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Wikipedia -- tracking down self-serving anonymous edits
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 09:50:39 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Mary Shaw <mary.shaw () gmail com> Date: August 19, 2007 11:12:10 AM EDT To: David Farber <dave () farber net> Subject: Wikipedia -- tracking down self-serving anonymous edits Dave,Although Wikipedia is not -- by its very nature -- an authoritative source, many people treat it as if it were.
Now the vulnerabiilty of Wikipedia to self-serving edits has been made more visible. Virgil Griffith, a grad student at Caltech, has created the Wikiscanner, which traces IP addresses of anonymous edits back to the organizations that hold the IP addresses.
Article from The Independent at http://news.independent.co.uk/ sci_tech/article2874112.ece has a long list of examples, such as "The National Rifle Association of America doctored concerns about its role in the increase in gun fatalities by replacing the passage with a reference to the association's conservation work in America. "
Article from New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/ technology/19wikipedia.html? em&ex=1187668800&en=550ef6c65ceb3535&ei=5087%0A gives other examples.
Wikiscanner web site at http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/ provides various sorts of search.
Mary ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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