Wiki-Watch
Encyclopedia
Wiki-Watch is a German University project for transparency of Wikipedia and Wikipedia articles, aimed especially at media professionals.
Wiki-Watch is a free software application (page analysis). This tool automatically assesses the reliability of Wikipedia articles in English and German. It produces a five-level evaluation score corresponding to its assessment of reliability. Second its exclusive insight shows what is occurring in Wikipedia in nearly realtime. The Wiki-Watch blog spots current trends in Wikipedia and is source of news coverage about them.
Wiki-Watch was developed at the Viadrina European University in Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany, by a team that included professors Wolfgang Stock
and Johannes Weberling.
Hundreds of thousands of editors have contributed Wikipedia entries and the reliability of the information within Wikipedia has been the subject of debate among experts. Since 2009, the Wikimedia Foundation
had been considering marking text that had not been reviewed or edited by multiple editors as "untested". This form of reliability checking could enhance acceptance of scholarly Wikipedia content within educational establishments, and has been used in the ongoing development of the WikiTrust
system which is implemented in Wiki-Watch. Specific text fragments which have not been edited by multiple authors with a good score are flagged as potentially unreliable. Wiki-Watch so interfaces with the WikiTrust
system developed at the University of California Santa Cruz. The reliability and reputation scoring system uses a color code scheme to evaluate pieces of text, based on the edit history and number of revisions by users, signaling what may be unreliable changes within an article. The reliability of each editor is assessed by reviewing the changes they have made to various articles, and tracking their contributions to see how well the contributions survive after edits by other editors.
The page analysis is comparable to WikiBu
but with WikiTrust
it is more detailed and Wiki-Watch stresses more the quality of sources while WikiBu stresses more the quantity of views. WikiBu is aimed on pupils and teachers while Wiki-Watch is aimed at media professionals.
The “Exclusive Insight” displays edit wars and deletions, as well as the activities of administrators and power editors.
published first on their Webpage on July 1 and one day later in the print edition on July 2 an article by author Jörg Wittkewitz, in which he reported about clear indications that one of the directors of Wiki-Watch, Wolfgang Stock
who also heads the PR company Convincet GmbH, and some of his assistants are deliberately editing Wikipedia articles in a way favorable to the pharmaceutical industry. In particular, the article claims that Wiki-Watch developers had attempted to suppress information critical of the insulin analogue Insulin glargine
. Furthermore, connections are drawn between the evangelical background of Wolfgang Stock, Wiki-Watch, and manipulations of articles within Wikipedia related to evangelicalism and homosexuality.
On July 2, the newspaper put the Internet version of the article offline until further notice referring to considerations of press law and announced legal actions by the two directors of Wiki-Watch, W.Stock and J.Weberling. The author, J.Wittkewitz, claims that the decision of the newspaper to put the article offline was not caused by the denial by Wiki-Watch of the main allegations, but was rather caused by the factual error in the article of claiming that Wiki-Watch awards Wikipedia-articles with up to six stars, while it does only with up to five stars. He also claims that he would have enough material to continue the story. On July 8, 2011 a slightly revised version of the FAZ article became available online. together with an interview with a Wikipedia-administrator about the internal investigation regarding Wiki-Watch.
The Head of department Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg announced to shut down Wiki-Watch, if the allegations against Stock should not be cleared by the end of August.
In July 2011 Sanofi-Aventis
' press office confirmed to Spiegel online
that Wolfgang Stock had worked as an adviser to Sanofi-Aventis since July 2009.
Wiki-Watch is a free software application (page analysis). This tool automatically assesses the reliability of Wikipedia articles in English and German. It produces a five-level evaluation score corresponding to its assessment of reliability. Second its exclusive insight shows what is occurring in Wikipedia in nearly realtime. The Wiki-Watch blog spots current trends in Wikipedia and is source of news coverage about them.
Wiki-Watch was developed at the Viadrina European University in Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany, by a team that included professors Wolfgang Stock
Wolfgang Stock
Wolfgang Stock ist a German journalist, author, professor and managing partner of Convincet, a business consultancy for public relations.- Life :...
and Johannes Weberling.
