Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-07-30/In the news

In the news

Harvard professors reflect on Wikipedia experience

Two Harvard Business School professors discuss their interactions with Wikipedia in the context of an AfD debate. Associate professor Andy McAfee became personally involved with the discussion about the article Enterprise 2.0, which was a term that he had coined (he did not commence the writing of the article though), and thus was able to observe the governance of Wikipedia in action on a topic that he "cared a lot about". Several observations about why Wikipedia works include: the ethic of self-governance that includes the use of policies and guidelines to back up decisions, the transparency of the editing history and the ability of the community to tweak the rules as required. However, the existence of editors who refuse to engage in any real discussion, and appear determined to have everything on the fringe deleted, are noted as threats to the project's core values of being open to all ideas. Course notes have been prepared by Professors McAfee and Lakhani.

Wikipedia stands up to China

The San Francisco Chronicle carried an opinion piece about the approach that Wikipedia has taken in dealing with Internet censorship in China, and how it differs from the behaviour exhibited by large corporations such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. Wikipedia, run by a non-profit organisation, is not as subject to the whims of shareholders, and there is simply no advantage to the unethical censorship of its content. Wales' stance on the issue and the contributions of Chinese Wikipedians who continued to contribute even while the site was blocked were praised by the author.

Wales: wikis useful in corporate setting

Newsweek interviewed Jimmy Wales on his thoughts about the wiki making an entrance into the corporate arena. Wales notes that the wiki has become more mainstream recently, spurred on by the popularity of Wikipedia. He believes that wikis are useful where there is a "clear and shared vision", and the editable nature of a wiki encourages consensus. To take advantage of efficiency that wikis afford, Wales believes that companies will need to become more free in the way they do business.

Other mentions in the news

Other mentions of Wikipedia in the online press include:

Wikipedia Infiltrated by Intelligence Agents? - Slashdot generated a lot of heat and not much light when it linked to a Korean website, which claims to have evidence suggesting that a certain Wikipedia administrator is, or at least was, an intelligence operative.
'I'm contributing to something greater' - ^demon was interviewed in his local paper, providing insight into the life of an administrator.
Keen's "The Cult of the Amateur": BRILLIANT! - this was written a while back, but Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig provides an in-depth, biting critique of Keen's book (see archived story).
Translating Harry Potter to support the governing ideology in Iran - Wikipedia was cited in an article about Harry Potter translations in Iran.
Wikipedia founder gets Grubby with search - the launch of Wikia-related Grub open source search invites obvious comparisons with Wikipedia.