Google agrees to pay for beefed-up Wikipedia service

Yahoo – AFP, June 22, 2022 

Google has agreed to pay for ramped-up Wikipedia services, part of a growing trend for the US tech giant to strike commercial deals with other web companies. 

The Wikimedia Foundation, the charity that oversees the online encyclopedia, said Google was the first paying customer for its commercial venture Wikimedia Enterprise, which it launched last year. 

The Internet Archive, a non-profit that runs a site called the Wayback Machine that saves snapshots of websites and is used to fix Wikipedia links, will be offered the commercial services for free. 

"We're thrilled to be working with them both as our longtime partners," said Wikimedia's Lane Becker in a statement on Tuesday. 

Wikipedia, one of the world's most visited websites, is free to use, updated by volunteers and relies on donations to keep afloat.

The new commercial venture will not change that arrangement for individual users, the foundation said. 

Google uses material from the site for its "knowledge panel" -- a sidebar that accompanies the main search results. 

The source of the information is not always shown, a practice that had sparked complaints from Wikimedia. 

The foundation said its new product gave customers a "feed of real-time content updates on Wikimedia projects" beyond what is available to the public. 

The product was "designed to make it easier for these entities to package and share Wikimedia content", it said in a statement. 

Google has previously given money to Wikipedia through donations and grants but the new deal puts their relationship on a more formal commercial footing. 

"We have long supported the Wikimedia Foundation in pursuit of our shared goals of expanding knowledge and information access for people everywhere," said Google's Tim Palmer. 

The foundation's statement did not reveal the value of the Google contract. 

Google has long had a troubled relationship with other websites -- it even attempted to create a rival to Wikipedia called Knol, though the venture failed. 

But the company has changed tack in recent years and is increasingly making deals, particularly with media companies. 

French regulators and Google ended a years-long dispute on Tuesday by agreeing a framework for the US firm to pay news outlets for content. 

Google said it had already made deals with hundreds of news outlets across Europe, Agence France-Presse among them.

Wikipedia founder tackles fake news with Wikitribune

Yahoo – AFP, Rob Lever, April 25, 2017

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, pictured in 2016, hopes to tackle fake
news with WikiTribune

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is launching a project aimed at reshaping the news media -- and tackling the scourge of misinformation -- using the same collaborative principles as the revolutionary online encyclopedia.

Wikitribune will rely on a broad online community of journalists and readers as fact checkers, a crowdsourcing model pioneered in the "wiki" system behind Wikipedia.

"The news is broken and we can fix it," reads the website of the project unveiled by Wales late Monday, describing itself as focused on "evidence-based journalism."

On Twitter, Wales called it "a news platform that brings journalists & volunteers together for fact-based articles with real impact."

"Wikitribune takes professional, standards-based journalism and incorporates the radical idea from the world of Wiki that a community of volunteers can and will reliably protect and improve articles."

The new service will be free, without advertising, relying on contributions from users in the same manner as the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation that operates Wikipedia.

It will ask supporters to subscribe for $15 per month and plans to hire at least 10 journalists to manage the site.

Wales told the BBC: "I think we're in a world right now where people are very concerned about making sure we have high quality fact-based information, so I think there will be demand for this."

Fake news emerged as a serious issue during last year's US election campaign, when clearly fraudulent stories circulated virally on social media, potentially swaying some voters.

Concerns have been raised since then about hoaxes and misinformation affecting elections in Europe; and internet firms have stepped up efforts to crack down on "click farms" and other systems that generate online ad revenue using made-up news stories.

Need for innovation

Jeff Jarvis, a City University of New York journalism professor who is an advisor to the project, said in a blog post he is "excited" about Wikitribune.

"I see the need for innovation around new forms of news," Jarvis said.

"The community of contributors will vet the facts, help make sure the language is factual and neutral, and will to the maximum extent possible be transparent about the source of news posting full transcripts, video, and audio of interviews."

Wikitribune's advisory group includes Jarvis, venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki and British actress Lily Cole, according to the website.

Jeff Howe, a journalist who coined the term crowdsourcing and now is a professor at Northeastern University, said this system can be positive for the news industry.

"I'm a big fan of crowdsourced verification," Howe told AFP. "It's a very well-tested principle."

Howe added that crowdsourcing at Wikipedia and elsewhere works best as a "hybrid" system, which is open to the public but with professionals managing the system.

But Howe said it remains unclear if Wikitribune can reach the people who are most susceptible to fraudulent news.

