Mediaboss Marketing

Maryana Iskander may have one of the least-understood jobs in all of tech. As the chief executive officer of the Wikimedia Foundation, she oversees hundreds of thousands of volunteers and a website that pulls in more traffic than Amazon, Netflix or LinkedIn.

Yet her 600-employee organization humbly raises funds to keep operating, she does not have authority to control the mighty volunteer workforce, and anyone can edit the popular website sometimes with malicious and mischievous content.

Iskanders job is a paradox, and so is she. She was born in Cairo but grew up a Texan. She has impressive educational bona fides, a Rhodes scholarship and a Yale law degree, but she downplays her credentials. She works from San Franciscos Financial District but has a home in Johannesburg, South Africa.

She is still relatively new. She took the helm at the Wikimedia Foundation at the beginning of 2022, previously serving as CEO of a South African youth employment nonprofit, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator.

The Examiner sat down with Iskander in her office with a sweeping view of the San Francisco skyline to learn more about how Wikipedia works, what its like to lead it, and how she sees the job.

Are you the boss of all of Wikipedia? No. I am the CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, which is an integral part of supporting Wikipedia, but actually, hundreds of thousands of volunteers all over the world are the people who make Wikipedia what it is.

Whats the Wikimedia Foundation? The Wikimedia Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports not only Wikipedia, but other free knowledge projects. And being a nonprofit organization means that all of this content can be provided for free, and without ads, and in a way that feels pretty different from how other platforms operate.

Isnt Jimmy Wales the head of Wikipedia? I would say Jimmy Wales is both the founder and the spirit of Wikipedia. Jimmy continues to be part of the story of this thing thats grown beyond even his wildest imagination.

You said theres hundreds of thousands of volunteer editors. So how many people get paid and are professional editors of Wikipedia? Wikipedia is written by volunteers, unpaid people helping the rest of us make sure that we find information on the internet that is accurate and verified and cited and sourced. There are employees of the Wikimedia Foundation that provide support to these communities and volunteers, but the volunteers themselves are not paid staff.

What does the foundation do? It does a few important things. The most important is provide the technology and support the servers that allow Wikipedia to operate as one of the top 10 websites in the world. We also provide support to local communities all over the world through grants and capacity-building that is the free knowledge movement. And we provide legal litigation and advocacy that keeps free knowledge available and accessible.

How many people work for the foundation and where is it headquartered? Although the foundation is a U.S. nonprofit with San Francisco headquarters, I would describe it as a highly global organization. We have roughly 600 people scattered across over 40 countries and every region of the world. And I think that the diversity of our staff makes us a really good partner to the global community that we serve.

So are there other Wikipedias besides English-language Wikipedia? That is one of my favorite questions because Wikipedia is the most multilingual project in the world and on the internet. Wikipedia exists in over 332 languages. They vary in size, depending on how volunteer communities grow those Wikipedias. But 89% of all the articles on Wikipedia are not in English.

Why does Wikipedia have banners on its website asking people to give money? Theyre a small invitation for folks who find value in Wikipedia to chip in and ensure that this can remain as it is: An enterprise that doesnt rely on selling you anything with ads. Im not incentivizing you to stay longer than you need to stay.

Some volunteers are extremely devoted, and there are big gatherings where they come together. Is Wikipedia a cult? I dont think its a cult. I think its like a highly committed subset of humanity that comes from all walks of life, every corner of the world, and somehow finds a common cause in the idea of making free knowledge available to everybody. I think its the most extraordinary digital community in human history.

Since anyone can edit Wikipedia, doesnt it mean all kinds of stuff is wrong up there? There are many built-in mechanisms that help us try to make sure accurate and verified content is on Wikipedia. Sources have to be cited and verified. We have both human and machine tools to identify vandalism, which is usually taken down within minutes, certainly on high-profile topics.

Lets shift gears a little bit more to the personal. Is it a large personal responsibility to lead the nonprofit that manages such a powerful project? I think about that every day. The world is a complicated place, and many societies are polarizing right now. The remarkable thing about Wikipedia is that its a place people can come to disagree in order to get to a better answer. And actually, the opportunity to debate creates more neutrality and the opportunity for people to express differences of opinion and have to talk it out and again, provide the citations and provide those verifiable sources. I think it is an antidote to what were seeing with misinformation and disinformation around the world.

Do you worry about editors in Ukraine who are telling the truth about whats going on in the war and might face oppression? That is maybe the most visible and poignant of many situations where people in the world have to fight for free knowledge and put themselves at risk. Providing support and safety to volunteers and staff is our highest priority. You wrote about both Ukrainian and Russian volunteers trying to preserve information and free knowledge. That reminds you why being able to record history as its happening is one of the most important applications of Wikipedia.

