Most people are familiar by now with the fact that Wikipedia is a huge encyclopedia, but that it suffers from occasional vandalism by users. And while we're often reassured that most vandalism on Wikipedia is usually fixed within minutes, how many of us knew that some Wikipedia vandalism emanates from the offices of the Wikimedia Foundation headquarters itself? Yesterday, on April 22, the Wikipedia criticism site, Wikipediocracy.com , published an investigative report that found numerous silly and even defamatory edits to Wikipedia that can be traced to IP addresses operated by the Wikimedia Foundation (owners of the servers that host Wikipedia itself).
Most corporate entities connect their office to the Internet via a central connection that establishes just one IP address for all of its employees (and visitors) to use. By doing so, though, it can lead to situations where one malicious employee or guest leaves behind the digital breadcrumbs that incriminate the whole company. In 2007, the media soaked up the data from Virgil Griffith 's Wikiscanner tool that caught various companies editing Wikipedia to make their articles appear more favorable to them. Even the lesser co-founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales once said:
“I think that anonymous (non-logged-in) editing is, on the whole, worthwhile. The delicious irony, of course, is that what is commonly called ‘anonymous’ editing is not particularly anonymous, as the whole wonderful Wikiscanner thing has shown.”
Well, now the tables seem to have turned on Wikipedia and its parent Wikimedia Foundation. Their office IP addresses have been up to no good on Wikipedia. One might suppose that a web-savvy leader like the Wikimedia Foundation would take utmost care in securing use of its publicly-viewable IP addresses to trusted employees and visitors to their headquarters, but the evidence suggests this might not be the case.
Offending edits by the Wikimedia Foundation
On April 2, 2008, someone from the Wikimedia Foundation’s IP address (208.80.152.185) manipulated the Wikipedia article regarding the bean to say:
They have a very distinct taste to them. They kind of resemble the smell of cat litter. They are really dark green like a crayon.
Two years later, on July 5, 2010, the Wikimedia Foundation changed the name of the East Bakersfield High School sports teams from “Blades” to “Masturbaters” . On January 6, 2012, the $40 million Foundation was busy editing the Wikipedia biography of Dom DeLuise to say:
Dom Deluise, he used to be a chef on T.V., but now he just sits at home with his ass up his ass!
That same day, someone at the WMF was at work on the bio of sports journalist, Rob Parker, whose Wikipedia article suffered from a days-long campaign to defame him. The Foundation's contribution to the "sum of human knowledge" about Parker?
In his free time, he enjoys blowing Oriental Sausage and shoving uncooked eggs up his anus.
Even as recently as August 2, 2012, the Wikimedia Foundation couldn't control the users of its headquarters IP address. On the very same day that senior director of grantmaking at the Wikimedia Foundation, Anasuya Sengupta , made an important announcement about the launch of a website for the Foundation's Funds Dissemination Committee, someone was working behind Sengupta’s back to update Wikipedia with this vital information:
Members of Generation Z are also the most likely to fight in the inevitable Zombie War.
With this disappointing level of information management at the Wikimedia Foundation, is it surprising that the executive director of the organization is stepping down soon? Not to worry, one of the Wikimedia Foundation's former chairmen of the board is offering to take over the position. His credentials?
"I confess that I do am afraid of the responsibility that the job means. And I know that I lack more skills that are needed for this job than I possess. Among others, I have no management and executive experience at all."
What could possibly go wrong?
NOTE: The Wikimedia Foundation did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication. We will update here if a response is received later.
via Examiner National Edition Gadgets & Tech Channel Articles http://www.examiner.com/article/many-vandalized-wikipedia-edits-traced-to-wikimedia-foundation-itself?cid=roadrunner