WikiScanner outs the truth

24 November 2008 | 7:44 - By Stefano Boscutti

WikiScanner makes it possible to figure out which organization made which edits to a Wikipedia entry by cross-referencing IP addresses with a database of IP address owners.

wikiscanner_1873094305

You can imagine how much fun this tool is to deploy - to see how someone with a senate.gov address tinkers with the Jeremiah Wright entry, or how Diebold apparently protects its reputation by deleting criticism of its voting machines and political connections.  How somebody from the Turkish Treasury removes the part on the Armenian genocide.  How Scientology whitewashes everything.  How Wikipedia's entry on President Bush "IS TAINTED BY POLITICAL BIAS THAT HAS NO PLACE IN WIKIPEDIA," shouts an unbiased critic . . .  from the Justice Department in Washington D.C.  The promise of WikiScanner is to help free Wikipedia from both propaganda and sabotage.  And ideally create minor public-relations disasters for companies and organizations who like to twist the truth.

http://wired.reddit.com/wikidgame/
http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/

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About this Blog

New New Media looks at how our mediascape is exploding to bits. How the latest technology and the internet are changing the way we live, work and play. How the latest media is shaping us all.

Stefano Boscutti is an executive creative director and strategist. He's like a better looking version of Todd Sampson. He also has an abiding faith that stories and wordplay (and not powerpoint presentations) will change the world.

 
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