founding of the town to Elvis Presley and mentioning an alien spaceship as well as crystal meth production and human sacrifices, lasted for more than four days, during which the article received around 400 views. (Andreas Kolbe)
  • Swedish Wikipedia now second-largest: The Washington Post reported (August 1) that the Swedish Wikipedia is now the second-largest, containing over 1.8 million articles, due in large part to the efforts of Swedish editor Sverker Johansson and his Lsjbot (see previous Signpost coverage). (Andreas Kolbe)

    Seyran Ohanyan, Defence Minister of Armenia
  • Armenian government ministers write Wikipedia articles to set an example: As reported by the BBC (July 31, 2014), The Guardian, Betabeat and Motherboard, Armenians have been asked on Armenian television to contribute to the Armenian Wikipedia. "One Armenian, one article—I will definitely do that and believe you will too," Education Minister Armen Ashotyan told his compatriots. Seyran Ohanyan, the country's Defence Minister, said he had "contributed an article about the country's military". (Andreas Kolbe)
  • Late Night comedy: The US talk show Late Night with Seth Meyers on 30 July mentioned Wikipedia: "Wikipedia is now accepting donations using the online currency Bitcoin, so now you can support information you're not sure is true, with currency you're not sure is money. Finally." (The ed17)
  • Google testing Wikipedia-based timeline for Knowledge Graph: Android Police reported on July 27 that Google is testing a new feature for its search pages that will allow Google users to query an interactive Wikipedia-based timeline. This would complement the Knowledge Graph panel, another Wikipedia-based feature that commentators believe has been responsible for a recent decline in Wikipedia page views. Judging by the video supplied by Android Police, the interactive timeline, if implemented, will allow users to navigate high-level Wikipedia content without ever leaving google.com. Also covered by Business Insider. (Andreas Kolbe)
  • Doctor who?: The Sydney Morning Herald reported (July 27) on a campaign to boost the online profile of Australia's female scientists. (Andreas Kolbe)

    Salisbury, North Carolina
  • Salisbury beautified: The Rowan Free Press complained (July 26) that the article on Salisbury, North Carolina is " so deceptively wonderful and free of any possible negativity". A number of new accounts and IP editors have removed information about a recent change in City Manager from the article. One of those editors identified himself as a city government employee on the article talk page and wrote that he was asked to remove any reference to the former City Manager. (Gamaliel)
  • Religious edit wars: Religionnews.com (July 24) and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (July 26) covered religious edit wars on Wikipedia. Jesus, Catholic Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muhammad and Islam were the five most contested articles in the topic area. (Andreas Kolbe)
  • Stephen McNeil biography: The Chronicle Herald noted (July 25) edit-warring in the biography of Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil. (Andreas Kolbe)

    Benny Johnson
  • BuzzFeed fires plagiarist who copied from Wikipedia and other sources: Following allegations of plagiarism raised on Twitter and then picked up by Gawker (July 24), New York Magazine and Politico reported that BuzzFeed have fired Viral Politics Editor Benny Johnson. Johnson was found to have "periodically lifted text from a variety of sources" including Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers and U.S. News & World Report. BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith apologized to BuzzFeed readers, saying, "Plagiarism, much less copying unchecked facts from Wikipedia or other sources, is an act of disrespect to the reader. We are deeply embarrassed and sorry to have misled you." Johnson too apologized on Twitter. The Guardian, The Washington Post and Mashable were among other publications who reported on the story. The Washington Post subsequently published an inventory of 41 articles containing plagiarized content and its respective sources; Wikipedia was more often involved than any other source. (Andreas Kolbe)

    A picture of this painting by Piero di Cosimo accompanied a New York Times article which was alleged to contain material plagiarized from Wikipedia
  • New York Times reporter accused of plagiarising Wikipedia: Next it was a New York Times reporter's turn to be accused of lifting a paragraph out of Wikipedia: Mediabistro (July 28) compared the lead of a recent New York Times article to the Wikipedia article for Piero di Cosimo, finding them a close match. Politico, The Washington Times, The Poynter Institute and others reported that the New York Times was "looking into" the matter. On July 30, the Times announced that it had added an editors' note acknowledging the plagiarism to the article. (Andreas Kolbe)
  • Netanyahu biography replaced with Palestinian flag: Several media outlets reported that Wikipedia's article on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was replaced with the image of a Palestinian flag on July 22 in the wake of Israel's recent offensive in the Gaza Strip. Time reported on claims in social media that the vandalism remained for nearly an hour, but the page history indicates that it was reverted immediately by ClueBot NG. The New York Daily News reported that the same editor also edited the article on the Israel Defence Forces to read "the bunch of people randomly and unrepentantly murdering innocent Palestinian civilians". (Gamaliel)

