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the sum of all human knowledge
the sum of all human knowledge
Need help getting to Wikipedia's desert get-together? Read the wiki
Andrew Lih, a respected authority on Wikipedia — oh, the irony — has flown to Egypt to attend Wikimania, an annual get-together for the editors of the world's most exacting online disquisition on foodborne illnesses. Arriving in Cairo airport, and seeking ground transportation to Alexandria, the site of the conference, Lih was met with nothing but third-world frustration, and he blogged about it. Erik Möller, deputy director of Wikipedia's nonprofit parent, the Wikimedia Foundation, popped up in the comments. Did he offer help? No. More »
clips
Jimmy Wales, cult leader
Later this week, Wikipedia is holding its annual, aptly named Wikimania conference in Alexandria, Egypt. Want a preview? Check out this video of Jimmy Wales, cofounder of the world's largest volunteer-run, sneeringly incompetent bureaucracy, playing games with attendees of Foo Camp, a nerdfest held over the weekend in a semirural spot north of San Francisco. Not everyone thinks Wikimania is the same kind of innocent fun: There's talk of a boycott over Egypt's horrid human-rights policies and Internet censorship. More »
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Wikimedia Foundation botches budget
There are lies, damn lies, and budgets. Wikipedia users donate money to the Wikimedia Foundation under the ruse that most of the cash goes to buy and run servers. Ha! As Danny Wool, a former administrator of the nonprofit, points out, that's hardly the case. In fact, out of a projected $4.6 million budget, nearly $1.7 million for tech over the last year never got spent. But executive director Sue Gardner, who was handpicked (and hand-who knows what else) by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, can't be blamed for that: She doesn't run the site's tech, which is overseen by the nonprofits' pro-pedophilia deputy director, Erik Möller. Was he too busy editing Wikipedia entries about child sexuality under secret accounts to stop and buy a few servers? Who knows. More »
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Jimmy Wales reduced to couchsurfing across the globe
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales's travel budget has tightened since the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit which pays Wikipedia's and Wales's bills, cracked down on his expense account. Last year, he told Reuters that he used a website, Extrabed.in, to secure a free crashpad with an Indian blogger on a trip to the subcontinent. "When I used ExtraBed to find a place to stay, I was excited to have the opportunity to meet a new family, a new friend," Wales emailed Reuters. That rings true enough; Wales is often excited to meet new friends, especially female ones, and he's too busy to pay much attention to his old family. (Still from Majestikx12)
the sum of all human knowledge
Jimmy Wales and the Church of Latter-Day Wikipedians
A perpetual dilettante, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has a habit of flitting in and out of his many projects. It's hard to say whether they suffer more from his neglect or from his attention. Wikinews, a news site operated similarly to Wikipedia and run by the same nonprofit parent, the Wikimedia Foundation, has seen Wales suddenly return asking for administrative privileges suspended in his absence to be restored. But why? Wales didn't specify which story he wanted to intervene in, but one tipster suggests that an article about a copyright-infringement claim by the Mormon Church — over a story posted on Wikinews itself — was the proximate cause. More »
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Jimmy Wales kicked off Wikipedia spinoff
At an offshoot of Wikipedia, the users are revolting. Administrators of Wikinews, a site where volunteers collaboratively write news articles have voted to strip Jimmy Wales of his administrative privileges. He has protested the decision: "Due to recent developments, I am here more often and anticipate being here more often." Wales is not just a Wikinews user, however; he is a board member of the site's nonprofit parent, the Wikimedia Foundation, with a guaranteed seat, thanks to a recent reshuffling of the board. As such, his participation on the site may put it at legal risk. More »
the sum of all human knowledge
Is Jimmy Wales getting Wikipedia in legal trouble?
Jimmy Wales's clandestine editing of a girlfriend's Wikipedia entry has done more than just bring the online encyclopedia into disrepute. It may well put the site's nonprofit parent, the Wikimedia Foundation, in legal jeopardy. Wikipedia has thrived in part thanks to a protection granted by the Communications Decency Act, which spares websites which merely host users' content from liability for what they say. But what if one of the website's officials moves to have that content edited? Then the protection vanishes. That is the legal argument advanced by Wales's ex, Rachel Marsden, in a series of emails with Mike Godwin, Wikimedia's general counsel, that she has posted to Valleywag. More »
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Jimmy Wales denies FBI investigation of underage photos on Wikipedia
Since a controversial record cover led to charges of Wikipedia hosting child porn, Jimmy Wales, the creator of the world's most democratically assembled list of anarcho-punk bands, has kept his silence. Until Sunday, that is, when Wales logged onto an IRC channel to discuss the issue. Wikipedia Review posted a transcript of the chat. The essential points: Wales denied that there was an FBI investigation, "as far as I am aware." (Note the hedge: As a board member of Wikipedia's nonprofit parent, the Wikimedia Foundation, Wales has no day-to-day role in the site's operations.) On the image in question, a cover of the 1976 Scorpions album Virgin Killer, Wales equivocated. "I think people should be able to debate it with mutual respect," said Wales. There you have Wales's position on child pornography, in a nutshell: Let's talk about it! Excerpts from the transcript below: More »
mike godwin
Wikipedia lawyer backs out of ethics talk
Mike Godwin does not practice what he preaches. The general counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia's nonprofit parent, once told the New York Times that "the best answer for bad speech is more speech." But in the face of a groundswell of criticism of Wikipedia — that its frontman, Jimmy Wales, is corrupt; that its executive director, Sue Gardner, is power-mad; and that its deputy director, Erik Möller, is dangerously out of touch with potential donors' views — Godwin has remained silent. That will not change anytime soon, it seems. Godwin was due to speak this Thursday at Santa Clara University on "The World that Wikipedia Made: The Ethics and Values of Public Knowledge." But Valleywag has learned that Godwin today backed out of the talk, with two days' notice, and that the foundation has refused to supply another Wikipedia official in his place. Could it be that in this case, the voluble Godwin really has nothing worth saying? So much for advancing the sum of all human knowledge. (Photo by Alice Lipowicz)
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Why Sue Gardner hired a pedophilia supporter to run Wikipedia
Sue Gardner, the former pop-culture journalist now running Wikipedia, named Erik Möller as deputy director of the Wikimedia Foundation for a simple reason: to get him off the nonprofit's board. As a board member, Möller was her boss; now she is his. But the hire is coming back to haunt her. After Wikimedia COO Carolyn Doran was revealed to be a convicted felon last year, Gardner promised to conduct background checks on new employees. But one has to conclude she never bothered to Google Möller. If she had, wouldn't she have noticed his off-the-wall views on child sexuality? More »
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Wikipedia's Erik Möller on the history of child sexual abuse: All Greek to him!
