Comments on: Microsoft on Wikipedia – findings from WikiScanner

By: ITCode » Microsoft w Wikipedia - odkrycie z WikiScanner

ITCode » Microsoft w Wikipedia - odkrycie z WikiScanner — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:08:11 +0000

[...] dokopują się jednak do działalności różnych kontrowersyjnych firm – i tak, niektórzy postanowili sprawdzić, co takiego edytowali pracownicy Microsoft. Może dopisali coś paskudnego w hasłach o Linuksie? [...]

By: Terry

Terry — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:40:17 +0000

I think the argument has been a bit one-sided. A lot of editing has been done to present oneself in a positive light in an effort to offset something slanderous. It’s all POV, so everyone, most of all the subject of the article, has the right to weigh in.

When it comes to an open source anyone can edit with anonymity, there can be no discussion of “ethics.” It’s preposterous to hold anyone’s behavior to ethical standards when their participating in something (Wikipedia) that is unethical intrinsically. Admins often take sides in disputes and preserve slanderous content (i.e. a reference to one netizen as a “kook” was defended by admins because they cited as an authoritative source some ridiculous vote in a Usenet news group). And one admin created a user box for some editor he didn’t like and defamed him in that user box. The admin in question, who calls himself Calton, admitted in a de facto livejournal entry that before Wikipedia was born, his hobby was writing negative reviews in Amazon.com of books whose author blogs he didn’t like. And we think there is any ethics attached to Wikipedia?

By: David Spark

David Spark — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 19:51:23 +0000

People are having a field day on this WikiScanner tool. It's purely fun to see who changed their own entry and we laugh at them for getting caught trying to pull a fast one on us. The Internet and blogosphere live to expose corporate America and our government for "not getting it." Regardless, incorrect Wikipedia entries is a real problem. And if you work in a company and you want to change something, how do you do it without being seen as underhanded and weasely? I have some ideas in a post I wrote How to change your Wikipedia entry, ethically.

By: Long Zheng

Long Zheng — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:17:10 +0000

@cak: I was calling it “Apple’s wiki” in the context of Wikipedia, more of a shorthand for “Apple’s Wikipedia page”.

By: cak

cak — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:14:52 +0000

Calling it Apples Wiki is a bit disingenuous. It is clearly not Apples wiki, it is Apples wikipedia page. I am sure that Apple has a wiki of its own (possibly only for internal uses), if not several. So saying that Microsoft has gone around altering Apples Wiki is a big charge indeed.

By: RC

RC — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 03:20:05 +0000

Sort of. I don’t have a problem with people/companies editing information critical of them. It can be just as inaccurate or unfair as any other piece of information. After all, letting people defend themselves is a very cherished thing. I’ve often read bios and other types of articles on Wikipedia and been a little skeptical to the prominence critical opinions are given. It gets cut right out, appropriately, if bias is put into the main body, but if it’s put under the heading, “Criticism” or something, then any stupid comment is left in. Often it’s a sizable chunk of the entire article and it gives a very skewed view of the topic. It’s different to write a several hundred page book on something and devote a small part to something negative.

By: sin miedo » ¿Es fiable la información de la Wikipedia?

sin miedo » ¿Es fiable la información de la Wikipedia? — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 02:12:46 +0000

[...] Istartedsomething, blog de donde surgió la noticia, las ediciones han sido posibles de verificar y que [...]

By: Teresha

Teresha — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 01:45:47 +0000

I agree with RC that corporations should edit information concerning their industry – they’re the ones that should be experts in that field. The issue is that they weren’t contributing for the public good but rather to further their own aims (not unethical in itself) by removing any references that may have been seen to put themselves in a bad light (that’s the unethical part).
This is always going to be a problematic area for sites that provide information about companies and allow the public to edit that information. That’s precisely why http://www.bizwiki.co.uk requires registration. We took the view, in part by looking at Wikipedia’s spam and spin issues, that company information is just too tempting for both those that would want to deface it and for those that would want to ensure it’s always squeaky clean.

By: Dbo

Dbo — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 00:32:30 +0000

Microsoft looks to be relatively clean, but there is some real important work getting done at Google! Look at some of these, yikes!

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216.239.58.136 [wp] Human sexual behavior [cur] 45841321 /* Common sexual activity */ 2006-03-28 10:53:58

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By: Microsoft, Wikipedia and the findings from WikiScanner » D’ Technology Weblog: Technology News & Reviews

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:30:27 +0000

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