Wikipedia

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Wikipedia Labels Obama 'Harvard Puppet'

Days of user stunts like this are numbered

(Newser) - Oops. Wikipedia's new editorial oversight didn't start soon enough to block a statement in President Obama's Wiki profile that he's a "puppet" of Columbia and Harvard Law. Mystery writer "Mrjazzguitar" substituted the word in the kind of prank that Wikipedia hopes to curtail with its new policy to...

Wikipedia Adds Editor Review for Some Articles

(Newser) - After riding its users to popularity, Wikipedia is now moving to rein them in, the New York Times reports, by mandating editorial review for articles about living people. The feature, called “flagged revisions,” means an experienced editor will check updates to the free, user-generated online encyclopedia. The change...

Army Launches Wiki Field Manuals

(Newser) - The US Army has borrowed an idea—and some software—from Wikipedia to introduce field manuals any soldier can edit, the New York Times reports. Seven manuals have been opened for editing by anybody from private to general in a trial program the military says is an effort to close...

Shrinks Fume Over Wiki's 'Rorschach Cheat Sheet'

(Newser) - Psychologists are seeing red in a row over Rorschach's famous inkblots, the New York Times reports. The original series of 10 inkblot images, whose interpretations are used to gain insight into a viewer's mind, have been posted on Wikipedia along with the most common responses. Psychologists fear that some people...

Wired Editor Plagiarizes Wikipedia in New Book

Ironically, Anderson's tome is on free content

(Newser) - The Virginia Quarterly Review has found almost a dozen plagiarized passages in Chris Anderson’s upcoming book Free, a book that, ironically, is all about free content. Most of the passages were cribbed verbatim from Wikipedia, while another was from a professor’s personal website, and yet another from another...

Wikipedia Bars Edits From Scientology Addresses

Move is site's first such action against major organization

(Newser) - In an unusually broad push against posting biased content, Wikipedia’s “supreme court” has banned edits from IP addresses associated with Scientology headquarters and its affiliates, the Register reports. The Wikipedia Arbitration Committee voted 10-0 for the ban. Individual “Wikifiddlers” have had their privileges revoked in the past,...

Obit Editors Fall for Fake Wikipedia Quote

Papers printed Maurice Jarre gem, but he didn't say it; Irish student did

(Newser) - An Irish college student managed to prank the world media in an attempt to illustrate lax fact-checking in today’s 24-hour news cycle, the AP reports. When French composer Maurice Jarre died March 28, Shane Fitzgerald fabricated a delicious quote and put it on the Jarre Wikipedia page. The citizen...

Spooks Use Wiki to Share Intel
 Spooks Use Wiki to Share Intel 
Apr 8, 2009 3:48 PM CDT

Spooks Use Wiki to Share Intel

Site enables rapid sharing of information, advocates say

(Newser) - The CIA has grown wise to the power of open-source collaboration, and Intellipedia—a classified version of Wikipedia—is humming with activity 3 years after its debut, Time reports. The site boasts 900,000 pages of content written by 100,000 identified intelligence professionals. Advocates cite the rapid treatment of...

In Classroom, Twitter Trumps the Queen

Proposed UK curriculum focuses on learning skills, flexibility

(Newser) - Why learn about World War II or Queen Victoria in elementary school when you can always look them up on Wikipedia? That seems to be the rationale behind a new proposed overhaul of the British school system. Because secondary schools teach plenty of history, the reasoning goes, early schooling should...

Fake Deaths May Force Changes in Wikipedia

Site considers blocking users from direct edits

(Newser) - The greatly exaggerated deaths of Sens. Robert Byrd and Ted Kennedy last week on Wikipedia has sparked a push for a radical change in how the site's information is edited, Wired reports. The edits, traditionally open to all users, gave the false impression that both lawmakers had died. Founder Jimmy...

To Challenge Wiki, Britannica Will Let Users Edit

But edits still have to be vetted by encyclopedia's staff

(Newser) - The 241-year-old Encyclopedia Britannica is tired of being overshadowed on the web by Wikipedia, so it’s decided to start copying the competition’s defining feature: allowing users to edit and create content. Britannica will not be as laissez-faire as Wikipedia, the Sydney Morning Herald reports, as alterations to online...