Pederasty in ancient Greece took on mystical significance, where semen from a noble man was believed to give arete to a young man through anal intercourse. This was part of a common practice in Greece where a noble man took on a young male as a student. This relationship was highly idealized in Greek culture and often involved sexual acts as mentioned. Since the practice was so widespread in ancient Greece, and there is no indication of any detractors at the time, many do not consider this an example of child sexual abuse (see moral relativism). Generally, people who hold this view believe that sexual acts can only be termed "abuse" if there is a victim who experiences negative effects as a result of the activities. Since there is no evidence of this occurring, many have concluded that this should not be considered abuse.— Erik Möller, deputy director of the Wikimedia Foundation, editing a Wikipedia article on child sexual [Wikipedia]
erik moeller
Wikipedia's porn-loving No. 2 and his abiding concern for the children
A firestorm is now brewing over pornography on Wikipedia and its accessibility to children. The FBI is investigating the matter, right-wing news site WorldNetDaily reports. Jay Walsh, the spokesman for Wikipedia's nonprofit parent, the Wikimedia Foundation, has disclaimed all official responsibility for the contents of the world's greatest compendium of fictional balls. But who oversees the contents of Wikipedia for the foundation? Why, Erik Möller, its deputy director. And Möller is deeply, deeply concerned about the children. More »
9:20 AM on Thu May 8 2008
By Owen Thomas
10,556 views,
21 comments
Latest by n/a: @XedMac [www.fbi.gov] I'm certain the FBI will be very interested in the long precedent of providing internet safe-haven to sexual deviants by Wales on Wikipedia, and Wikia too for that matter. more »
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Wikipedia leader Erik Möller: "Children are pornography"
Erik Möller, the deputy director of the nonprofit behind Wikipedia, sure likes to talk. Since our story yesterday about his defense of pedophilia, Möller has been going around explaining his views, at length, to Wikimedia Foundation's board members. One hopes they have a lot of time on their hands; Möller is famously verbose. While waiting for him to stop talking, they could pass the time reading a 2000 work by Möller. Its German title is "Kinder sind Pornos," which means "Children are pornography." Even in Google's rough translation, the gist is clear enough: Möller argues that nonviolent child pornography does no harm. He relates the frosty reception he received when he put forth this view at a conference in Nuremberg in 2000. Can Möller really claim to be surprised if his views on the sexuality of children prove just as unpopular today? (Photo by Bertram Korves)
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Erik Möller, No. 2 at Wikipedia, a defender of pedophilia
Erik Möller is the deputy director at Wikipedia's nonprofit parent, the Wikimedia Foundation. As such, he oversees tech and editorial operations at the world's most comprehensive history of obscure British contemporary art movements. And as an editor on the site, he takes special interest in subjects such as "child abuse," "child sexuality," and "pedophilia." Wikipedians supposedly prize a "neutral point of view." But Möller's point of view on those subjects hardly seems neutral. Most would find it extreme. Möller once wrote: "What is my position on pedophilia, then? It's really simple. If the child doesn't want it, is neutral or ambiguous, it's inappropriate." More »
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Wikipedia gerrymanders its board
Sue Gardner, the power-hungry executive director of Wikipedia's nonprofit parent, the Wikimedia Foundation, has carried out the first phase of her master plan. She's orchestrated a reorganization of Wikipedia's board. The chief changes to the rulers of the world's most complete list of people affected by bipolar disorder: Only 30 percent of the board is now elected. Two board members will be appointed by Wikipedia's "chapters," country-specific nonprofits which wield power far greater than their actual numbers would seem to warrant. Jimmy Wales has been granted an unelected "community founder" seat. The other five board seats, three of them currently empty, can be filled by board appointees with no connection to Wikipedia. Which would make it easy for Gardner to stack the board with wealthy venture capitalists interested in profiting from Wikipedia's highly-trafficked website. More »
nerdspotting
Jimmy Wales takes his Wikipedia magic show to New York City
For a province of California, Silicon Valley can be strangely puritan at times. That made it an uncomfortable locale for libertine Libertarian Jimmy Wales, the less-than-saintly founder of Wikipedia. Wales told ex-lover Rachel Marsden, the Canadian controversialist, that he wanted to move to New York to be closer to her. Their affair is over — ended, fittingly, via a posting on Wikipedia — but Wales has relocated to New York all the same. The likely reason has to do with work, or the appearance of work. Although Wikipedia's nonprofit parent, the Wikimedia Foundation, is located in San Francisco, and his ostensible employer, for-profit wiki venture Wikia, has itsheadquarters in a suburb to the south of the city, Wales is charged with running a search-engine project for Wikia which is based in New York. More »
11:40 AM on Tue Apr 29 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,206 views,
42 comments
Latest by Rachel Marsden: @gitahne-o: Damn straight. more »
the sum of all human knowledge
