[WikiEN-l] David is on Channel 4 tonight re MS issue

[David Gerard]

On 26/01/07, Sage Ross <ragesoss+wikipedia at gmail.com> wrote:

> Check out this article:
> http://www.tmcnet.com/news/2007/01/26/2285485.htm
> Apparently Mathias Schindler has been in contact with MS, giving a
> different line.


Yeah - that's my first reaction, compared with Mathias' - and my -
second reaction. I'd file that article under "conflict is news."


> For what it's worth, I don't see that Microsoft did anything obviously
> wrong.  At this point, we definitely need a clear and responsive
> system for coordinating paid editing.  We've recognized for a while
> now that paid editing will happen.  It will definitely be in our best
> interest to set up a system to facilitate it and give a sense of
> fairness to entities like MS who want to do things above-the-board.


Yeah. When I first heard about this, I (and half the blogosphere and
the tech press and then the mainstream press) reacted "WHAT ON EARTH."
Then Mathias contacted Doug and Rick, and cc'd me in and I responded
too. As I said, I think this particular issue is pretty much resolved
- Doug is monitoring the talk page, there's a LOT of editor eyes on it
now and it'll be a much better article in a few weeks.

The issue is what happens for all the other cases.


- d.