Judge Tosses Wikipedia Defamation Suit

Judge says site isn't responsible for user-generated content

(Newser) - A judge has thrown out a defamation suit against Wikipedia, upholding the principle that a website isn't responsible for user-generated content, Ars Technica reports. In the lawsuit, a literary agent charged that her Wikipedia entry damaged her reputation because it included nasty comments from bloggers and from a website that...

Author Shares a Bit of 'Knol' on Google

Writers finds system 'intuitive,' but pages look 'dull'

(Newser) - Now that Google has launched its "Knol" option to Wikipedia that allows people to pen articles on topics, CNET writer Elinor Mills takes a stab at being one of the site's experts. Google's offering has a key difference to Wikipedia: the writer of a Knol entry has near total...

Google Unveils Wikipedia Rival
Google Unveils Wikipedia Rival
Jul 24, 2008 4:30 AM CDT

Google Unveils Wikipedia Rival

Experts replace anonymous writers in search king's online encylopedia

(Newser) - Could Wikipedia's assassin be lurking behind a Knol? Google opened up its online encyclopedia with articles—or "units of knowledge" Google calls "Knols"—to the public today, featuring major differences from its well-established rival. The  pieces are written by experts and their names are highlighted, in marked...

In Internet Age, No Story Can Be Held
In Internet Age, No Story Can
Be Held
ANALYSIS
Jun 23, 2008 7:26 AM CDT

In Internet Age, No Story Can Be Held

Wikipedia announced Russert's death before NBC did

(Newser) - When Tim Russert died on June 13, NBC News held off reporting his death until it had notified the broadcaster's family. But by the time Tom Brokaw announced the news, NBC had been scooped—by Wikipedia, which broke the story 40 minutes earlier. As the New York Times reports, the...

Has It Gone, Or Just Gone Online?
 Has It Gone, Or
 Just Gone Online?  
OPINION
May 11, 2008 5:06 PM CDT

Has It Gone, Or Just Gone Online?

NYT columnist gets nervous as Oxford Dictionary hits the web

(Newser) - The Oxford English Dictionary—the 3-volume one with the magnifying glass—has ditched its hard copy and gone digital for good, which makes one "bookish middle-class" writer nervous. "Other totemic college books could go out of style, maybe," Virginia Heffernan writes in the New York Times. But...

Wikipedia Goes to Print —in German

Publisher plans single volume of 50K most-searched entries

(Newser) - Wikipedia will soon hit bookshelves, the AP reports: German giant Bertelsmann AG is publishing a condensed print edition of the user-generated encyclopedia. The One-Volume Wikipedia Encyclopedia will contain 50,000 of the most-searched-for German entries this year—and it could be the first in an annual series. “A yearbook...

China Wikipedia Access Not So Impressive
China Wikipedia Access Not So Impressive
OPINION
Apr 7, 2008 1:55 PM CDT

China Wikipedia Access Not So Impressive

Recent move isn't enough to meet IOC's request for openness

(Newser) - It's good for Chinese Internet users that the government has lifted bans on Wikipedia and Blogspot, but the move isn't the great breakthrough it may seem to be. If the policy change was intended to fulfill requests from the International Olympic Committee for an open internet, it falls well short...

Beijing Eases Limits on Wikipedia
Beijing Eases Limits on Wikipedia
Apr 5, 2008 11:12 AM CDT

Beijing Eases Limits on Wikipedia

But topics such as Tibet, Tiananmen remain off limits

(Newser) - Prodded by the International Olympic Committee, China has seemingly eased restrictions on the English-language version of Wikipedia, Reuters reports. But authorities continue to block access to articles related to sensitive topics such as Tibet and Tiananmen Square. Users in Shanghai and Beijing, the site of the summer Olympics, reported being...

New Site Wants Your Wikipedia Rejected Bio

Biographicon invites the real average Joes to tell their tales

(Newser) - While Wikipedia may promote itself as an encyclopedia of, for, and by the people, anybody who's had his stint as autobiographer cut short by the infamous "notability" requirement knows the site to be otherwise. Or so hope the creators of startup Biographicon, a website that invites the nobodies of...

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