| Scott deLahunta on Wed, 1 Oct 2003 16:00:49 +0200 (CEST) |
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| Re: <nettime> A Puff Piece on Wikipedia (Fwd) |
hi florian -- [I noticed that Oliver Gassner has raised some of the same points and included tracing the IP; main difference being that I'm not really a wiki user which points towards the relatively high degree of transparency wikepedia has] I think wikipedia in and of itself raises "interesting questions about the integrity and politics of open content, collaborative online projects and knowledge repositories", but all one needs do is take a close look at the project as a whole to provoke reflection on these issues/ and they try to address some of these in the on site FAQ. It doesn't seem necessary to wade in wielding such an awkward and rude PC hammer... to simply make a point that there is someone perhaps keeping an eye on the site; a someone who is generally, I will show later, making relatively small changes to word choice and order, etc. This potentially personal/ individual stewardship of the site in no way that I can see implicates Johns Hopkins University as exploiting Wikipedia as an advertising site. There is nothing to indicate that "a PR person for JHU monitors & polices all content relevant to them". In addition, in wikipedia the changes 'anonymous' made to the site can be easily retrieved. In this list of the last 50 changes anyone can go find the page that 'anonymous' has said was "replaced", just go to the John Hopkins page on the http://www.wikipedia.org/ site, go to the page history and check out 15:54, 24 Sep 2003... 206.80.158.11 -- it's all there. Listed below are the last 50 changes made to the site -- the someone who replaced the heavy handed update of 'anonymous' is IP number 67.87.234.159. It is easy to find out that IP 67.87.234.159, as I mentioned above, makes regular minor updates to the site. There is no doubt that this person(s) thinks very highly of John Hopkins and wants to present the university in the best light -- edits include updating (at 17:13 25 Sep 2003) "nation's most prestigious" university to "world's preeminent". The most recent addition (at 20:06 29 Sep 2003) by IP 67.87.234.159 is to add to the athletics comments "Hopkins has separate athletic colors: columbia blue and black, and academic colors: sable and gold, and they are the only university in the United States to celebrate Homecoming in the spring." So, let's see what other sites IP 67.87.234.159 updates (easy to do) -- since August 2003 IP 67.87.234.159 has edited the page on Political Science, Pulitzer Prize, Ayn Rand, Yale University, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, 1876, Baltimore Maryland, United States Naval Academy, Columbia University, and Joseph Pulitzer. --- so who is IP 67.87.234.159? and is it not one possible story among many (such as the editor(s) of the JHU page are several people using the same computer or one person using different computers or in fact maybe it is the JHU PR department ?) that after he or she had made five minor edits to the pages (starting 17:30 18 Sep 2003) that when they saw what 'anonymous' had done they simply decided to remove what seemed to them to be placed there rudely and, besides, if you look at the biography wikipedia site of John Hopkins it doesn't mention gun running there either. But he very well could have been a gun runner -- and if so perhaps someone should go and amend the biography first... All the best Scott ·(cur) (· last) . . · 20:06, 29 Sep 2003 . . ·67.87.234.159 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 20:01, 29 Sep 2003 . . ·67.87.234.159 ·(·cur) (·last) . . M ·04:24, 28 Sep 2003 . . ·ThereIsNoSteve ·(·cur) (·last) . . M ·20:22, 25 Sep 2003 . . ·ThereIsNoSteve ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 18:35, 25 Sep 2003 . . ·67.87.234.159 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 18:32, 25 Sep 2003 . . ·67.87.234.159 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:27, 25 Sep 2003 . . ·67.87.234.159 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:26, 25 Sep 2003 . . ·67.87.234.159 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:23, 25 Sep 2003 . . ·67.87.234.159 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:21, 25 Sep 2003 . . ·67.87.234.159 ·(·cur) (·last) . . M ·17:19, 25 Sep 2003 . . ·Frecklefoot (+wikilinks) ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:13, 25 Sep 2003 . . ·67.87.234.159 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:12, 25 Sep 2003 . . ·67.87.234.159 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 16:17, 24 Sep 2003 . . ·67.87.234.159 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 15:54, 24 Sep 2003 . . ·206.80.158.11 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 15:44, 24 Sep 2003 . . ·67.87.234.159 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 15:37, 24 Sep 2003 . . ·67.87.234.159 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 15:26, 24 Sep 2003 . . ·67.87.234.159 ·(·cur) (·last) . . M ·22:58, 19 Sep 2003 . . ·ThereIsNoSteve (Ira Remsen) ·(·cur) (·last) . . M ·22:00, 19 Sep 2003 . . ·ThereIsNoSteve ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:32, 18 Sep 2003 . . ·67.87.234.159 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:30, 18 Sep 2003 . . ·67.87.234.159 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 16:32, 8 Sep 2003 . . ·68.198.185.44 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 23:55, 6 Sep 2003 . . ·128.220.88.188 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 23:18, 29 Aug 2003 . .·140.32.16.100 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 19:35, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 19:32, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 19:31, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 19:30, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 18:09, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 18:06, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 18:03, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:59, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:58, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:56, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:46, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:44, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:43, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:43, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:38, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:35, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:26, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:15, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 17:13, 26 Aug 2003 . . ·68.198.191.117 ·(·cur) (·last) . . · 12:25, 16 Aug 2003 . . ·M123 (add some Nobel winners) ·(·cur) (·last) . . M ·18:16, 14 Aug 2003 . . ·M123 ·(·cur) (·last) . . M ·18:15, 14 Aug 2003 . . ·M123 ·(·cur) (·last) . . M ·18:13, 14 Aug 2003 . . ·M123 ·(·cur) (·last) . . M ·18:12, 14 Aug 2003 . . ·M123 ·(·cur) (·last) . . M ·18:10, 14 Aug 2003 . . ·M123 ·(·cur) (last) . . · 18:08, 14 Aug 2003 . . ·M123 (added list of alumni and faculty, mainly from 'What links here'; please add to these lists) At 17:33 30/09/2003 +0200, you wrote: >Forwarded, with permission, from my friend tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE. - >I think this raises interesting questions about the integrity and >politics of open content, collaborative online projects and knowledge >repositories. > >-F > >----- Forwarded message from anonymous <anon@fyi.net> ----- > >From: anonymous <anon@fyi.net> >Reply-To: anon@fyi.net >To: cantsin@zedat.fu-berlin.de >Subject: A Puff Piece of Wikipedia > >Dear Florian, > >It appears that Wikipedia is used as an advertising outlet >for "elite institutions". Note the alterations I made >to the Johns Hopkins University entry below. >I'm sure you'll be able to pick them out. >They're only in the 1st paragraph. >My additions were replaced w/in 23 minutes! >I suspect that a PR person for JHU monitors & polices >all content relevant to them. > >Johns Hopkins University > >(Revision as of 15:54, 24 Sep 2003) > SNIP -> nettime-mod # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net