Wiki-Watch's page analysis
Wiki-Watch's analysis relies on tracking each entry made in a Wikipedia article. It checks the number of sources, the number of editors and the number of links to the article. Each editor is also given a "quality score" that assesses the reliability of their edits.Hundreds of thousands of editors have contributed Wikipedia entries and the reliability of the information within Wikipedia has been the subject of debate among experts. Since 2009, the Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is an American non-profit charitable organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, and organized under the laws of the state of Florida, where it was initially based...
had been considering marking text that had not been reviewed or edited by multiple editors as "untested". This form of reliability checking could enhance acceptance of scholarly Wikipedia content within educational establishments, and has been used in the ongoing development of the WikiTrust
WikiTrust
WikiTrust is a software product that assesses the credibility of content and author reputation of wiki articles using an automated algorithm. WikiTrust is a plug-in for servers using the MediaWiki platform, such as Wikipedia. When installed on a MediaWiki website it enables users of that website to...
system which is implemented in Wiki-Watch. Specific text fragments which have not been edited by multiple authors with a good score are flagged as potentially unreliable. Wiki-Watch so interfaces with the WikiTrust
WikiTrust
WikiTrust is a software product that assesses the credibility of content and author reputation of wiki articles using an automated algorithm. WikiTrust is a plug-in for servers using the MediaWiki platform, such as Wikipedia. When installed on a MediaWiki website it enables users of that website to...
system developed at the University of California Santa Cruz. The reliability and reputation scoring system uses a color code scheme to evaluate pieces of text, based on the edit history and number of revisions by users, signaling what may be unreliable changes within an article. The reliability of each editor is assessed by reviewing the changes they have made to various articles, and tracking their contributions to see how well the contributions survive after edits by other editors.
The page analysis is comparable to WikiBu
Wikibu
Wikibu is a free software tool to assess the reliability of German Wikipedia articles. It was originally designed for use in schools to improve information literacy....
but with WikiTrust
WikiTrust
WikiTrust is a software product that assesses the credibility of content and author reputation of wiki articles using an automated algorithm. WikiTrust is a plug-in for servers using the MediaWiki platform, such as Wikipedia. When installed on a MediaWiki website it enables users of that website to...
it is more detailed and Wiki-Watch stresses more the quality of sources while WikiBu stresses more the quantity of views. WikiBu is aimed on pupils and teachers while Wiki-Watch is aimed at media professionals.
“Exclusive Insight”
In “Exclusive Insight” Wiki-Watch shows a compact overview of current Wikipedia developments (What and Who). Users can choose views between one hour and one month. Login is free. If logged in the user is able to see more detailed statistics of most read pages, new pages, most edited pages and so on. Additionally in the most read pages there are graphs showing each days views so that th reader is able to see if interest in an article is rising or ceasing.The “Exclusive Insight” displays edit wars and deletions, as well as the activities of administrators and power editors.
Criticism of the developers
In 2011 the Frankfurter Allgemeine ZeitungFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , short F.A.Z., also known as the FAZ, is a national German newspaper, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main. The Sunday edition is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .F.A.Z...
published first on their Webpage on July 1 and one day later in the print edition on July 2 an article by author Jörg Wittkewitz, in which he reported about clear indications that one of the directors of Wiki-Watch, Wolfgang Stock
Wolfgang Stock
Wolfgang Stock ist a German journalist, author, professor and managing partner of Convincet, a business consultancy for public relations.- Life :...
who also heads the PR company Convincet GmbH, and some of his assistants are deliberately editing Wikipedia articles in a way favorable to the pharmaceutical industry. In particular, the article claims that Wiki-Watch developers had attempted to suppress information critical of the insulin analogue Insulin glargine
Insulin glargine
Insulin glargine, marketed by Sanofi-Aventis under the name Lantus, is a long-acting basal insulin analogue, given once daily to help control the blood sugar level of those with diabetes. It consists of microcrystals that slowly release insulin, giving a long duration of action of 18 to 26 hours,...
. Furthermore, connections are drawn between the evangelical background of Wolfgang Stock, Wiki-Watch, and manipulations of articles within Wikipedia related to evangelicalism and homosexuality.
On July 2, the newspaper put the Internet version of the article offline until further notice referring to considerations of press law and announced legal actions by the two directors of Wiki-Watch, W.Stock and J.Weberling. The author, J.Wittkewitz, claims that the decision of the newspaper to put the article offline was not caused by the denial by Wiki-Watch of the main allegations, but was rather caused by the factual error in the article of claiming that Wiki-Watch awards Wikipedia-articles with up to six stars, while it does only with up to five stars. He also claims that he would have enough material to continue the story. On July 8, 2011 a slightly revised version of the FAZ article became available online. together with an interview with a Wikipedia-administrator about the internal investigation regarding Wiki-Watch.
The Head of department Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg announced to shut down Wiki-Watch, if the allegations against Stock should not be cleared by the end of August.
In July 2011 Sanofi-Aventis
Sanofi-Aventis
Sanofi S.A. is a multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Paris, France, the world's fourth-largest by prescription sales. Sanofi engages in the research and development, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceutical products for sale principally in the prescription market, but the...
' press office confirmed to Spiegel online
Spiegel Online
Spiegel Online , the online version of German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, is one the most visited news websites written in the German language.- Company :...
that Wolfgang Stock had worked as an adviser to Sanofi-Aventis since July 2009.