I done broke the Wikipedia

Well, in an exclusive Wikinews report, it looks like Wikipedia user Scientizzle has “done broke the Wikipedia”.

A couple of Wikipedia users added virus code to a couple of Wikipedia pages to make anti-virus think there was a potential security risk, when in fact everything was fine.

So Scientizzle, an admin, decided to go through and delete the revision history. The only bad thing was one of the affected pages was the sandbox. This basically crashed the server and locked the database and prevented any editing of the encyclopaedia for around half an hour.

Wikinews has the frankly amusing article in its entire exclusive state online.

It’s 2008 people, wth are you doing thinking about 2007?

Wikinews has compiled a quiz of the year 2007 (the one just been for those inebriated). It only covers topics of high interest that were published on the international news site. So that means the questions have a world wide event slant on them.

Sadly there were no questions on New Zealand events, despite there being two reports on the anti-terror raids around the country late last year.

Take the quiz (link below) to see how well you know about the events of last year, and see if you can beat my score of 32/51!

Quiz: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:Dynamic_quiz/quiz/2008/01.

This blog post was also published on my Bebo blog (profile blocked to public access) .

I’m in the news – update

Yesterday I was featured in an article in the Sunday magazine that comes with The Sunday Star-Times. The article was about six primary and secondary school students and what they will be doing in these school holidays.

I talked to the reporter, Rose Hoare, about Wikinews, Wikipedia and the photography I do. I also had a photograph taken for the article.

It was a nice article and was one of the longest featured, and she didn’t put all the information I provided her with in!

UPDATE: The article has been published online now. However, it only contains one photograph, which is not mine.

Citizen journalism could have done it better

A Saturday article that ran on 3 News and subsequently uploaded onto their website about the iPhone had one serious problem about it, they spelt it “I-Phone”.

I told them about their problem over spelling via the “Your Say” feature, they ignored it first go, and then acted upon the second letter, with changes visible today. Note, they didn’t post the comments live on their site which is moderated.

This highlights one area, among others, where citizen journalism, or even the idea of a Wiki, is and works better. If that article had been uploaded onto, say, Wikinews, then the article would have been fixed, and that error wouldn’t have been a problem for very long.

Hell, even a quick Google search would have told you that it is spelt iPhone.

Exclusive report finally published

Published today was an exclusive, and special report conducted by Gabriel Pollard on New Zealand’s latest digital TV service, Freeview.

The story idea was first thought up when a press release was issued by Jonathan Coleman (one of those interviewed) last month stating that Steve Maharey (also interviewed) should release Freeview subscriber numbers.

This request was denied and well, one thing led to another and a full fledged report was published.

The bias of media

A Roy Morgan Australian Poll has revealed that most people think that newspaper journalists are the most biased. They are believed to be often biased by 85%.

This is followed by television reporters at 74%, talk-back radio at 69% at Internet sites at 49%.

These statistics are incredibly hard to believe. Especially considering that talk-back radio is built on the foundation of people sending in their views on a particular topic while the host giving their views, etc.

Now the Internet one must have been tampered with. While I believe it hard to believe that all these Australians read Wikinews (Wikinews, and Wikipedia likewise, have NPOV policies), there are so many blogs on the Internet, each giving their own views, that there aren’t enough readers for them all.

The survey respondents also stated the specific Internet sites. In at number four was Google. I must be incorrect, but I thought Google didn’t write news; just indexing news article on Google News.

Hat-tip: David Farrar on Kiwiblog.

Wikipedia is top online news site, but what about Wikinews?

Since May, 2006, Wikipedia has experienced at 72% jump in online visitors, according to Neilson NetRatings. This makes Wikipedia the top online news and information site, which outshines sister project, Wikinews.

Sure Wikipedia deserves the top place, which it also gained for every month of this year, for an information site but Wikinews is entirely devoted to current affairs and news, unlike Wikipedia which focuses on mainly historical, encyclopaedic type entries.

Wikinews did well in ’scooping’ the story about the edits to the Wikipedia page about Chris Benoit regarding the murder-suicide he was involved in.

Although this achievement in itself is something to be very proud of, considering the amount of criticism Wikipedia receives, especially from the academic community. It is a wonder that Wikipedia still gets the visitors and editors it has considering the widespread view that I have experienced that Wikipedia cannot be trusted as a source for information. Maybe we in New Zealand are better educated with the Internet…?

Interviews, interviews, interviews

I have published yet another Wikinews exclusive interview. This time it was with republican, Lewis Holden, who runs the Holden Republic blog and is chair of the Republican Movement.

I much prefer doing these nice exclusive interviews and original reporting. I love every second of it. Next stop, doing them face to face, pen to paper (or fingers to keys). Which actually might not be too far off as I have joined our school magazine team. In this team, we will conduct interviews with those ‘worthy’ enough to be included in our end-of-year magazine.

This interview follows an exclusive video interview with John Key, leader of the opposition in New Zealand; and an interview with prominent New Zealand-based blogger, David Farrar.

John Key’s interview has landed

John Key’s interview has been released publicly today, but in a different form to my interview with David Farrar, and the upcoming one with Lewis Holden.

John Key filmed his answers to the questions posed to him by me, Gabriel Pollard.  This does suit the topic of the interview, that being social media and, in particular, video blogging.

I have things I am slightly unhappy with; firstly I am a guy, but confusion does happen when I do not state what gender I am due to my name, Gabriel. Secondly, it is not Wikipedia’s Wikinews, it is just Wikinews, a sister project of Wikipedia. And, finally, they made a mistake in their titles, stating that is “From citizen journalist Gabriel Pollard for Wikipedia.”

There are two versions out on the Internet, one released onto YouTube by John Key (also embedded into his website), and the other branded with the Wikinews Video logo, which includes a voice introduction by me.

This video can be considered to be the first Video Wikinews, a new idea being developed over a long period of time (including once being relatively ‘dead’).

The very small Wikinews article that really just contains links is available online.

More exclusive interviews for Wikinews

I have just secured another two exclusive interviews for Wikinews. The first with New Zealand’s leader of the opposition, John Key, and the second with Lewis Holden, head of a republican movement group in New Zealand.

The interview I did with David Farrar on May 10 sparked me getting the interview with Key in two ways. Firstly, I was so excited about the fact that I had done an exclusive interview and was seeking that same feeling. Secondly, Farrar said that John Key was doing something different to all other politicans in New Zealand, vlogging. And I wished to get his view on that topic.

The interview with Holden has a great deal of help coming from Brian New Zealand, but I will be the one conducting the interview. Some of the questions for Key’s interview, like Farrar’s, were contributed by Brian.

Look out for the first interview soon, as Key’s press secretary stated that he will try to get the questions (which were sent off today) in front of Key a.s.a.p..