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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Steven Walling (talk | contribs) at 16:40, 23 December 2007 (→‎Jimbo senate testimony). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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Not every mention of Wikipedia in the media will make it into Signpost. Consider editing Wikipedia:Press coverage or Wikipedia:Wikipedia as a press source so we have a comprehensive record. Template:SignpostNavigation

Calendar of upcoming events

I intend this to be a sort of calendar of upcoming events, on and off Wikipedia (particularly non-obvious events, that might be easily missed) -- things that readers might be interested in. Anyone can add events here.

  • December 16: Steward elections end
  • December 16: ArbCom elections end
  • January 9: Jonathan Hochman lecture. Tumblebrook Country Club, Bloomfield, Connecticut, 6:30-9 p.m. $35 (dinner & cocktails). [1]
  • February 7: Larry Sanger lecture. Eastern Michigan University, 7 p.m. [2]
  • March 6: Andrew Keen lecture. Eastern Michigan University, 7 p.m. [3]
  • April 10: Kat Walsh lecture. Eastern Michigan University, 7 p.m. [4]

Wikipedia molecular biology discussed by EMBO

The European Molecular Biology Organization published a short piece on the activities of the Molecular and Cellular Biology Wikiproject in the November issue (p7) of EMBO encounters. Tim Vickers 00:51, 3 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In the news

A few stories:

I'm not sure they all deserve mention in the Signpost, though. Mindmatrix 18:03, 3 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you are going to mention the Discovery Institute article (authored by none other than Casey Luskin - Godwin help me - the Joseph Goebbels of the Intelligent Design Movement), I *STRONGLY* suggestion you talk to Filll, FeloniousMonk, or Guettarda to get the full story. Raul654 18:53, 3 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, I'm well versed in what the Discovery Institute is and represents. (I have various evolution and ID articles on my watchlist.) I just thought the piece, and particularly the image which seems to insinuate some odd conspiracy, was worth consideration for the news section. (Say, for the analogy between vandalism of the Martin Luther King Jr. article and attacks on the ID movement.) Or maybe not... ;-) Mindmatrix 20:03, 3 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

From The Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/04/wikipedia_secret_mailing/ (info from this page is already being incorporated into the Criticism of Wikipedia article. Risker 02:46, 4 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Polish Wikipedia sued by an alleged troll

Article (in Polish) here; I am sure it will appear soon in English news - or I can help translate key points. See also Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Arnold_Buzdygan for article about that person deleted recently from en wiki.-- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk 16:21, 4 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Conor McNicholas

The Guardian have reported a story that several fans of Morrisey have vandalised the Wikipedia entry of Conor McNicholas, editor of NME magazine, which printed a story about Morrisey's views on immigration. ISD (talk) 13:28, 5 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Another news item on the Durova incident

Seth Finklestein comments on the episode in a column in the Guardian [5]. Cla68 (talk) 01:15, 6 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Icelandic teen claims to have used Wikipedia to get thru to the White House

See story:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3973925&page=1

When Vífill Atlason, a 16-year-old high school student from Iceland, decided to call the White House, he could not imagine the kind of publicity it would bring.

...

Vífill claims he was passed on to several people, each of them quizzing him on President Grímsson's date of birth, where he grew up, who his parents were and the date he entered office.
"It was like passing through checkpoints," he said. "But I had Wikipedia and a few other sites open, so it was not so difficult really."

...

