Re: [Wikimedia-l] COI editing by WMF staff

-- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae On 16 April 2014 22:03, Russavia russavia.wikipedia@gmail.com wrote: > Hi all, > > I just wanted to find out what the stance of the WMF is on the issue > of WMF employees and contractors editing articles on themselves, or > fellow employees, in direct contravention of COI guidelines? Is this a > practice that is officially frowned upon? > > Whilst researching the Belfer fiasco I came across User:Wikitedium. > The contributions[1] lead me to believe that isn't just a normal > editor but one who has an ingrained conflict of interest, and it is > pretty clear that the editor is Zack Exley, who is the former WMF > Chief Financial Officer. > > In April 2006, Exley added links to rootsprimary.org to the 2008 US > Presidential election article.[2] Whilst rootsprimary.org no longer > exists, it's archived version states: "Who's doing this?: Just me, > Zack Exley, and a couple of friends."[3] > > In August 2006, Exley created the article on himself.[4] Over the > years, Exley made numerous edits to this article. In December 2009, > Exley created the article on Argentine Middle School[5], which is in > Argentine, a community of Kansas City, Kansas. Exley at the time (so > it appears) lived in Kansas City, Missouri.[6] In March 2010, Exley > wrote himself into the "Smart mob" article.[7] > > In March 2013, Exley created a "nice little article about a notable > Springfield coffee shop"[8] -- the coffee shop being in Springfield, > Missouri, which is another place that Exley appears to have > resided.[9] > > Whilst the edits relating to himself were done before he joined the > WMF, his article looks like a standard puff piece which is discouraged > -- it uses WMF press releases, articles on ThoughtWorks which only > mention him in passing[10], a self-authored article on > motherjones.com[11]. Exley's only real claim to fame is that George W. > Bush once called him a "garbage man".[12] > > I had a look at Exley's Linkedin profile[13] which appears to begin in > 1987-1988 when he was at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and is > current up to the present time, and correlated these to Wikitedium's > other edits, and couldn't see anything else of major concern. > > What does concern me, however, is that there was a steady stream of > WMF staffers/contractors who have edited Exley's wikibio. Although, > the edits themselves may not seem to be worrisome, the fact that the > puff nature of the article was not picked up on by these staffers is > troubling. Also, given that the WMF and the community in general is > against COI editing, these edits, as innocent as they are, should not > be done by WMF staffers, but rather by others who don't have any > perceived COI. > > Could the WMF and the BoT perhaps clarify whether COI editing amongst > WMF staff/contractors is officially discouraged/forbidden, and whether > there is something official in writing which lays out guidelines for > how and when WMF staff/contractors should be editing articles relating > to their fellow WMF'ers. > > Cheers > > Russavia > > > [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Wikitedium > [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=United_States_presidential_electi... > [3] http://web.archive.org/web/20060423010423/http://rootsprimary.org/ > [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zack_Exley&action=history > [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Argentine_Middle_School&actio... > [6] http://keywiki.org/index.php/Zack_Exley > [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Smart_mob&diff=prev&oldid... > [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Coffee_Ethic&action=histo... > [9] https://clarity.fm/zackexley > [10] http://www.chicagobusiness.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=9999100029386 > [11] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2000/12/organizing-online > [12] http://web.archive.org/web/20060704033659/http://www.tjcenter.org/past2000.h... > [13] http://www.linkedin.com/in/zackexley > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe