Jimmy Wales accepts Dan David Prize
Jimmy Wales and five others accepted the 2015 Dan David Prize at Tel Aviv University on May 17. The laureates had been announced earlier this year (See previous Signpost coverage). First awarded in 2002, the prize "recognizes and encourages innovative and interdisciplinary research that cuts across traditional boundaries and paradigms. It aims to foster universal values of excellence, creativity, justice, democracy and progress and to promote the scientific, technological and humanistic achievements that advance and improve our world." The prize comes with US$1 million, ten percent of which goes to doctoral and postdoctoral scholarships.
In an interview (May 20) with the Jerusalem Post, the Post noted that "Wales wants Wikipedia to be an agent of change, and he believes it has the tools to help set oppressed societies free and bridge conflicts." Wales spoke of the progress and obstacles Wikipedia has faced in providing access to citizens of restrictive governments like Russia and China. Wales mentioned that a group of Russian and Ukrainian editors had peacefully met together despite the conflict between their two governments. He said "The overwhelming bulk of people in the world are perfectly nice people who wouldn’t do horrible things. So the possibility exists to create spaces where that overwhelming majority of perfectly sensible people dominate, and that’s the big lesson from Wikipedia – that people can collaborate, people can behave themselves."
Wales discussed some of the same themes in a May 18 op-ed in Haaretz written with Orit Kopel, CEO of the Jimmy Wales Foundation. They write about how "oppressive regimes" attempt to fight against the access to information brought to their citizens by the Internet and Wikipedia. The conclude:
| “ | The free flow of information is one of the key elements of a functioning democracy. The information revolution has granted us the opportunity to join forces and increase our collective power by sharing our knowledge. While many of us around the world enjoy the fruits of the information revolution, we must not leave behind the people who are still subject to oppressive regimes and are restricted from freely enjoying it. Ultimately, these are the people who need it the most. | ” |
The piece singles out Kazakhstan for specific criticism, noting that the government has the ability to "block websites and shut off communication networks without a court order" and restricted journalists from "publishing information about the corruption of public officials", and that bloggers and activists fear "government reprisal". In previous years, Wales has been criticized for alleged links to the Kazakh government after naming a government official the 2011 Wikipedian of the Year (see previous Signpost coverage). The Jimmy Wales Foundation, which has little Internet presence besides a LinkedIn page and a Twitter account, is dedicated to the "fight against human rights violations in the field of freedom of expression". It was formed following criticism of Wales' acceptance of the 2014 Knowledge Award from the United Arab Emirates, a government which, according to Human Rights Watch, "has continued to crack down on freedom of expression and association" (see previous Signpost coverage).
Similar issues came up in an article (May 18) from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about Wales' views and the encyclopedia's coverage of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Wales declared "I’m a strong supporter of Israel" for "all of the standard reasons — the support for freedom of speech is very important to me, the rights of women, proper democracy. You can support all those things while still having criticism of actions and policies that aren't good." Of course, Wales also supported presenting the issue neutrally on Wikipedia: "You present what all sides have said and leave it to the reader to come to the answer." G, AK
In brief
- "Health information for all": On the blog of the London School of Economics, Drs. James Heilman (Doc James) and Andrew West (West.andrew.g) write about how "Medical content on Wikipedia received 6.5 billion page views in 2013". G
- Age, a thing of the past: The Sydney Morning Herald mentioned (May 19) that Rebel Wilson's Wikipedia article has been edited multiple times after the dispute over her real age, 29 or 35, referencing articles from Mamamia and Woman's Day. The current version of the article states that she is 35, and the name Melanie Elisabeth Bownds has been removed as her birth name. J.S.G.
- Bing, the new Wikipedia: The SEM Post reported (May 19) that Bing is starting to integrate Wikipedia results with their search engine. It will from now on, on a test basis, display large portions from Wikipedia articles in their search results. Bing also successfully notes the license under which the content is released, CC-BY-SA. J.S.G.
