On 8/9/06, Rob <gamaliel8(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Well, there's a natural reaction to anything
that looks like corporate
advertising, but I wouldn't call it a "bias against corporations".
I don't see anything inherently wrong with MyWikiBiz, esp. since they
are pretty open about what they're doing. But I also don't think
Wikipedia's mission is served by cluttering up the place with articles
on every small consulting firm in the US. This corporation has only 26
employees and the only citations are a local business journal. Is
this really a significant enough company to make it into an
encyclopedia?
That definitely depends on what your definition of "significant
enough" is. If we had room for only 10 corporations, I would say no.
But we're not pressed for space, and unlike pure vanity articles (my
name is Jim and I have a dog called Nelly!), this type of article
meets a genuine need.
I think there is a valid viewpoint that says "Wikipedia is the sum of
human knowledge, except for a bit of total dross that doesn't interest
anyone". However, a genuine company with 26 full time employees that
has been around for 5 years and does some interesting things at the
global level is not such dross.
Purely and simply, is Wikipedia better off *with* this information
than *without* it? If the answer is "without", then why? Because we
saved a couple of kilobytes?
A case could be made that this is just as much a vanity article as a
personal bio. It's not just the number of employees that makes it
insignificant for encyclopedic purposes. If it was indeed doing
things interesting enough to be of encyclopedic note, someone other
than the local Charlotte Business Journal would be writing about them.