Despite rumblings from Capitol Hill that the recently defanged SOPA legislation won’t see the light of day, Wikipedia announced today that it is joining the Black Out protest scheduled for January 18. More »
When the internet gets upset about something, it doesn’t sulk alone in IRC, a single felt-pen tear static on its cheek. No, it goes all-out. At the moment, it has GoDaddy in its sights, and with Jimmy Wales’s decision to find a new, non-GoDaddy home for Wikipedia, the internet has just fired one of its bigger weapons at the under-siege registrar. More »
You might recognise Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder, whose mug is often plastered atop his online encyclopaedia’s entries, giving you puppy dog eyes for donations. Or are they serial killer eyes? Or Abe Lincoln eyes? Or anything, really? Web design 911 emergency! More »
Is it flattering to have people mistake you for Julian Assange? That’s what happened to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, who confused UK border controls when they thought the Wikipedia man was notorious international man of mystery Assange. More »
Wikimedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has abruptly stepped down following a controversial porn purge that saw Wales himself single-handedly deleting questionable content from his company’s servers. More »
Is somebody out to get Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales? Just a few weeks after being embroiled in an accounting scandal, Wales has been accused of modifying Wikipedia entries in return for donations to the site.
Jeff Merkey, a former computer scientist at Novell, has said that, in return for US$5000 in donations in 2006, Wales agreed to modify Merkey’s Wikipedia entry to make it more flattering. Investigations have revelealed that Merkey did indeed make the donations and that Wales did modify the entry, but Wales is saying that the two things aren’t related.
In any case, $5000 seems like a lot of money to get a Wikipedia entry modified, given that anybody (including Merkey himself) could have made those modifications. We’re pretty sure we could find a few people willing to change an entry for considerably less money (we reckon $50 and a subscription to Playboy Online could probably get it done). [SMH]
• A new smart plug from the UK will reduce energy consumption by turning off gadgets that are turned on but not in use. [Daily Mail] • Wikia, an open-source search engine by Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, will launch on January 7. [Slashdot] • A mouthwash-like solution in development at Johns Hopkins can diagnose head and neck cancer from your spit. [Locker Gnome]