- Media once again mistake editing for hacking: After a questionable performance by Australian referee Rohan Hoffmann Sport24 reported (May 19) that disgruntled fans of a team had gone to "hack" his Wikipedia page. It's becoming a trend among news outlets to believe that you need to "hack" Wikipedia to change it. J.S.G.
- WMF Legal honored: Corporate Counsel named the Wikimedia Foundation legal department one of the Best Legal Departments of 2015 (May 18). CC writes that the WMF's "legal department pioneers a practice in which its community is treated as co-counsel." G
- Aryan Wikipedia: Maclean's discusses Adolf Hitler's pop culture "afterlife" (May 18), focusing on Timur Vermes' satirical novel Look Who's Back. In the novel, Hitler concludes that Wikipedia "is obviously the Aryan work of Vikings, spelled with a 'W' in German." G
- A novel encyclopedia: The Seattle Times profiles (May 18) Christopher Robinson and Gavin Kovite, authors of novel War of the Encyclopaedists. In the novel, a graduate student and a National Guardsman keep in touch by editing a Wikipedia article about themselves. In the New York Times Book Review, Michiko Kakutani wrote (May 11) that the novel was "by turns, funny and sad and elegiac" but that the "strained Wikipedia conceit can be distracting". G
- UK election editing: The Sunday Times reports (May 17) on changes to the Wikipedia articles of politicians both before and after May 7's United Kingdom general election. The Times wrote that "Embarrassing details have been vanishing and accomplishments appearing." The article focused on changes made to the articles of politicians Maria Caulfield, Caroline Dinenage, Clive Lewis, Amber Rudd, and John Whittingdale. G
- Another premature obituary: Two months shy of his 90th birthday, a number of classical music websites and social media falsely reported the May 16 death of Swedish tenor Nicolai Gedda. That inaccurate fact was added to his Wikipedia article multiple times until it was protected. On May 18, Dr. Alejandro Martínez confirmed on Twitter that Gedda was still alive. G
- Smuggling Wikipedia: Quartz reports (May 15) on the efforts of HanVoice and the North Korea Strategy Center to smuggle into North Korea USB flash drives which contain, among other things, a compressed, static version of Wikipedia in Korean. A March article in Wired discussed such efforts at length (see previous Signpost coverage). G
- Election help refused: The Telegraph reports (May 15) that UK Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband had declined the help of Jimmy Wales, who offered his assistance with "digital strategy", including social media. G
- Wikipedia Space: The MIT Technology Review reports (May 15) on the efforts of Outernet to use communications satellites to provide access to information, including Wikipedia, to the world's poor.
- LeBron James owns the Chicago Bulls: ESPN reported (May 14) after users had vandalised the Bulls' article that LeBron own[ed] them. This relating to the game held that same day, where LeBron's team was outstanding, winning the game with 94–73. J.S.G.
- "Wiki holes": The Times of Israel describes (May 14) how a Wikipedia search for Judaism can lead you to know everything there is to know about the African dwarf frog. This is described as a so-called "wiki hole" where one can click on random wikilinks for hours and hours and end up on a completely different side of Wikipedia. J.S.G.
Discuss this story
Missing link
Jimmy Wales Foundation
Huh. Ok. " Jimmy Wales Foundation... was formed following...". But formed by whom? And for what purpose? The article fails to mention - is this Jimbo's imitative, or some trolling page (unlikely given that Jimbo has co-written something with its CEO), or what? In fact, the "what" makes for an interesting item for Signpost to investigate. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 05:14, 21 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Re Kazakhstan ...
See also last month's report in Eurasianet, "Wikipedia Founder Distances Himself from Kazakhstan PR Machine". The 2011 Wikipedian of the Year recently became a deputy governor in Kazakhstan, and heads a Brussels-based think tank – see "Jack Straw Slammed for Taking Job with Kazakhstan". Andreas JN466 11:04, 21 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Media once again mistakes hacking for illegal computer security breaking