Re: <nettime> A Puff Piece on Wikipedia (Fwd)

[Scott deLahunta <sdela {AT} ahk.nl>]

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 {AT} fyi.net> -----
>
>From: anonymous <anon {AT} fyi.net>
>Reply-To: anon {AT} fyi.net
>To: cantsin {AT} 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



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