Wikipedia Weekly: 16

It spent a while in the editing suite, but here it is. Enjoy

News

*Jimbo’s letter to New Yorker published

I am writing to apologize to “The New Yorker” and Stacy Schiff, and to give some follow-up concerning Ryan Jordan (Editors’ Note, March 5). When I last spoke to “The New Yorker” about the fact that a prominent Wikipedia community member had lied about his credentials, I misjudged the issue. It was not O.K. for Mr. Jordan, or Essjay, to lie to a reporter, even to protect his identity. I later learned more about the deceptions involved and asked Mr. Jordan to resign from his positions of responsibility at Wikipedia. He has since resigned from his position at Wikia as well. Mr. Jordan is a wonderful and thoughtful young man who made a series of very bad judgments. I consider him a friend, and I hope that the world will allow to move forward in peace and dignity to regain his honor through a life well lived. Wikipedia is built on trust and love. Our trust has been broken, and only love can rebuild it. The community has begun discussing a proposal of mine that we adopt some verification measures for claimed credentials, so that Wikipedia may further improve from this painful experience.

* Hiring of Bastique, Cary Bass
* Web 3.0 article gets attention
* Alex Beam’s column in the Boston Globe “My sticky Wiki” - Calls citizendium “Wikipedia with adult supervision”

Wikimania
* “Wikimania Lounge” ideas, Wikipedia Weekly hopes to go to Taiwan

Michael Eisner’s New company “Vuguru” - live article-creation

Wiki Industry

* Gaming Wikia and other sites launched - Interview with Angela Beesley
* Danny Hillis Freebase
* Citizendium update, response to criticisms

The World According to Wikipedia

* More 300 (film) popularity
* 18. Saint Patrick’s Day
* 24. Sinbad (actor)

Cultural Moment

*”Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carrol

 

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Minor Delay

Sorry everyone, it’s exams / brutal week and editing is taking a little longer than usual. We’ll post as soon as we can as well as try and get to a regular release schedule (perhaps every Wednesday) instead of pushing stuff when it comes out.

Wikipedia Weekly: 15

This episode sees Liam, known as Witty Lama, catching up with Rama’s Arrow and Ragib to talk about contributing to Wikipedia from and Indian and Bangladeshi perspective. Topics include their growing collection of Featured Articles, the success of the Indian WikiProject, the difficulties of Wikipedia usage in South Asia and local-community projects which use Wikipedia

 

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Wikipedia Weekly: 14

We’re back with another episode of Wikipedia Weekly. In this edition:

• We wrap up the Essjay affair, as the famous Wikipedian cuts ties to the online encyclopedia.
• A look at the Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year Competition, which finished earlier this week. In addition, all the Featured Pictures of 2006 are available as a bittorrent download.
• The new “Username Usurpation” feature at the English Wikipedia.
• Jimmy Wales travels to India for the recent Indian WikiCamp, and narrowly survives an attack of ninja monkeys.
• One thousand Featured Articles at the German Wikipedia.
• 300 Spartans.

See the full show notes for a more detailed rundown.

 

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Wikipedia Weekly: 13

Breaking News

* Daniel Brandt deletion debate.
* Slate article about author being deleted Timothy Noah. [1]
* Jason Calacanis gives three examples on how Wikipedia prevents community participation[2]: lack of WYSIWYG editors in articles and discussion pages, and extensive use of IRC. Calacanis.com
* Who knew that the internet/computers has a patron saint - Isidore of Seville!? [3]
* The new Wikipedia:Featured sounds and relatively new Wikipedia:Featured topics processes. Positive steps in the drive for quality.

 

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Episode 12: Essjay (special episode)

This is a re-record of the episode that didn’t make it. To be very brief, we cover the Ryan Jordan / Essjay situation.

At 12:30 (min in) is a must listen.

 

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Episode 12

We recorded, and well, the recorder didn’t.  We’ll see what we can do.