Similar story also reported by the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8220220.stm
Before you shout, Mike's already been on to them to correct the "subsidiary"
wording.
Wikipedia to launch page controls
Jimmy Wales, Getty Images
The call for flagged revisions came from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales
The online encyclopaedia Wikipedia is on the cusp of launching a major revamp to how
people contribute to some pages.
The site will require that revisions to pages about living people and some organisations
be approved by an editor.
This would be a radical shift for the site, which ostensibly allows anyone to make changes
to almost any entry.
The two-month trial, which has proved controversial with some contributors, will start in
the next "couple of weeks", according to a spokesperson.
"I'm sure it will spark some controversy," Mike Peel of Wikimedia UK, a
subsidiary of the organisation which operates Wikipedia, told BBC News.
However, he said, the trial had been approved in an an online poll, with 80% of 259 users
in favour of the trial.
"The decision to run this trial was made by the users of the English Wikipedia,
rather than being imposed."
The proposal was first outlined by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales in January this year. It
was met by a storm of protests from Wikipedia users who claimed the system had been poorly
thought out or would create extra work.
'Lock down'
The two-month trial will test a system of "flagged revisions" on the
English-language Wikipedia site.
This would mean any changes made by a new or unknown user would have to be approved by one
of the site's editors before the changes were published.
Whilst the changes are being mulled over, readers will be directed to earlier versions of
the article.
Wikimedia said the system was "essentially a buffer, to reduce the visibility and
impact of vandalism on these articles".
There have been several high-profile edits to pages that have given false or misleading
information about a person.
For example, in January this year the page of US Senator Robert Byrd falsely reported that
he had died.
If a page has a number of controversial edits or is repeatedly vandalised, editors can
lock a page, so that it cannot be edited by everyone.
For example, following initial reports of the death of Michael Jackson, editors had to
lock down two pages to stop speculation about what had caused his death.
"For these articles, flagged protection will actually make them more open," said
Mr Peel.
The decision had been made to focus on the pages of living people, he said, because they
were the "most high-profile pages with the highest probability of causing harm".
"[The trial] may also be extended to organisations which are currently
operating," he added.
The system has already been in operation on the German version of Wikipedia for more than
a year.
The changes to the English language site - which now has more than 3m pages - will be
rolled out in the coming weeks, said Mr Peel.
The changes will be discussed in Buenos Aires this week at the annual Wikimania
conference.
----- "Keith Old" <keithold(a)gmail.com> wrote:
From: "Keith Old" <keithold(a)gmail.com>
To: "English Wikipedia" <wikien-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Tuesday, 25 August, 2009 08:06:05 GMT +00:00 GMT Britain, Ireland, Portugal
Subject: [WikiEN-l] New York Times: Wikipedia to Limit Changes to Articles on People
G'day folks,
The New York Times reports on flagged revisions:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/technology/internet/25wikipedia.html?part…
"Wikipedia<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/wikipedia/index.html?inline=nyt-org>,
one of the 10 most popular sites on the Web, was founded about eight years
ago as a long-shot experiment to create a free encyclopedia from the
contributions of volunteers, all with the power to edit, and presumably
improve, the content.
Now, as the English-language version of Wikipedia has just surpassed three
million articles, that freewheeling ethos is about to be curbed.
Officials at the Wikimedia
Foundation<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home>me>,
the nonprofit in San Francisco that governs Wikipedia, say that within
weeks, the English-language Wikipedia will begin imposing a layer of
editorial review on articles about living people.
The new feature, called “flagged revisions,” will require that an
experienced volunteer editor for Wikipedia sign off on any change made by
the public before it can go live. Until the change is approved — or in
Wikispeak, flagged — it will sit invisibly on Wikipedia’s servers, and
visitors will be directed to the earlier version. "
(More in article)
Regards
*Keith Old*
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