[Foundation-l] a funny story about wikipedia's strange power - Wikimedia-l

23 Aug 2011


      An interesting thing happened today. I started receiving frantic calls 
this morning from an officer at the National Gallery of Modern Art in 
Bangalore, who shall go unnamed. She had got my number from a colleague, 
who I met in the course of a GLAM meeting we organised earlier in the 
year. This officer was trying to claim exemption from lifetime road tax 
on her newly purchased car. (All central government employees are exempt 
from this road tax). The Regional Transport Authority office she went to 
refused to give her this exemption, on the grounds that the NGMA 
Bangalore was not listed as a central government office or agency on 
Wikipedia, either here: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_agencies#Ministry_of_Culture 
or here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Culture_%28India%29
(Additionally, NGMA Delhi and Mumbai were also not listed as 
agencies/offices of the Ministry of Culture).
Now that the problem has been solved, after about 30 seconds of editing, 
her bona fides as a central government employee will hold good for the 
regional government department she is trying to convince, and she will 
get the exemption she is entitled to.
It's funny how the world works...