28-08-2009, 02:35 AM
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/27...h-version/
August 27, 2009, 6:45 am
A War of Words Over Wikipedia?s Spanish Version
By Noam Cohen
When Wikipedia held its annual Wikimania conferences in Egypt and
Taiwan, the locations presented obvious political challenges to its
idealistic vision of articles written with a ?neutral point of view.?
China-Taiwan relations, for example, are a long-standing source of world
tension, surpassed by a rare few disputes, among them the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Could a bunch of volunteer editors really
expect to create articles that please both Chinese and Taiwanese, or
Israelis as well as Palestinians? Talk about utopian dreams.
With more than 500 Wikipedians gathering in fun-loving Buenos Aires for
this year?s Wikimania, politics was expected to return to the back
burner. The annual conference would once again resemble a high-minded
electronics show rather than the United Nations General Assembly.
Turns out there was never a chance of that.
In a surprisingly aggressive keynote address Wednesday, the
free-software activist Richard Stallman told an audience of Wikipedians
who had assembled from the four corners of the globe that he was
disturbed to learn that the Spanish-language version of Wikipedia was
restricting links to a prominent left-wing Web site. He said it looked a
lot like political bias from where he stood ? which happened to be the
stage in the Alvear Theater on Corrientes Avenue.
The administrators of the site made things worse, Mr. Stallman said at
the end of his address, by banning those Wikipedians who had complained
about what had happened. For good measure, he read phrases from an
article about the political crisis in Honduras that he said that were
unfair to the deposed president, Manuel Zelaya.
?There?s a problem here, a real problem,? he said about the decision to
limit links to the site rebelion.org, a political news aggregator that
also runs some original content. Spanish Wikipedia looks like ?a closed
system that offers no way to deal with this problem,? he said.
His accusation from the stage created the odd spectacle of
Spanish-speaking Wikipedians angrily challenging the man invited to open
their conference.
Damian Finol, 26, an information-technology specialist from Caracas,
Venezuela, told Mr. Stallman that Spanish Wikipedia had made it harder
to link to rebelion.org because people were routinely substituting its
links like a spam attack. ?I don?t think it is fair,? he said to Mr.
Stallman, who interrupted to say that rebelion.org is not only an
aggregator, ?You are repeating a falsehood,? Mr. Stallman said.
In trying to lower the volume, Mr. Stallman added, ?My purpose is not to
castigate Wikipedia, it is purely constructive.?
But the damage was done. Hours later, Wikimania organizers were shaking
their heads at what had happened at the start of their event, which
briefly included the mayor of Buenos Aires.
The lead organizer, Patricio Lorente, an administrator at La Plata
University, said he was not exactly surprised by Mr. Stallman?s address:
?I tried to talk to Richard about this. He doesn?t get the real dynamic
of Spanish Wikipedia.There isn?t a leader, decisions are based on
consensus. Unfortunately Richard has friends who convinced him that this
was a real discrimination case. This is simply not true.?
Rebelion.org is more like an aggregation site like Digg, Mr. Lorente
said. That means it generally shouldn?t have links on Wikipedia unless
the link is to its own original content.
The irony, Mr. Lorente said, is that he considers himself allied with
the left-wing cooperative movement, where workers control their
businesses. ?In our group, there is a diversity of opinion, but it is
more to the left than the right,? he said.
Most visitors to the conference, for example, are staying at the Hotel
Bauen, a worker-run operation a few blocks from the San Martin Community
Center, Wikimania?s headquarters. Mr. Lorente stressed that Wikipedians
were able to get a cheap price and that it is convenient, but he still
felt it was worth mentioning the worker connection.
?A lot of the material on rebelion.org originally appeared in La
Jornada, a left-wing paper in Mexico, and we have 1,500 links to La
Jornada,? he said. ?This is not a problem of ideology but a problem of
spam.?
Mr. Stallman?s comments did help expose some of the raw issues within
Spanish Wikipedia.
Mr. Finol said he had encouraged some Argentine Wikipedians he knew were
displeased with the rebelion.org case to ?come to Wikimania and see for
themselves. They said, if I come, it will be to protest Wikimania.?
Mr. Finol also said that back in Venezuela, news outlets had said that
he was working for the United States government. ?I got hate mail,? he said.
He said the claim was silly, but that unlike Wikipedia in other
languages, ?a lot of political stuff is going on in Spanish Wikipedia. A
majority of vandalism is political, I?m guessing.?
Still, all the Spanish Wikipedians interviewed said that through
discussions, they were able to reach a consensus on even the most
contentious issues, such as how to describe Venezuela?s president, Hugo
Chavez, or whether to restrict rebelion.org.
?The most heated discussions are about words that are spelled
differently in different parts of the world,? said Pedro Sanchez, a
30-year-old mathematician from Michoacan, Mexico, 30, who also
confronted Mr. Stallman.
For example, there is that device that moves a computer cursor: ?Do you
call it a mouse or a raton? In Latin America, we call it a mouse. In
Spain they say raton.?
Looking at Spanish Wikipedia, for now, the answer is mouse.
August 27, 2009, 6:45 am
A War of Words Over Wikipedia?s Spanish Version
By Noam Cohen
When Wikipedia held its annual Wikimania conferences in Egypt and
Taiwan, the locations presented obvious political challenges to its
idealistic vision of articles written with a ?neutral point of view.?
China-Taiwan relations, for example, are a long-standing source of world
tension, surpassed by a rare few disputes, among them the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Could a bunch of volunteer editors really
expect to create articles that please both Chinese and Taiwanese, or
Israelis as well as Palestinians? Talk about utopian dreams.
With more than 500 Wikipedians gathering in fun-loving Buenos Aires for
this year?s Wikimania, politics was expected to return to the back
burner. The annual conference would once again resemble a high-minded
electronics show rather than the United Nations General Assembly.
Turns out there was never a chance of that.
In a surprisingly aggressive keynote address Wednesday, the
free-software activist Richard Stallman told an audience of Wikipedians
who had assembled from the four corners of the globe that he was
disturbed to learn that the Spanish-language version of Wikipedia was
restricting links to a prominent left-wing Web site. He said it looked a
lot like political bias from where he stood ? which happened to be the
stage in the Alvear Theater on Corrientes Avenue.
The administrators of the site made things worse, Mr. Stallman said at
the end of his address, by banning those Wikipedians who had complained
about what had happened. For good measure, he read phrases from an
article about the political crisis in Honduras that he said that were
unfair to the deposed president, Manuel Zelaya.
?There?s a problem here, a real problem,? he said about the decision to
limit links to the site rebelion.org, a political news aggregator that
also runs some original content. Spanish Wikipedia looks like ?a closed
system that offers no way to deal with this problem,? he said.
His accusation from the stage created the odd spectacle of
Spanish-speaking Wikipedians angrily challenging the man invited to open
their conference.
Damian Finol, 26, an information-technology specialist from Caracas,
Venezuela, told Mr. Stallman that Spanish Wikipedia had made it harder
to link to rebelion.org because people were routinely substituting its
links like a spam attack. ?I don?t think it is fair,? he said to Mr.
Stallman, who interrupted to say that rebelion.org is not only an
aggregator, ?You are repeating a falsehood,? Mr. Stallman said.
In trying to lower the volume, Mr. Stallman added, ?My purpose is not to
castigate Wikipedia, it is purely constructive.?
But the damage was done. Hours later, Wikimania organizers were shaking
their heads at what had happened at the start of their event, which
briefly included the mayor of Buenos Aires.
The lead organizer, Patricio Lorente, an administrator at La Plata
University, said he was not exactly surprised by Mr. Stallman?s address:
?I tried to talk to Richard about this. He doesn?t get the real dynamic
of Spanish Wikipedia.There isn?t a leader, decisions are based on
consensus. Unfortunately Richard has friends who convinced him that this
was a real discrimination case. This is simply not true.?
Rebelion.org is more like an aggregation site like Digg, Mr. Lorente
said. That means it generally shouldn?t have links on Wikipedia unless
the link is to its own original content.
The irony, Mr. Lorente said, is that he considers himself allied with
the left-wing cooperative movement, where workers control their
businesses. ?In our group, there is a diversity of opinion, but it is
more to the left than the right,? he said.
Most visitors to the conference, for example, are staying at the Hotel
Bauen, a worker-run operation a few blocks from the San Martin Community
Center, Wikimania?s headquarters. Mr. Lorente stressed that Wikipedians
were able to get a cheap price and that it is convenient, but he still
felt it was worth mentioning the worker connection.
?A lot of the material on rebelion.org originally appeared in La
Jornada, a left-wing paper in Mexico, and we have 1,500 links to La
Jornada,? he said. ?This is not a problem of ideology but a problem of
spam.?
Mr. Stallman?s comments did help expose some of the raw issues within
Spanish Wikipedia.
Mr. Finol said he had encouraged some Argentine Wikipedians he knew were
displeased with the rebelion.org case to ?come to Wikimania and see for
themselves. They said, if I come, it will be to protest Wikimania.?
Mr. Finol also said that back in Venezuela, news outlets had said that
he was working for the United States government. ?I got hate mail,? he said.
He said the claim was silly, but that unlike Wikipedia in other
languages, ?a lot of political stuff is going on in Spanish Wikipedia. A
majority of vandalism is political, I?m guessing.?
Still, all the Spanish Wikipedians interviewed said that through
discussions, they were able to reach a consensus on even the most
contentious issues, such as how to describe Venezuela?s president, Hugo
Chavez, or whether to restrict rebelion.org.
?The most heated discussions are about words that are spelled
differently in different parts of the world,? said Pedro Sanchez, a
30-year-old mathematician from Michoacan, Mexico, 30, who also
confronted Mr. Stallman.
For example, there is that device that moves a computer cursor: ?Do you
call it a mouse or a raton? In Latin America, we call it a mouse. In
Spain they say raton.?
Looking at Spanish Wikipedia, for now, the answer is mouse.
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.