[LINK] Wikipedia editing by the Australian government

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

At 02:12 PM 24/08/2007, Tom writes:

> Channel 10 TV news interviewed me at 2pm as a representative of the ACS
> about the use of Wikipedia by the Australian government .. As an example
> a quick search found 3819 edits of Wikipedia by the Dpt Of Defence, Most 
> of these edits seem relatively uncontroversial.. the only issue would be 
> if this was a good use of a government agency's computer and staff time.

"The Department of Defence yesterday said it would ban defence staff from 
accessing the encyclopedia .. The most embarrassing edit was traced to the 
Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.." (quotes from the article below)

'Poo bum dicky wee wee' among PMC Wikipedia edits
By staff writers and wires, August 24, 2007 09:41am
<http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22299260-2,00.html>

Wikiscanner tracks 126 edits by PM's staff 
Changes often obscure, one vulgar 
See the full catalogue of PMC changes here 

BIZARRE, obscure, and poorly spelt contributions are among Wikipedia edits 
traced to the Prime Minister’s department – with one simply stating: “Poo 
bum dicky wee wee”. 

This morning The Sydney Morning Herald revealed staff at the Prime 
Minister’s department had been editing details on Wikipedia, including 
changing articles that were damaging to the government. 

But while some of the contributions are about national political affairs, 
many of the entries are related to matters such as guitar trivia, bird 
watching, and historical results of Serbian football matches. 

A new website, Wiki Scanner, traces the digital fingerprints of those who 
make changes to entries in the online encyclopedia. It has allowed the 
identification of edits by computers registered to the CIA and the Vatican.

The most embarrassing edit traced to the Department of Prime Minister and 
Cabinet (PMC) is an act of vandalism on a martial-arts related entry, in 
which the user wrote, “Poo bum dicky wee wee” on the page in an apparent 
test. (See it here.) 

Edits made by the PMC have enraged some of Wikipedia's notoriously 
humourless users. On the PMC's "Talk" page, one user even calls for a ban 
on edits by the PMC, saying it "has a history of pointless vandalism". 

Other entries include two edits, both with spelling mistakes, on the page 
related to mandatory detention in Australia. 

In June this year a user linked to the PMC removed a description of Peter 
Costello as “Captain Smirk”.

One of the more obscure edits is a single-digit correction to a soccer 
scoreline in a monster entry about fans of Serbian football club Red Star 
Belgrade.

Wikiscanner also identifies Department of Defence employees as the most 
prolific Wikipedia contributors in Australia. 

Wikipedia is promoted as the “free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”.

The Department of Defence yesterday said it would ban defence staff from 
accessing the encyclopedia.

Defence computers were found to have made more than 5000 edits to 
Wikipedia entries, including articles to the “9/11 truth movement”, the 
Australian Defence Force Academy and the Vietnam War-era Pentagon papers. 
--

Cheers, Tom
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia