Should I pay for a Wikipedia article?
At the end of August, volunteer editors on the English Wikipedia blocked 381 user accounts for so-called “black hat” editing—or more specifically, undisclosed paid advocacy. As the Wikimedia Foundation’s blog post defined it, undisclosed paid advocacy is “the practice of accepting or charging money to promote external interests on Wikipedia without revealing their affiliation, in violation of….
The first smile and photobomb ever photographed
Six months of work at the National Library of Wales is already showing great benefits.
Writing an open-access encyclopedia in a closed-access world
On Friday, Elsevier, one of the world’s largest academic publishers, announced its recent partnership with the Wikipedia Library—a program that helps editors access reliable sources to improve Wikipedia. The collaboration gave 45 ScienceDirect accounts to Wikipedia volunteers, to use the database’s scholarly literature for research when writing and editing the encyclopedia. The announcement led to….
Wikimedia opposes government’s motion to dismiss Wikimedia v. NSA
The ACLU filed an opposition yesterday to the U.S. government’s recent motion to dismiss Wikimedia v. NSA, the Wikimedia Foundation’s challenge to the National Security Agency’s “upstream” surveillance program. The filing lays out a point-by-point refutation of the government’s arguments, in advance of a hearing scheduled for September 25.
Launching the Wikimedia Public Policy site
The Wikimedia Foundation is excited to introduce the new Wikimedia Public Policy site. Public policy is vital for a world where everyone can freely access, share, create, and remix knowledge.
Hundreds of “black hat” English Wikipedia accounts blocked following investigation
After weeks of investigation, volunteer editors on English Wikipedia announced today that they blocked 381 user accounts for undisclosed paid advocacy.
Despite headlines, frequent edits don’t cause inaccuracy
Wikipedia is the encyclopedia anyone can edit. It didn’t surprise us to learn that articles considered to be controversial are frequently edited.
Wikipedia is better equipped to deal with systemic bias than traditional publishers
In 2010, the artists Ditte Ejlerskov and EvaMarie Lindahl contacted Taschen, a book publisher, to point out that out of 97 volumes published in the Basic Art series, only five included women: Tamara de Lempicka, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Jeanne-Claude (who shares a volume and a Wikipedia article with her collaborator and husband Christo). Taschen asked the pair about which….
My life as an autistic Wikipedian
Two years ago, I discovered that I was on the autism spectrum. As I learned more about myself and the way my brain worked, I started to look at past experiences through the lens of this newly-found aspect. In this essay, I share some of what I’ve learned along the way about my successes, my failures, and many things that confused me in the past, notably in my experiences in the Wikimedia movement.
ACLU files amended complaint on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation
On March 10th, the Wikimedia Foundation joined a lawsuit against the NSA over its upstream surveillance program. A hearing is scheduled for late September on the government's recently filed motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
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