    Pedestrianism
  • Wiki wormhole: The A.V. Club examined the articles Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations (July 21), Secret societies (July 28), Numbers station (August 4), and Pedestrianism (August 11) in their "Wiki Wormhole" feature. (Gamaliel)
  • Digital disease detection: healthmap.org wondered if Wikipedia data could be used to monitor disease outbreaks (July 21). (Gamaliel)
  • Ghana on Wikipedia: GhanaWeb approvingly noted (July 20) the presence of articles on Ghanian celebrities on Wikipedia, including musicians Sarkodie, Sherifa Gunu, Samini, and Efya. (Gamaliel)
  • Kumusha Takes Wiki: Global Voices Online profiled the Kumusha Takes Wiki Project (July 17) and spoke to User:Islahaddow. (Gamaliel)
  • Prep your brain: Blogger Ryan Battles suggests when reading a book on an unfamiliar subject, read the Wikipedia article on that subject "to prep your brain to retain more" (July 17). (Gamaliel)
  • Wikipedia redesigns: Boing Boing linked to the interactive prototype of Winter, a Wikipedia site redesign from the Wikimedia Foundation (July 15). The Next Web highlighted an unsolicited redesign concept by George Kvasnikov which "shows how beautiful Wikipedia could be". TechCrunch reports on WikiWand and its receipt of $600,000 from an investor. WikiWand has designed a "modern interface" for Wikipedia, accessible through its website or via browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. With its investment, the company plans apps for Android and iOS. (Gamaliel)

    Tim Howard makes a save during training for the US national team in May 2006
  • Interesting vandalism: Fox Sports listed (July 9) its "most entertaining" examples of vandalism to Wikipedia sports articles, including an edit which promoted Tim Howard to US Secretary of Defense following his record-breaking 16 saves in the 2014 World Cup US vs. Belgium match. (Gamaliel)

    Reader comments

2014-08-13

"In this college useful knowledge everywhere one finds"
(Also featured pictures.)

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By The ed17, Dank, and Adam Cuerden
Just one of a number of stunning new featured pictures coming from historic buildings in the UK; this one is from Wells Cathedral. See more below!
This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 3 August through 9 August 2014. Descriptions for the articles borrow shamelessly from the article's text.

Eight featured articles were promoted this week. We're holding one back until next week, though, for sufficiently awesome reasons.

A wonderful moustache in a wonderful article: a new FA this week is about John Hay, secretary to Abraham Lincoln
A roughly-contemporaneous depiction of the Battle of Öland, a 1676 battle in the Scanian War that pitted the Danes and Dutch against the Swedish.
Two Avro Ansons fused together after the 1940 Brocklesby mid-air collision, a bizarre but wonderful tale now the subject of a featured article.
  • Canis Major (nominated by Cas Liber) is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere. In the second century, it was included in Ptolemy's 48 constellations, and is counted among the 88 modern constellations. Its name is Latin for "greater dog". The Milky Way passes through Canis Major and several open clusters lie within its borders.
  • U.S. Route 141 (nominated by Imzadi1979) runs north-northwesterly from an interchange with Interstate 43 (I-43) in Bellevue, Wisconsin, near Green Bay, to a junction with US 41/M-28 near Covington, Michigan. Since the 1960s, the section south of Green Bay has been converted into a freeway in segments.
  • The Battle of Öland (nominated by Peter Isotalo) was a 1676 naval battle between an allied Danish-Dutch fleet and the Swedish navy during the Scanian War (1675–79), fought for supremacy over the southern Baltic. Sweden was in urgent need of reinforcements for its north German possessions; Denmark sought to ferry an army to Scania in southern Sweden to open a front on Swedish soil. Just as the battle began, the Swedish flagship Kronan sank, and soon, the rest of the Swedish fleet fled in disorder. The battle resulted in Danish naval supremacy, then and throughout the war.
  • Sesame Street international co-productions (nominated by Figureskatingfan) are educational children's television series based on the American Sesame Street that contain original sets, characters, and curriculum goals tailored to the countries in which they are produced. By the US show's 40th anniversary in 2009, they were seen in more than 140 countries.
  • Kangana Ranaut (nominated by AB01 & Krimuk90) is an Indian film actress who is the recipient of a National Film Award and two Filmfare Awards. After receiving recognition for her performance in her feature film debut—the 2006 thriller Gangster, she earned critical acclaim for her roles in Fashion (2008) and Tanu Weds Manu (2011). She also appeared in commercially successful productions like Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010) and Krrish 3 (2013; one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films of all time). Ranaut established herself as a leading actress of Hindi cinema after playing the protagonist of the comedy-drama Queen (2014).
  • In the 1940 Brocklesby mid-air collision, (nominated by Ian Rose) two Australian military aircraft remained locked together after colliding. Both navigators and the pilot of the lower aircraft bailed out to safety after the aircraft struck. The pilot of the upper aircraft found that he was able to control the interlocked aircraft using his ailerons and flaps, together with the still-functioning engines on the machine underneath. He survived an emergency landing in a nearby paddock.
  • John Hay (nominated by Wehwalt) (1838–1905) was an American statesman and official. Beginning as a private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln, Hay's highest office was United States Secretary of State under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Hay was also an author and biographer, and wrote poetry and other literature through much of his life.

Six featured lists were promoted this week.

Cover of the novelization of Wanita dan Satria, one of the seven Indonesian films made by Union Films, the subject of a new featured topic.

Seventeen featured pictures were promoted this week.

The William Crooks.
Mandarin ducks A pair of ducks! A pair of ducks! A most ingenious pair of ducks! We've quips and quibbles heard in flocks but none to beat this pair of ducks! (...I've been doing Pirates of Penzance rehearsals for months.)

Two featured topics were promoted this week.

  • Raphinae (nominated by IJReid) A group of extinct birds that includes the infamous dodo.
  • Union Films (nominated by Crisco 1492) This large topic comes on what even the nominator admits is an "obscure" topic: lost 1940s movies from Union Films, a Chinese-owned company located in what is now Indonesia.
We've all had nights like this: Nighthawks by Edward Hopper.


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