Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-06-22/In the news

In the news

Wikipedia impacts town's reputation, assorted blogging

Palmerston North entry dissuades overseas professionals

According to New Zealand's stuff.co.nz, overseas investors and doctors have been shying away from Palmerston North because its Wikipedia article described it as being a particularly crime-prone area, with a particular emphasis on gang violence. MidCentral Health consultant Christine Wood described how doctors from Israel and Germany declined to work in Palmerston North after reading the Wikipedia entry. The inclusion of the crime section was criticized because of the lack of such a section in other New Zealand entries, such as Auckland and Hamilton. Palmerston North's city council responded by "toning down" the section.

In the blogosphere

The discussion about paid editing (which is now focused on the proposed guideline Wikipedia:Paid editing) was picked up this week by the CNN SciTechBlog: "Wikipedia editors for hire".
Andrew Lih was featured in a Q&A on the New York Times Freakonomics blog: "By a Bunch of Nobodies: A Q&A With the Author of The Wikipedia Revolution".
On his blog The Wikipedian, William Beutler follows up with the artist who created a comically thick print edition of Wikipedia: "Wikipedia on Dead Tree Redux".
Search engine optimizer Michael Gray raised the hackles of the Wikipedia community with a post on "How to Invalidate Wikipedia Articles"