"Some people have already written off the mainstream media," he said. "I'm not sure if he (Wales) can reach those people in the margins."

Laura Hazard Owen, deputy editor of Harvard University's Nieman Journalism Lab, said it remains to be seen if the project will succeed.

"Good things can happen when a crowd goes to work on trying to figure out a problem in journalism," she said in a blog post.

"At the same time, completely crowdsourced news investigations can go bad without oversight... An entirely crowdsourced investigation with nobody to oversee it or pay for it will probably go nowhere."

Wiktory? Key sponsors abandon SOPA/PIPA after web blackout

RT.com, 19 January, 2012

AFP Photo / Stan Honda

Opposition to the controversial SOPA/PIPA legislation has caused a major stir among US lawmakers on both sides of the house, with 18 Senators, including seven co-sponsors, turning their backs on the legislation.

The turnaround by Senators who had previously supported the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), spearheaded by the by movie and music industries, puts the total number of Senators publicly opposing the bill at 25. Another 13 Senators are leaning toward opposition.

The number of Senators openly supporting the bill has dropped to 33. Of the 25 Senators opposing the legislation, 17 are Republicans and eight are Democrats.

The withdrawal of support came in the wake of Wednesday’s Internet blackout.

Politicians who abandoned SOPA as the strike hit include Republicans Marco Rubio, Kelly Ayotte, Roy Blunt, John Boozman, Ben Cardin and Orrin Hatch and Democrat Ben Cardin. Orrin Hatch of Utah announced on his Facebook page that he acknowledges that intellectual property theft is a “real and growing problem” that must be “combated”, but added that he cannot support the PIPA legislation as it currently stands.

“Rushing something with such potential for far-reaching consequences is something I cannot support and that is why I will not only vote against moving the bill forward next week but also remove my co-sponsorship of the bill,” Orrin Hatch said.

He added that legislators should allow time for the both sides in the conflict to come together and “find a reasonable solution”.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida also posted a message on his Facebook page saying he was in favor of combating piracy but believed doing so must not stifle innovation in a dynamic and open Internet. He urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to abandon his plan to rush the bill to the floor and instead called on Senators to “take more time to address the concerns raised by all sides, and come up with new legislation that addresses Internet piracy while protecting free and open access to the Internet.”

Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire posted her message on Twitter: “I'm pulling my support bc your concerns deserve consideration before Congress moves fwd.” Missouri Senator Roy Blunt also announced his change of heart via a Tweet: “We can find a solution that will protect lawful content. But this bill is flawed & that's why I'm withdrawing my support.”

The SOPA and PIPA bills are largely viewed as a means to crack down on out-of-the-US websites involved in violating intellectual property legislation.According to supporters of the bills, SOPA and PIPA will help protect jobs in the film and music industries.

In turn, those opposing the legislation, among them Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg, believe that it will have irreversible and far-reaching consequences, including for the economy and innovation.

“The Internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world,” Zuckerberg said on his Facebook page. “We can't let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the Internet's development. Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the Internet.”

A number of other popular Internet resources signaled their opposition to the bills on Wednesday, and many joined words and actions.

The Internet’s largest reference tool, Wikipedia, went black for 24 hours to protest the legislation, while Google blacked out its logo in US, directing people to a page where they could sign a petition against the bills. Google said the initiative had gathered some 4.5 million voices.

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Wikipedia blackout: 24-hour strike against SOPA, PIPA begins

Wikipedia blackout: 24-hour strike against SOPA, PIPA begins

RT.com, 18 January, 2012, 09:01

Screenshot from http://en.wikipedia.org

The Internet's largest and most popular general reference has gone dark. Wikipedia has joined a protest against something it believes is even darker: passage of the Stop Online Piracy and Protect Intellectual Property Acts.

SOPA and PIPA have not even made it to the Senate floor, but have already caused public outrage. Internet giants such as Google, YouTube, Yahoo, AOL and many others have likened the bills to China-style censorship. The bills, which are perhaps the most controversial pieces of proposed legislation in recent American history, were supposedly written to protect copyrighted material. But most believe the bills would cripple the Internet, effectively killing all websites allowing user-uploaded content, endangering potential whistleblowers and severely damaging online freedom of speech. And amid fears they will lead to unprecedented censorship, many web moguls are trying to take matters into their own digital hands.