Take a look, IZAK (talk) 09:43, 9 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Its a good suggestion IZAK, but it seems to have so many holes If it was a top secret number, then why be passed around so many people? Would the White House really quiz a foreign leader on his identity? or would they have the caller id for major capitals and match to that? And if he's had the number for years, why has he never called it, I'd think I'd remember where I got such a number. If I had to speculate, I'd say he called the switch board, got sent to a couple of PR or security officers, who thought he could be a threat/mentally ill person who could hurt the president, did a trace on the number, and sent the Icelandic police al la In the Line of Fire's opening. Mbisanz (talk) 10:29, 9 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Who knows what happened, what I was pointing out was that Wikipedia got mentioned as a "reference" in this kid's escapades and was reported by/in ABC news, whatever actually happened. Thanks, IZAK (talk) 18:14, 10 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I might suggest adding this to Wikipedia:Press coverage, I'll give you the honor of adding it, since it is a curious story. Mbisanz (talk) 19:16, 10 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
And here I thought that this was "Wikipedia:Press coverage" -- oh well. Thanks, I'll do it. IZAK (talk) 11:34, 11 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Apparently, the other day, Jenna Bush was on the Ellen Degeneres show, and while on the air, she called her father. This Icelandic kid was able to determine, either by where she placed her fingers when dialing, or from the tones made by the dialing, what George's private phone number was. The only thing Wikipedia has to do with this is that he was looking at info having to do with the President of Iceland while trying to pass himself off as him. Wikipedia has nothing to do with his call, itself. Corvus cornixtalk 22:54, 10 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The point is it's part of the story reported by ABC news, this is not about verifying what happened. IZAK (talk) 11:34, 11 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Linn Ullmann

In the news:

The Linn Ullmann article was recently vandalized with negative and unsourced pov, and the story picked up this week by the Norwegian tabloid media (Norway's largest newspaper Verdens Gang and later Se og Hør).

The vandalized version was made on 11 October, in the time span of 9 PM to 2 AM (Norwegian time). It contained such claims as that she "began to work for the tabloid newspaper Dagbladet, one of Norway's leading newspapers, a job she got through her mother (asking the publishing editor to get her daughter a job while having dinner with him)." It was first edited by someone on 17 October, but the contents were not altered. The vandalism was finally caught in early December. The article was unreferenced then, and still is now.

According to the Verdens Gang article (only published in paper version of 8 December, p.38), Ullmann also complained about factual errors in her Norwegian and Swedish Wikipedia entries.


Perhaps this little story could be mentioned in "in the news". Punkmorten (talk) 09:56, 10 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Mozilla and Opera to implement in-browser Ogg Theora playback

This came roughly 4 hours ago in the latest Wikizine issue. I think it is great news for the wikimedia projects:

link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20071207/tc_infoworld/93898
quote: «Firefox and Opera will support a new HTML tag specifically for embedding video in Web pages. (...) the browsers will then be able to play the video without launching third-party enabling software (...). Mozilla and Opera are also working to support the royalty-free video codec Ogg Theora.
Video on the Web is a fractured mix of proprietary formats, encoded using systems from four main vendors. Apple offers QuickTime, Microsoft offers Windows Media, Adobe offers Flash and RealNetworks has RealPlayer. A user must have a plug-in from each of those vendors if they want to play video in that vendor's format.
The plug-ins that play video are free to download and use: The software companies make their money selling encoders to create the video, and server software to host and stream video.
"You don't require a plug-in to view images," said Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering for Mozilla. "I think video is the next natural evolution of that."»

and here is what came in Wikizine:

«[Theora Support] - Our projects use for video the format Ogg Theora. But besides the WMF-projects use of Ogg Theora is not used by main stream websites. And so are most computers not able to play it. The Mozilla foundation and Opera are planning to include playback support of Ogg Theora build in their browsers. This can result in increased use of Ogg Theora and make the use of video content of our projects easier for the readers.»

