Who Is Editing Wikipedia Anyhow?
While some Wikipedia entries or edits can prove to be humorous, or spark rumors that keep us all amused, it could actually be more interesting to see who is doing the editing & the occasional deleting.
What the world (wide web) needs is a method to determine if corporations and government bodies are intentionally trying to use Wikipedia to misinform people, or if most of the edits are from college students looking for a quick giggle.
Apparently such a tool already exists (who knew?), and it's called the Wikipedia Scanner:
What the world (wide web) needs is a method to determine if corporations and government bodies are intentionally trying to use Wikipedia to misinform people, or if most of the edits are from college students looking for a quick giggle.
Apparently such a tool already exists (who knew?), and it's called the Wikipedia Scanner:
“Wikipedia Scanner -- the brainchild of Cal Tech computation and neural-systems graduate student Virgil Griffith -- offers users a searchable database that ties millions of anonymous Wikipedia edits to organizations where those edits apparently originated, by cross-referencing the edits with data on who owns the associated block of internet IP addresses.”
So who is doing all the editing anyhow?
Last year it was discovered the members of Congress had edited their own entries, and the Wikipedia Scanner confirmed that it's still happening. But who else would bother editing their own entries? Corporations such as Diebold, Walmart, and even Microsoft, have all edited their entries.
Now that we know who, it's time for why. Many of the edits were simply done to add marketing blurbs, but that doesn't account for all of the activity. In fact, some of the edits would actually would fall into the 'deleting embarrassing facts' category.
Obviously any dictionary or encyclopedia is meant to be a a learning tool, and keeping legitimate information away from the masses who are eager to learn actually does users a genuine disservice.
Last year it was discovered the members of Congress had edited their own entries, and the Wikipedia Scanner confirmed that it's still happening. But who else would bother editing their own entries? Corporations such as Diebold, Walmart, and even Microsoft, have all edited their entries.
Now that we know who, it's time for why. Many of the edits were simply done to add marketing blurbs, but that doesn't account for all of the activity. In fact, some of the edits would actually would fall into the 'deleting embarrassing facts' category.
Obviously any dictionary or encyclopedia is meant to be a a learning tool, and keeping legitimate information away from the masses who are eager to learn actually does users a genuine disservice.