Today’s blackout is the biggest act of defiance yet. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said on Twitter that the move “will be wow” and that he hopes “it will melt phone systems in Washington,” before urging followers to spread the word. The world’s 6th most visited website joins Reddit, TwitPic, Mozilla, WordPress and others in their protest – a decision that did not, according to Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner, come lightly.

Gardner said that “it is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both of these bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web. Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation.”

The press release went on to say that “the overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a 'blackout' of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.”

But while the move is most definitely a grand stand, will it do anything more than force students to do their homework early – and perhaps even reintroduce printed reference sources to the digital generation?

It might. The Obama Administration responded to an anti-SOPA and PIPA petition, claiming it “will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”

Which was taken by most to mean that these bills will never see life as laws, because all of the above is exactly what SOPA and PIPA do. But has that really ever stopped the US government from pushing through legislation deemed “important”? Look at the Department of Homeland Security's “See something, Say something” program, under which almost any action – including paying cash, buying waterproof matches and having discreet phone conversations in public – can be seen as potential terrorist activity. Look at the NDAA, which allows indefinite detention of anyone, including American citizens, suspected of terrorist activity.

So if you’re sitting there reading this, with some cash in your pocket and a website where someone may have posted something that may lead to something else that is potentially suspicious – expect the might of the US security and legal systems to knock – or bust through your door. They might not even have a warrant, having convenient access to the so-called ‘sneak-and-peak’ granted by the Patriot Act. Of course, those were also created to capture terrorists, but as we’ve established, we may all soon be branded as such because of a YouTube search.

Jokes aside, though – what about the arguments used to push the bill forward? Surely copyright infringement should be battled? And shouldn't the companies losing money everywhere because of pirated content be protected?

They should. But what SOPA and PIPA opponents are so upset about is that the bills are not specific enough; that they’re heaping all Internet users together and branding them as one step short of evil, instead of clearly defining what constitutes an illegal activity and how it can realistically be battled.

For now, however, most, including www.demandprogress.org founder and executive director Aaron Swartz, believe the Acts will change the rules for the Internet not just in the United States, but around the world.

“Under this bill, the rules totally change. It makes everyone who runs a website into a policeman. And if they don’t do their job of making sure nobody on their site uses it for anything that’s even potentially illegal, the entire site could get shut down – without even so much as a trial,” Swartz says.

So before the Acts become final, those in favor of an open information pool for the people are trying to make their final act count.

Katerina Azarova, RT

Related Articles:

Google: Help protect the web. Sign the petition against SOPA & PIPA

Twitter boss slams Wikipedia's 'silly' Sopa protest

Reddit admins announce January 18 blackout to protest SOPA
After SOPA Flip Flop, Did GoDaddy Thwart Efforts to Drop Domains?

GoDaddy Says It Doesn't Support PIPA Either, As Domains Keep Transferring Away

Google, Facebook warn against new US piracy legislation

Is internet access a human right?
Clinton and Rosenthal should practice what they preach

EU proposals erode internet freedoms

European Court of Justice rejects web piracy filter

EU vows to help online dissidents speak out

Protect IP Act Breaks the Internet from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.


The best Sopa protests online – in pictures

Vatican used Wikipedia for new cardinals' biographies

BBC News, 9 January 2012

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• Pope to shape College of Cardinals at consistory
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Pope Benedict (L) formally appointed
the new cardinals on 6 January

The Vatican has acknowledged that it used Wikipedia to produce biographies of 22 new cardinals that were sent out to journalists.

The biographies were copied from the Italian version of the user-edited online encyclopedia, word for word in some cases, and without attribution.

One clue was that many new cardinals were described as being "Catholic".

The Vatican says it was trying to help journalists and warned them the biographies were "unofficial".

The names of the 22 new cardinals from around the world were announced by Pope Benedict on 6 January.

The similarity between the profiles of them handed out by the Vatican and their Wikipedia entries was spotted by the Italian journalist and blogger Sandro Magister.

In the kind of language not normally used by the Vatican, a Dutch archbishop, William Jacobus Eijk was described as being "one of the most talked about religious men in the country".

This was because of his "strong leaning towards conservatism, especially with regard to abortion and homosexuality," the biography said.

A Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said his staff had no advance notice of the names of the new cardinals and had been in a hurry.

Official biographies are now being put up on the website of the Holy See.

Related Articles:

God no longer toll-free

"The angel's phone, at St John’s Cathedral, has just one button,"

the sculptor told journalists. "It directly dials God."

In a networked world, why is the geography of knowledge still uneven?