[Foundation-l] London 7/7, and Wikinews

[Erik Moeller]

Dan,

you're absolutely right - the stories were a good example that Wikinews 
doesn't break under stress, and indeed, that it can provide reliable, 
well-sourced information even when faced with hundreds of anonymous 
edits (not to mention nefarious section editing bugs ;-). And I want to 
again publicly say thanks especially to you for being on the story right 
from the start. Everyone involved stayed cool and handled the situation 
very well.

I'll try to do some proper media analysis of this in my next State of 
the Wiki. One thing I do encourage everyone to do is to take a look at 
how the other citizen journalism sites are doing. Indymedia, at time of 
this writing, has no edited story about the attacks on its English or 
German homepages. OhmyNews International has a very brief summary and an 
opinion piece:

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=236274&rel_no=1
http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?menu=A11100&no=236341&rel_no=1&back_url=

The Korean version did a bit better, but of course I can't judge the 
quality of the content. The blogosphere did what it usually does in 
situations like this: hyperlink frantically and add uninformed opinions 
;-). It is very much possible that the most significant grass-roots 
"competition" in providing reliable information came from Wikipedia 
itself. But Wikipedia could not, unlike Wikinews, include original 
reporting directly from people in London, and its format is very different.

That being said, I do think everyone in the Foundation, up to the Board, 
is trying to raise the exposure of Wikipedia's sister projects. Indeed, 
Wikinews has benefitted immensely from its relationship to Wikipedia -- 
through cross-linking, press coverage, mentions in presentations and so 
on. Jimmy, Angela and Anthere all mention Wikinews when they talk about 
Wikimedia to journalists or to audiences. I therefore want to thank both 
the organization and the community for making the experiment that 
Wikinews is possible, and for supporting it as best as they can. You 
rock! :-)

I hope that the events of 7/7 will remind us that we are here to build 
something together which we all believe in, and that our small 
disagreements are insignificant compared to the ideas we all stand for, 
most importantly the open exchange of views and knowledge, and the 
belief that everyone should be allowed to freely shape and voice their 
own opinion. The Wikimedia community is, in my opinion, the vanguard of 
a new enlightenment, which stands in sharp contrast to whatever it was 
that motivated the killers of London.

Thanks, Dan, for showing us what matters most -- doing good work. Now, 
I'd really like to see an article about the political effects of these 
attacks. Have they had any impact on the decisions that were meant to be 
made at the summit? Have they harmed the process of debt relief and aid 
for Africa? I'll look to Wikinews and Wikipedia for answers in the 
coming days.

Best,

Erik