Microsoft Wikipedia row
p2pnet.net News:- Bill and the Boyz admit they tried to pay well-known writer Rick Jelliffe to alter the content in a Wikipedia post.
Jelliffe is an Australian programmer and standards activist (ISO, W3C, IETF), particularly associated with web standards, markup languages, internationalization and schema languages, says the Wikipedia.
As well as his work with ISO SC34 and the original XML group at W3C, Jelliffe was a, “sporadic member of the W3C Schema Working Group and the W3C Internationalization Interest Group,” says an O’Reilly biography.
Anyone can create and massage a Wikipedia article but as the Canadian Press points out, “founder Jimmy Wales and his cadre of volunteer editors, writers and moderators have blocked public-relations firms, campaign workers and anyone else perceived as having a conflict of interest from posting fluff or slanting entries.
“Paying for Wikipedia copy is considered a definite no-no” and, “We were very disappointed to hear that Microsoft was taking that approach,” Wales is quoted as saying.
Microsoft, “acknowledged it had approached the writer and offered to pay him for the time it would take to correct what the company was sure were inaccuracies in Wikipedia articles on an open-source document standard and a rival format put forward by Microsoft,” says he story
Spokesperson Catherine Brooker said Microsoft and Jelliffe hadn’t determined a price, “and no money had changed hands, but they’d, “agreed that the company would not be allowed to review his writing before submission,” says the CBC.
“Brooker said Microsoft had never previously hired someone to influence a Wikipedia article.”
Meanwhile, “I was a little surprised to receive email a couple of days ago from Microsoft saying they wanted to contract someone independent but friendly (me) for a couple of days to provide more balance on Wikipedia concerning ODF/OOXML, says Jelliffe on his blog, going on:
I am hardly the poster boy of Microsoft partisanship! Apparently they are frustrated at the amount of spin from some ODF stakeholders on Wikipedia and blogs.
I think I`ll accept it: FUD enrages me and MS certainly are not hiring me to add any pro-MS FUD, just to correct any errors I see. If anyone sees any examples of incorrect statements on Wikipedia or other similar forums in the next few weeks, please let me know: whether anti-OOXML or anti-ODF. In fact, I already had added some material to Wikipedia several months ago, so it is not something new, so I`ll spend a couple of days mythbusting and adding more information.
Just scanning quickly the Wikipedia entry for OOXML, I see one example straight away: The OOXML specification requires conforming implementations to accept and understand various legacy office applications . But the conformance section to the ISO standard (which is only about page four) specifies conformance in terms of being able to accept the grammar, use the standard semantics for the bits you implement, and document where you do something different. The bits you don`t implement are no-one`s business. So that entry is simply wrong. The same myth comes up in the form “You have to implement all 6000 pages or Microsoft will sue you.” Are we idiots?
Wikipedia lawyer Brad Patrick says Microsoft’s actions were unethical, says Ars Technica, continuing:, “Patrick feels that this ordeal puts both Microsoft and Wikipedia in a harsh light. ‘This is a hot issue, and Microsoft wanting to soften the edges on an entry raises concerns about the perceived independence of both Wikipedia and Microsoft’.
“A Microsoft spokesman said that the company tried to change the Wikipedia articles on its own, but the edits were refused. “At that point, we realized we needed to enlist some help,” he said.”
Stay tuned.
Also See:
Canadian Press – Microsoft catches heat over offer to pay for Wikipedia edit, January 23, 2007
blog – An interesting offer: get paid to contribute to Wikipedia, January 22, 2007
Ars Technica – Microsoft asks blogger to “balance” Wikipedia entry, offers compensation, January 23, 2007
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