iOS app update
Wikipedia’s mobile app is improved with a a cleaner design that has a short descriptor of the topic at the top of the screen. Many articles are now also preceded by a large image, giving the app more visual interest. The apps search functionality is improved. Each article now has a section at the bottom that connects readers to other information on the topic at hand. An enhanced image viewer allows swiping through images. A “Share a Fact” feature allows users to share images overlaid with text from an article to social media.
60 Minutes: Wikimania
The site is profiled on CBS’ 60 Minutes, in a segment called Wikimania, hosted by Safer. Safer asks about the origins of the site, the who the readers are:
In general I would say we’re a lot of geeks. A lot of tech geeks. A lot of people who are really passionate about information.
Gardner on Wikipedia’s Gender Gap:
Women are less likely to kinda geek out at their computer for 10, 20, 40 hours. I mean, there’s a reason that the stereotype of the hacker is a guy in a filthy T-shirt eating Doritos, right? Like, that’s hard. A woman is less likely to get social permission to be in a dirty T-shirt eating Doritos.
Wales, on running the site as a charity:
It just felt right that we should be a charity, free knowledge for everyone. So that’s always been our philosophy…If we were ad supported, we would always be thinking about, well, gee, look at all these people reading about Elizabethan poetry. There’s nothing to sell them. Let’s try to get them to read about hotels in Las Vegas, or something like this. And we don’t. We just don’t care.
Russia to produce own Wikipedia
Russia’s presidential library says the country has begun producing its own alternative to Wikipedia, to provide more ‘detailed and reliable’ information about the country for Russian citizens. The library says it has analyzed Wikipedia:
Analysis of this resource showed that it is not capable of providing information about the region and life of the country in a detailed or sufficient way. The creation of an alternative Wikipedia has begun.
It isn’t known if access to Wikipedia in Russia will be affected.
Wikipedia article gets 17m views
The online encyclopedia’s article about Ebola has been viewed around the same number of times in the last month as the WHO’s Ebola fact sheet, and the Ebola pages of WebMD and the Mayo Clinic. Wikiproject Medicine founder Dr. Jacob de Wolff, who is an internist at Northwick Park Hospital in London:
It is because Wikipedia is such a recognized brand — obviously the C.D.C. is still much more authoritative than we will ever be — that people will click on that link
Lists ‘right to be forgotten’ pages
0 CommentsThe Wikimedia Foundation objects to the “right to be forgotten” European Union court ruling by making a page that contains a list of the results from Wikipedia that are removed from Google. They say that results may also be removed from other search engines but if so, they do not provide proper notices:
We are not aware of other search engines’ processes or the number of requests they are receiving and granting. Search engines may not provide proper notices, so we appreciate the companies who share our commitment to free speech and transparency. Compelled censorship is unacceptable, but compelled censorship without notice is unforgivable.
Wiki page ‘vandalized’
The Israel Defence Forces Wikipedia page is edited multiple times by several users in what editors describe as possible vandalism, related to the 2014 Gaza conflict. Wikipedia user TSKAero changes biographical information:
The Israel Defence Forces […] commonly known as the bunch of people randomly and unrepentantly murdering innocent Palestinian civilians. Their ass is protected by the United States of America, (Nazi) Germany and France who supply them with military equipment
The changes by TSKAero are reverted by user C.Fred.