Waldir talk 14:48, 10 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Great. I just wish someone would fix ffmpeg2theora. Raul654 (talk) 14:50, 10 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
No kidding! It's a helluva lot easier to view than to author theora. I gave up after a couple hours and a couple of programs. -Ravedave (talk) 20:36, 10 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The program is not user friendly (which is what you are talking about, I think), but that's not my concern. It's pretty simple if you follow the super-easy instructions I wrote. My concern is that ffmpeg2theora (a) needs a feature to rotate videos in increments of 90 degrees, and (b) cannot convert quicktime movies that my camera shoots. According to Greg Maxwell, this is because my camera shoots videos with a certain bit set in each keyframe that not supposed to be set. (in other words, ffmpeg2theora is too picky about the quicktime spec it implements) Raul654 (talk) 00:29, 11 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
As having worked on much media content, I would rather say that such device implementors are too lax about reading format specifications. ffmpeg is different than quicktime, and something that can be handled "leniently" in QuickTime player, might be problematic with the design and multiformat support as implemented in ffmpeg. I often hear the call that players should play everything that is produced. That is simply not true, as a matter of fact, players should be more strict, so its easier for producers to note when they don't follow specifications. Also, theora is a terrible codec and ogg an even worse fileformat, the only reason to ever use it is because its free. Its the .gif of the video world. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 14:11, 11 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Apparently ogg was just removed from HTML5 http://rudd-o.com/archives/2007/12/11/removal-of-ogg-vorbis-and-theora-from-html5-an-outrageous-disaster/ -Ravedave (talk) 15:20, 11 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
That blog post is overblown and besides the truth. Due to discussion about whether to include OGG in the spec or not, the paragraph in the spec defining which video codec should be supported has been removed until a viable solution has been found. Quoting editor Ian Hickson: "I've temporarily removed the requirements on video codecs from the HTML5 spec, since the current text isn't helping us come to a useful interoperable conclusion. When a codec is found that is mutually acceptable to all major parties I will update the spec to require that instead and then reply to all the pending feedback on video codecs."[6] -mrbartjens (talk) 10:25, 13 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Positive expert review of Wikipedia's science articles

In an interview on the public radio program "Science Studio" with host Prof. Keith Pannell, Prof. Bill Wedemeyer of Michigan State University briefly discussed his ongoing evaluation of Wikipedia's science articles. Although he noted that Wikipedia has some bad science articles, Prof. Wedemeyer also said, "some of them are simply superb and the best resource for that scientific topic to be found anywhere...anyone who thinks that Wikipedia is only a site for pop culture is deluding themselves; the coverage and quality of biochemical topics exceeds that of the Encyclopedia Britannica and many textbooks." The interview aired on November 25th on KTEP, a National Public Radio station from the University of Texas at El Paso; the discussion of Wikipedia is found in the last three minutes. KTEPstaffer (talk) 19:21, 10 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject:India

Could this be featured in the next version? It is one of the largest and oldest wikiprojects and has produced one of the most featured articles. =Nichalp «Talk»= 03:08, 11 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Article in the Boston Phoenix on Wikipedia

Hey all, the Boston Phoenix did an article just today on our humble little slice of intarweb. Features several interviews from Boston-area Wikipedians, including yours truly. Thought perhaps it might be nice in the "Wikipedia in the news" section? Thanks! GlassCobra 07:46, 13 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia Rules - December 12, 2007

U of M researchers reveal new findings about Wikipedia

http://www1.umn.edu/umnnews/news_details.php?release=071105_3621&page=NS

Platonides pointed it 3h ago in the wikiquality ([[quality:|wikiquality]] should work. what's wrong with the m:interwiki map?) mailing list. Waldir talk 11:35, 13 December 2007 (UTC) [reply]

On Wikipedia someone would have corrected their claim that vandalism on the Jeffrey Seigenthaler article lasted for months :) --JayHenry (talk) 16:25, 13 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
As Platonides put it, "the probability that a user arrives at a few precise article or a vandalised one is of only about 0.0037%. Moreover, 40% of the malicious changes are solved before the article is read by two different users." --Waldir talk 00:30, 16 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

U.S. military command hacks Wikipedia

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2007/12/13/2007-12-13_us_military_command_hacks_wikipedia-1.html

Full story:


U.S. military command hacks Wikipedia BY JAMES GORDON MEEK DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Thursday, December 13th 2007, 4:00 AM

WASHINGTON - Wikipedia sleuths Wednesday exposed the U.S. military hackers who labeled Fidel Castro an "admitted transsexual" and deleted sensitive information about Gitmo detainees from the Web site.

Volunteers working for the online encyclopedia traced digital fingerprints found on Wikipedia.org to Joint Task Force-Guantanamo, the U.S. military command running the Camp Delta terrorist prison in Cuba.

The volunteer team discovered that people using military computers registered to the Gitmo task force edited the ailing Cuban president's biography on Wikipedia to say, "Fidel Castro is an admitted transexual(sic)."

