Morning. The Australian foreign minister, Mr Alexander Downer, has been quoted as stating that Wikipedia is "anti-government". He also seems to be quite misinformed about how Wikipedia works. Perhaps the Foundation should contact Mr Downer's office to correct these misunderstandings.
Reference:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22300575-2,00.html
Cheers,
Rob
On 24/08/07, Robert Brockway robert@timetraveller.org wrote:
Morning. The Australian foreign minister, Mr Alexander Downer, has been quoted as stating that Wikipedia is "anti-government". He also seems to be quite misinformed about how Wikipedia works. Perhaps the Foundation should contact Mr Downer's office to correct these misunderstandings. Reference: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22300575-2,00.html
Transcript:
http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/transcripts/2007/070824_media_conference.h...
It's fairly clear he was floundering and didn't have a clue. (Springing stuff on Alexander Downer and watching him flounder brings to mind proverbs about fish, barrels and shooting.) It's not quite the ringing condemnation of the headline.
There's some discussion on the wikimediaau-l list about finding reasonably reliable Australian volunteer contacts for Wikipedia and Wikimedia, though I'm not sure if someone's specifically volunteered to contact his office.
- d.
On 8/24/07, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 24/08/07, Robert Brockway robert@timetraveller.org wrote:
Morning. The Australian foreign minister, Mr Alexander Downer, has been quoted as stating that Wikipedia is "anti-government". He also seems to be quite misinformed about how Wikipedia works. Perhaps the Foundation should contact Mr Downer's office to correct these misunderstandings. Reference: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22300575-2,00.html
Transcript:
http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/transcripts/2007/070824_media_conference.h...
It's fairly clear he was floundering and didn't have a clue. (Springing stuff on Alexander Downer and watching him flounder brings to mind proverbs about fish, barrels and shooting.) It's not quite the ringing condemnation of the headline.
It looks like a not very web savvy person answering the questions fairly legitimately if slightly overplaying some of what goes on behind the scenes.
A few errors but nothing serious. Wikipedians tent to react badly to almost any authority which could well qualify as "a bit anti-government".
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org