Tag Archives: Wikimedia
Wikipedia’s AI can automatically spot bad edits
Wikipedia has a new artificial intelligence service, and it could make the website a lot friendlier to newbie contributors. The AI, called Objective Revision Evaluation Service (ORES), will scour newly submitted revisions to spot any additions that l...
Judge dismisses Wikimedia case against NSA as ‘hypothetical’
Remember that lawsuit the Wikimedia Foundation filed against the NSA earlier this year? It's not moving forward: The district judge presiding over the case has dismissed the lawsuit because the plaintiffs' allegations are based on "suppositions and...
German court says Wikimedia is liable for article contents after they’re published (updated)
The Wikimedia Foundation positions Wikipedia as a hub for unfettered knowledge, but it's now obligated to police that content in the wake of a newly published German ruling. Stuttgart's Higher Regional Court has determined that the organization is liable for Wikipedia articles. While Wikimedia won't have to screen content, it will have to verify any disputed passages and remove them if they're known to be false. The court isn't telling Wikimedia how to handle this verification, although the legal presumption of innocence will still apply. We're not expecting a chilling effect on Wikipedia given that takedowns will only be necessary in a handful of circumstances. However, it gives Wikimedia's moderators an extra level of responsibility -- they'll now have to pull some content quickly to minimize the chances of lawsuits.
Updated: Wikimedia has clarified the ruling. The court sees Wikimedia as a service provider that, on a basic level, isn't liable for content. However, the site will only maintain its immunity so long as it pulls any content that allegedly violates German laws. If it declines, it risks opening itself to legal action.
Filed under: Internet
Via: PCWorld
Source: Juris.de (translated)
Wikipedia accuses PR firm of posting biased entries for cash
Wikipedia has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Texas publicity firm Wiki-PR over its alleged practice of "sockpuppeting," or posting articles for pay that make its clients look good. The open-source encyclopedia launched an investigation last month into the practice, which is a strong violation of its terms of service. That revealed over 300 phoney accounts stemming from the PR outfit, which it allegedly used to create articles for its clients that appear to be from unbiased sources. Wikipedia lawyers also accused Wiki-PR of "meatpuppetry," or using false identities to advocate certain positions in its user discussion forums. The site has closed all the fake accounts, saying the practice harms its reputation, abuses the labor of volunteers and can actually hurt the reputation of Wiki-PR's client firms -- if they're exposed by the press. Meanwhile, Wiki-PR told The Independent that "it's working with the Wikimedia foundation and its counsel to sort this out." Judging by its name alone, though, it might have to throw out its entire business model to do that.
Filed under: Internet
Via: The Verge
Source: Wikimedia.org
Don’t miss Wikimedia, OLPC, Leap Motion, Voltaic and more at Expand NY!
We're getting more and more impatient waiting for Expand New York with every subsequent speaker announcement -- and we've got five more names to lay on you right now. This November, we'll be joined by Wikimedia's director of mobile, Tomasz Finc, Leap Motion's director of developer relations, Avinash Dabir, The One Laptop Per Child Association's chairman and CEO, Rodrigo Arboleda, founder / CEO of Voltaic Systems Shayne McQuade and Michael Carroll, a professor of law at American University Washington College of Law and founding member of Creative Commons.
And, of course, we've already announced a number of folks who will be joining us on November 9th and 10th, including LeVar Burton, Reggie Watts, Ben Heck, Peter Molyneux, Ben Huh and speakers from companies like Google, Sony, Pebble, Adafruit and The Electronic Frontier Foundation -- and we've still got more to come. Check out the full list below.
Filed under: Announcements
Source: Engadget Expand
Wikipedia mobile editing exits beta
The good folks at the Wikimedia Foundation have been toying with the concept of mobile editing for some time now, attempting to tap into the 15-percent of its user base who read the open encyclopedia on mobile devices. It's a growing segment of the population that includes potential readers in developing nations where handsets are far more prevalent than desktops. Of course, mobile editing has been a hard puzzle to crack, given the complexity of tools and the limitations of screen real estate on such devices, but Wikimedia's been toiling away with beta versions for a while, after mastering photo uploading. Now it's finally ready to open it up to all users with an account. For more info on getting started, peep the source link below.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software, Mobile
Source: Wikipedia
Wikipedia rolls out VisualEditor, lets you edit without the cumbersome markup
Making simple edits to a post on Wikipedia hasn't traditionally been an impossible undertaking, but Wiki markup (the syntax used to add and adjust formatting) wasn't nearly as intuitive as it could have been. And editors dropped like flies as a result of confusing tags and a generally frustrating workflow. Now, in an attempt to simplify the editing process dramatically, the site's management team is adding a brand new What You See is What You Get (WYSIWYG) tool called VisualEditor. Making corrections is now as simple as hitting "Edit" and typing in your changes -- intuitive buttons for text formatting, list creation and adding headings enable you to make pages look nice and consistent without a lot of work. Assuming you're using a recent version of Chrome, Safari or Firefox, manual page overhauls should take minutes, rather than hours.
Filed under: Internet
Via: The Next Web
Source: Wikimedia
The Weekly Roundup for 04.29.2013
You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
The Daily Roundup for 05.03.2013
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.