Anyone can edit Wikipedia entries, but the site expects facts to be linked to credible sources, such as documents or news reports.

The Gitmo hackers also deleted prisoner identification numbers from entries about several terror suspects held at Camp Delta, such as Prisoner No. 766, Canadian-born Omar Khadr. Khadr, 21, has been held since 2002 and accused of killing a Special Forces medic in Afghanistan.

On another Wikipedia page, the same Gitmo computers were linked to someone who changed the phrase "invasion of Afghanistan" to "war in Afghanistan."

By tracing unique identifying numbers found on Wikipedia computer logs, the sleuths found they were registered to Gitmo and the U.S. Southern Command.

Military officials did not respond to requests for comment.

  • As read today on my subway ride. Does anyone know who the "sleuths" were? IZAK (talk) 09:19, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Not me, but I've seen other stuff like that. DurovaCharge! 13:10, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Since when is an anonymous editor a "hacker"? Mindmatrix 15:01, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I've seen it several times in newspapers. Do you wish to question newspaperality? (And I bet several vandals consider themselves 1337 hackers too) Andjam (talk) 17:35, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

ZOMG Wikipedia has been h4xed AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! --- RockMFR 17:46, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]


Google Knol: Wikipedia-like service by Google

—Ruud 16:18, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The Telegraph have released a news story about Knol as well.

Also a few blog comment on Planet Wikimedia. Circeus (talk) 18:01, 15 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Although it's apparently intended to cut in on Wikipedia's market, I don't find it very Wikipedia-like, from its description. Badagnani (talk) 21:11, 15 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have a link, but it was also reported on the BBC world service radio broadcast yesterday. VanTucky talk 21:54, 15 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

BBC link here [7]. DuncanHill (talk) 00:34, 16 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Don't see this one linked yet [8] Could wikipedia put its article on knol and raise some funds? Mbisanz (talk) 07:49, 16 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Technically, yes, though it would have to be by particular Wikipedians/Wikimedians, not something we come up with as groupthink. -- Zanimum (talk) 19:19, 19 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Exclusive Interview with Jimmy Wales

Big Think recently conducted an exclusive interview with Jimmy Wales, in which he was asked how he would donate $100 billion were he in the position to do so. Here's the link to his answer: Big Think

Nice marketing "exclusive interview".... cause Jimmy almost never gives interviews. eh wait.... --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:36, 15 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

WP:PSTS

Will the whole COGDEN and WP:PSTS kerfuffle be covered in the next issue? Circeus (talk) 16:29, 15 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have no idea what you're talking about. Ral315 (talk) 10:31, 16 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I believe he's refering to this Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration#No_Original_Research , thisWikipedia:Requests_for_comment/COGDEN , this[9] , and this Wikipedia talk:No original research‎ although I could be wrong. Mbisanz (talk) 10:54, 16 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

500 FLs

We've gone past 500 Featured lists today. The 500th would be List of Green Bay Packers first-round draft picks. Circeus (talk) 03:14, 18 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Editorial on wikipedia in ACS Chemical Biology

Hi, Apart from being an editor on Wikipedia, I have a day job. Ironically I perform a number of similar functions; I am a professional scientific editor of the journal ACS Chemical Biology published by the world's largest professional scientific organization, the American Chemical Society. I've written an editorial on my positive experience with Wikipedia and have also encouraged scientists that read our journal to contribute. The editorial is slated for both online and print publication in third week of December. Thanks Antorjal (talk) 02:21, 7 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

101 Dumbest Moments in Business

WikiScanner has appeared in Fortune's list of the 101 Dumbest Moments in Business.

96. WikiScanner
All the vitriol that's fit to print
Soon after the launch of WikiScanner - a website that links the editing of entries on Wikipedia with the computer networks where the changes were made - users uncover some newsworthy revisions: A Washington Post employee is found to have changed a reference to the owner of a rival paper from Philip Anschutz to Charles Manson, while someone at The New York Times added the word "jerk" 12 times to the entry on George W. Bush.