What kind of student were you in school? Were you studious? Did you love to delve into encyclopedias? I come from a family of immigrants who you know often say came to America at a time when America was welcoming of immigrants and maybe a different way than its been in these past few years. And I think that the one thing I understood from my parents is that in America at that time, if you studied hard and you work hard, you know, America was going to give you opportunity. And I think that I really took that to heart.

Youre a Rhodes scholar who went to Yale Law School. Im sure those diplomas are impressive. Why dont I see them on the walls of your office? At the end of the day, you gotta get the job done. And we dont always have equal opportunities to go to fancy schools. It doesnt matter in the end if you cant get the job done.

The best institutions are the ones that allow people to unleash their potential, which is what Wikipedia is all about. That potential might be their curiosity to read an article, or edit articles related to a topic theyre interested in. Or take part in another Wikipedia-related project. Theres a home for them, and theyre welcome.

Read more:
What does the CEO who oversees Wikipedia do? We ask her. - San Francisco Examiner

I loved Shaun Cammacks piece about the opinionated side of Wikipedia (Wikipedias righteous, opinionated, utterly absorbing fight over the truth, Ideas, July 10), but his conclusion that it has the same problems as any other social media platform and therefore should be avoided gave me whiplash.

It seemed like a stirring defense of Wikipedias principles forcing users to get on the same page and reach a common understanding, despite their differences in opinions, is the remedy for misinformation and polarization. Rather than lumping Wikipedia in with the other social media platforms, we should be encouraging other platforms to take a page out of its book to foster cooperation and fight disinformation.

I also disagree with his assertion that the site isnt aesthetically pleasing. It is one of the few sites that I actually find enjoyable to browse on my phone.

Daniel Houwen

Jamaica Plain

See the article here:
Wikipedia could be the remedy for polarization - The Boston Globe

Bitcoin [BTC] is back above $23,000 for the first time since 13 June, thanks to a strong bullish performance in the last seven days. Eagle-eyed BTC enthusiasts may have noticed that the latest rally pushed Bitcoin out of its narrow range where it had been locked for four weeks.

The next critical level for BTC to contend with is above $28,000. However, are market conditions in favor to drive the coin to its next critical level? Lets find out.

Bitcoins latest performance suggests that investors are now dealing with the fear of missing out on Bitcoin.

Additionally, the Fear and Greed index was at 31, which still stands in the fear territory, but can be considered a massive improvement from last month.

For context, the same index was in the extreme fear territory and stood as low as nine roughly four weeks ago.

However, an improvement in the score doesnt necessarily mean there is enough demand to push BTC back to previous levels.

There were heavy outflows from 3IQ Coinshares and Purpose BTC ETFs during Bitcoins sharp crash in the second week of June. The same ETFs have maintained relatively low activity since then, but their accumulation would likely fuel recovery to May levels.

We have to factor in that strong demand may also come from elsewhere. Exchange inflows and outflows may provide a rough idea of the level of demand for Bitcoin currently in the market.

As per data from Glassnode, exchange outflows increased from 14,542 BTC to 42,390 BTC between 16 and 19 July. On the other hand, exchange inflows increased from 16,313 BTC to 39,329 BTC during the same period.

Exchange outflows have notably been higher than inflows. However, the gap between exchange inflows and outflows was relatively small at press time.

This suggests that BTCs demand might not be as pronounced. Despite low demand, the good news is that whales have been accumulating Bitcoin in the last few days.

The number of addresses holding more than 10,000 BTC stood at 99 addresses as of 19 July. This represents an increase of three addresses from 4 July.

The only time that Bitcoin had a higher number of addresses worth over 10,000 BTC addresses was during the mid-June dip. Perhaps this is a sign that whale sentiment is improving at current price levels, likely after waiting for the worst to pass.

However, Bitcoin still has a lot of ground to cover to get back to May levels, even after its latest rally. There is bound to be some profit taking along the way.

Go here to see the original:
Bitcoin: What Wikipedia wont tell you about BTCs recovery to May levels - AMBCrypto News

Incredible.Totally Made Up

A mysterious Chinese Wikipedia contributor who goes by the alias "Zhemao" spent ten years making up fictional accounts of Russian history, writing over 200 articles, and contributing to hundreds of others, Chinese English-language publication Sixth Tone reports.

Wikipedia editors have since noticed the falsified accounts after ten years of unknowingly hosting their contributions and promptly bannedthem from the online encyclopedia.

The web of lies Zhemao created is an astonishing body of work in and of itself, albeit entirely made up. Their contributions range from fictional accounts about Slavic rivalries to stories about Qing Dynasty officials a dizzying mishmash of fantastical fiction and history worthy of a series of fantasy novels. At the end of the day, you gotta respect the hustle.

