Friday, July 26, 2019

To avoid for a documentalist: incite to censor Wikipedia

What a librarian documentarian should, in my opinion, not do. According to an Australian blog and newspaper, a colleague from the Australian Library of Parliament did so, sending e-mails urging Australian MPs and senators to change their own biography in Wikipedia, with instructions for doing so. . She justified this by explaining that it is her job to help her "clients" to use ICT. She did not, however, deny having made the "edits" herself, but did not deny having written and sent this "cleaning" guide for Wikipedia.

To learn more, read:

The Original Info on an Australian Political Information Blog: Federal MP's Tutored In The Art of Cleansing Their Wikipedia Entry / Andrew Landeryou , The Other Cheek July 22, 2008
Politicians' Wiki entries altered / Asher Moses, Sidney Morning Herald July 25, 2008  [ 1 ]
Aussie politicians edit Wikipedia , Australian Associated Press July 25, 2008
more on http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User T ... .
It should be noted that Wikipedia has rules for authors on Wikipedia and that they establish that the articles must respect a neutral point of view and avoid conflicts of interest, our colleague having cited these rules only what suited him. Here's what she should * also * quote:

"Biographical material must be written with the greatest care and attention to verifiability, neutrality and avoiding original research, especially if it is contentious. "  [ 2 ]
" All Wikipedia articles and other encyclopedic content must be written from a neutral point of view, representing significant views fairly, proportionately, and without bias. "  [ 3 ]
" Do not edit Wikipedia to Promote your own interests, or other Those of Individuals, companies, or groups, UNLESS you are sure que la interests of Wikipedia REMAIN paramount. "  [ 4 ]
"Avoid writing or editing an article about yourself, other than to correct unambiguous errors of fact. [...] Writing autobiographies is discouraged because it is difficult to write a neutral, verifiable autobiography and there are many pitfalls. "  [ 5 ]
"  If Wikipedia already HAS an item about you, it is difficulty to write neutrally and Objectively about oneself (unconscious Biases). You should let others others do the writing. Contributing material or making suggestions on the article is considered proper - let independent editors write it into the article itself or approve it if you still want to make the changes yourself. "  [ 6 ]

Even though her employer asked her to write this "guide", she seems to me to have been "used" and to be, on an ethical level, a bit beyond her job. In my opinion, instead, and without even invoking the ethics of her profession, she could have:

quote the rules of Wikipedia, as I did above, and explain the spirit
to explain the media danger and the inanity of such efforts in the medium and long term, any repetitive or massive "edit" contest being often spotted and erased in the process, and sometimes publicly denounced. However any anonymous modification (it is generally the case) on Wikipedia is systematically "logged" with the IP address of the editor, one can thus often easily identify the structure  [ 7 ] for which the unscrupulous writers work, in particular, for those not registered, since the invention of WikiScanner . for the registered, one has the list of all their modif 'and there also it speaks ....
post on a blog to attract Internet users to "good" pages.

Hope you have found the article interesting and worth reading. Let me now bring you attention towards Wikipedia experts for hire where you can get wikipedia services from. Yes, these days you need an identity on wikipedia for your fans to know you.

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