ISD (talk) 09:29, 18 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Former COO article

I assume the audit referred to by everyone is the annual audit of financial statements (F/S), in which case the following phrase: although the auditor's report would presumably deal with the issue if it discovered any wrongdoing on her part, only applies if the alleged fraud had a material impact on the F/S. No auditor modifies their F/S report for immaterial fraud, unless the internal controls which the person breached do materially affect the F/S.

I personally believe that the issue, if it existed, will be discussed in the Management Letter. I hope that the Foundation, just as it did last year, publicly releases the management letter for all to see, although it is in no way required to do so. Our best bet is to wait for the letter, which is usually released with the F/S. - Mtmelendez (Talk) 19:54, 18 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikiproject of the Week

I'd like to ask for WP:DINO to be featured in the Signpost. With over 90 members, the Dinosaur WikiProject is really dedicated to dinosaur coverage. See their page of achievements for more information. bibliomaniac15 21:51, 18 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Articles on the net

Here are a few articles I found recently:

Good read. Thanks Antorjal (talk) 21:34, 19 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

By the way, that SEO piece indicates that the RightNow Technologies article was edited by an employee of the company:

I suspect the user is Jaiaz (talk · contribs), who has only edited this article, and whose contributions seem to be taken from corporate brochures. The fact this was done to "increase awareness" is worrisome. Mindmatrix 01:18, 19 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • The Utah Daily Herald [10] confirms the Register's reporting [11] that Wikipedia did block an entire suburb in Utah and that Wikipedia's claim that that area's ISP was an open proxy was false. After the newspaper asked David Gerard for more information, Gerard unblocked the Utah neighborhood. Cla68 (talk) 06:39, 19 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • The Tampa Tribune confirms [12] the Register's reporting on the Doran episode and reports on the Foundation's ongoing response to it. Cla68 (talk) 23:36, 19 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Article in PCWorld about some of the current internal issues with Wikipedia [13]. Cla68 (talk) 00:07, 20 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Another interview

Here's another interview with Jimbo (in German) in Die ZEIT; it's mostly about Wikia and all that, but it might be worth a link in the "Wikipedia in the news" section. -- Schneelocke (talk) 23:18, 19 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Triple crown update

The standard triple crown.

Since April 2007 the triple crown program has thanked Wikipedians who make exceptional mainspace contributions. I've been doing some year end number crunching and this might be interesting for Signpost.

Three basic elements go into each award:

Awards:

  • Standard triple crown (1 contribution set): 37 awardees.
  • Imperial triple crown jewels (2-4 sets): 31 awardees; 77 contribution sets.
  • Imperial Napoleonic triple crown (5-14 sets): 7 awardees; 52 contribution sets.
  • Special edition triple crown (awarded to WikiProjects): 2 projects; 14 unique contribution sets.

Total:

  • 89 editors have received triple crowns.
  • 183 total contribution sets have been honored.

Most productive triple crown editors:

Special edition triple crown awards go to WikiProjects that have 5 or more editors who qualify for a triple crown through their work for that project. Projects honored:

Featured content honored at the triple crown program:

(The featured content tally is less than 183 because some awardees collaborated on the same pages).

Hearty thanks to everyone who's participated so far. DurovaCharge! 07:20, 22 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Jimbo senate testimony

I didn't see this in the last issue of the Signpost, apologies if it was. On December 11th, Jimbo testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in a hearing titled "“E-Government 2.0: Improving Innovation, Collaboration and Access". Here is a pdf of his testimony. VanTucky talk

YouTube upload of the hearing VanTucky talk 00:57, 23 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The PDF file only includes some testimony. Jimmy was fairly active in the hearing, so its worth watching the entire video hearing on YouTube. Sen. Lieberman says some interesting comments about Wales, comparing him in part to some of America's historical patriots, only much younger. :) - Mtmelendez (Talk) 15:22, 23 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, he alludes to the inventing proclivities of Franklin and Jefferson. Later on, Jimbo explains protection, admins, recent changes and watchlisting as measures preventing vandalism. VanTucky talk 16:40, 23 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
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