As a college instructor, I constantly warn my students about (actually, I forbid them from) using Wikipedia as a research source. Since it’s a wiki, or open source, anyone can go in there and edit anything on Wikipedia.
Now, along comes CalTech student Virgil Griffith (whose e-mail address is at SantaFe.edu–go figure) and his Wikiscanner online feature to track down which corporation is editing the most at Wikipedia.
I just tried the scanner using “Disney” for my corporate input as I had heard the Mouse is a big abuser. Sure enough, there were scores of edits revealed coming from Disney servers.
If you play with Wikiscanner enough, you can dig down to see which articles on Wikipedia are being edited. You just click on one or more of the IP addresses revealed after you type in the corporate name. (You can also type in IP addresses, but you’d have to know those beforehand to use the feature.)
I wonder if Disney put out instructions for people to take charge of their bailiwicks and edit Wikipedia for the proper spin and hype.
Nah, I don’t wonder. I’m sure they’ve been so instructed!
Tags: Virgil Griffith
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