It's also a colorful reminder of the fact that we can't take everything we read online for granted, particularly when it comes to often dubiously sourced Wikipedia entries.

And that's particularly relevant, given China's problematic history with controlling the historical narrative using propaganda (in fact, Sixth Tone itself is overseen by the Chinese government).

"Chinese Wikipedia entries that are more detailed than English Wikipedia and even Russian Wikipedia are all over the place," fantasy novelist Yifan, who stumbled upon Zhemao's fictional Wikipedia contributions, wrote in a Q&A online, as translated by Sixth Tone.

"Characters that dont exist in the English-Russian Wiki appear in the Chinese Wiki, and these characters are mixed together with real historical figures so that theres no telling the real from the fake," he added.

After Wikipedia noticed the ruse, Zhemao published a public apology.

"As the saying goes, in order to tell a lie, you must tell more lies," the apology reads, as translated by Sixth Tone. "I was reluctant to delete the hundreds of thousands of words I wrote, but as a result, I wound up losing millions of words, and a circle of academic friends collapsed."

The story leaves us plenty of questions: what were Zhemao's actual motives? Did the fictional narratives ever have any actual real-world consequences?

Perhaps, had Zhemao chosen a different way to disseminate their work, we'd be reading their historical fiction novels by now rather than an apology to Wikipedia.

READ MORE: She Spent a Decade Writing Fake Russian History. Wikipedia Just Noticed. [Sixth Tone]

More on Wikipedia: Russia Reportedly Arrests Man for Editing Wikipedia About Ukraine

See original here:
Someone Slipped Hundreds of Fake Articles About Things That Never Happened Onto Wikipedia - Futurism

Google is going to start paying for its use of Wikipedia information to help power its knowledge panels in Google Search. The search giant, along with the digital library the Internet Archive, are the first customers for the still relatively new commercial product launched by the Wikimedia Foundation the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia. Its new service, Wikimedia Enterprise, offers access to Wikimedia content to companies that reuse and source Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects at a high volume.

For years, Google has used information from Wikipedia to offer web searchers quick answers and basic facts through the use of what it called knowledge panels, first introduced in 2012. This feature pulls information from freely available online resources, including Wikipedia, Google Books and other sources. Other tech giants have also leveraged Wikipedias information in their own products. Facebook, for example, in 2020 had tested Wikipedia-powered information panels similar to Googles. Apple today returns Wikipedia-powered results in its Spotlight Search feature.

Various tech companies large and small have also relied on Wikipedia data to enhance their own products and services.

The Wikimedia Enterprise service has been live for a year, servicing commercial customers on an opt-in basis. However, it hadnt announced its first customers until now. With Wikimedia Enterprise, customers of any size gain access to the services offerings including customer support and Service Level Agreements at prices based on their volume of use, much like any other product aimed at businesses. Theres also a self-serve free trial offering 10,000 on-demand requests and unlimited access to a 30-day Snapshot.

The organization says the product is now covering its current operating costs and has a growing list of users who are exploring its use. But it is not a requirement to use the commercial product, even if the customer accessing the data is large, like Google. All Wikimedia projects, including its suite of publicly available datasets, tools and APIs the Wikimedia Foundation offers will continue to be available for free use to all users, the foundation said in a June announcement.

As a result of their deal, Google and Wikimedia said theyre working together to make the content sourcing process more efficient.

Wikipedia is a unique and valuable resource, created freely for the world by its dedicated volunteer community, said Tim Palmer, managing director, Search Partnerships at Google. We have long supported the Wikimedia Foundation in pursuit of our shared goals of expanding knowledge and information access for people everywhere. We look forward to deepening our partnership with Wikimedia Enterprise, further investing in the long-term sustainability of the foundation and the knowledge ecosystem it continues to build.

Meanwhile, the Internet Archive, which runs the digital archive known as the Wayback Machine, will leverage the commercial service as well to improve its own offerings.

The Wikimedia Foundation and the Internet Archive are long-term partners in the mission to provide universal and free access to knowledge. By drawing from a real-time feed of newly added links and references in Wikipedia sites in all its languages, we can now archive more of the web more quickly and reliably, said Mark Graham, director of the Internet Archives Wayback Machine.

The commercial product was a part of the Wikimedia Foundations long-term strategy, which included recommendations involving advancing knowledge equity and knowledge as a service, it said.

Correction, 6/29/22, 5:36pm et: The Internet Archive will be leveraging the enterprise service but will not be a paying customer, we understand. Weve updated to correct this.

Originally posted here:
Google and the Internet Archive are the first customers to gain commercial access to Wikipedia content - TechCrunch