Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-10-16/In the news
Wikipedia in the news
Use of Wikipedia free image content
The NOAA, the BBC and the online news site PhysOrg.com have made use of images created by Wikipedians and released under GFDL, CC, or public domain licenses.
- Starting with Tropical Storm Chris, the NOAA began using the public domain track maps created using Jdorje's track map generator. A link to Wikipedia's 2006 Atlantic hurricane season is included, although the images are not identified as being from Wikipedia.
- In a BBC News online article on the new flag of Lesotho, the flag image is credited to Wikipedia and Zach Harden
- In an article on the unexpected results in experiments into elementary particles of matter, Physorg.com uses an image (uploaded by German user Aegon) from Wikipedia that illustrates the known particles using a penguin analogy.
Stanford newspaper doesn't want to be deleted
A recent effort to discuss deletion of a number of anonymously created articles upset the editors at The Stanford Review. The editorial discusses the deletion process and the efforts users put into what it calls "seemingly useless task," but credits Wikipedians with "often remarkably good" claims and correctly identifying opponents as having a self-interest in deletion.
Australian literature articles
An article by Jenny Sinclair (who has edited as User:Jenny Sinclair) in The Australian uses the lack of articles on notable Australian writers to explain how Wikipedia works, the nature of Wikipedia's "patchy, arbitrary" coverage, and the impact Wikipedia is having on the internet generation. After discussing the reasons Wikipedia has become a must use resource, Sinclair urges Australians to improve the Wikipedia articles on literature and signs off the article intending to "create that listing for Jessica Anderson."
Filipino coverage
The Philippine News implores readers to Try Wikipedia. After discussing the coverage of Filipino articles, the article discusses the "anyone can edit" policy, and the process of correcting questionable information. The author acknowledges being "involved in the act" of "debating whether or not certain points should be included or removed."
Al-Jazeerah
In an opinion piece, The French Definition Of a 'Genocide', PART TWO: Algerian Genocides, the Al-Jazeerah Information Center references the Wikipedia article on Accusations of French genocide against Algerians to provide background information about the conflict.
Other items
- Larry Sanger's Citizendium gets coverage in San Diego's Union-Tribune, The Financial Times and The Paramus Post.
- Online news/blog, Search Engine Roundtable, reports on a Wikipedia proposal to share link spamming information between Wikipedia and search engines.
- In How is Wikipedia for classical music?, Minnesota public radio acknowledges Wikipedia's help in finding trivia facts, but bemoans the spotty coverage.
- More coverage of Jimbo Wales' visit to India in moneycontrol.com and The Hindu.
- Wikipedia's claim that Juan Gabriel is "the most successful popular musician in the history of Mexican music" is quoted in an article covering the disappointing attendence at his concert in Portland, Oregon.
- Where users go after viewing Wikipedia pages is the topic in an article from webpronews.com.
- Another student news article, this time in Sacramento State's The State Hornet, discusses the acceptance of Wikipedia as a source for college papers.
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