thanks Dante, Michel 2011/2/2 Dante-Gabryell Monson <[email protected]>
Writing history before, or as it happens... ?
" In the list of things that Wikipedia isn't there is a paragraph saying "Wikipedia is not a newspaper". Indeed, Wikipedia did not function here as a newspaper, but rather as a tool serving the organizers of the demonstrations. "
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Geert Lovink <[email protected]> Date: 2011/2/2 Subject: <nettime> Dror Kamir: Egypte, brûle-t-elle? To: [email protected]
Dear nettimers,
I wanted to share this story with you all. It ran on the Critical Point of View mailinglist that belongs to the Wikiresearch network with the same name. Dror Kamir is an Israeli Wikipedian with lots of knowledge of the 'region', and, like many in that part of the world, a colorful (online) personality and complex political agenda (as they say...).
Greetings! Geert
PS. somewhere in March-April the CPOV reader will be out. The publication reaches the final stage of copy-editing.
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dror Kamir <[email protected]> Date: 31 January 2011 7:55:41 PM To: [email protected] Subject: <CPOV> Egypte, brûle-t-elle?
Hi,
I suppose you have all noticed that Egypt is going through rough time, but I wonder if you looked into the history of the article about the events. It almost seems as if the article preceded the actual events. The article on the English-language Wikipedia is entitled "2011 Egyptian protests". It already exists in 39 languages (incl. English). In Arabic and Egyptian-Arabic it is entitled "The Egyptian Revolution of Wrath" (the demonstrations on Friday were called by the organizers "Friday of Wrath").
Now to the interesting part - The demonstrations were planned via FaceBook for about a week, and "D-Day" was Tuesday, 25 January (which is a public holiday in Egypt). The first version of the article on the English Wikipedia has a time stamp of 13:26 25 January 2011 (UTC I presume). The person who initiated the article is nicknamed "The Egyptian Liberal" and according to his userpage he is an Egyptian who lives in Dubai and speaks both Arabic and English as mother tongues. "The Egyptian Liberal" worked very fast to enrich the article, and it was practically written in the course of the events. In the list of things that Wikipedia isn't there is a paragraph saying "Wikipedia is not a newspaper". Indeed, Wikipedia did not function here as a newspaper, but rather as a tool serving the organizers of the demonstrations.
An equivalent article was initiated on the Arabic Wikipedia 3 and a half hours after its English counterpart. It was initiated by someone who apparently lives in Egypt, but "The Egyptian Liberal" joined him quite soon. The article on the Egyptian-Arabic Wikipedia emerged only on 28 January, two and a half days after its English and Arabic counterparts. It was initiated by a person who lives in Egypt, and he is also the main contributor, but "The Egyptian Liberal" had his share here too.
These are just my first observation, which I find interesting because it is, in my opinion, another stage of Wikipedia losing its encyclopedic characteristics.
Dror
בתאריך 31/01/11 17:07, ציטוט Maja van der Velden:
Define Gender Gap? Look Up Wikipedia’s Contributor List
In 10 short years, Wikipedia has accomplished some remarkable goals. More than 3.5 million articles in English? Done. More than 250 languages? Sure. But another number has proved to be an intractable obstacle for the online encyclopedia: surveys suggest that less than 15 percent of its hundreds of thousands of contributors are women.
More here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/business/media/31link.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&e...
Greetings,
Maja
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