Wikipedia Scoops the News Media
and upsets a journalist so much, he contacts the Wikimedia Foundation.
The spies are everywhere, aren’t they?
Just about two months ago, Wikinews got what might have been its first major scoop. Too bad Wikipedia and Wikinews don’t coordinate better with each other. The journalist could have been doubly frustrated and Wikinews could have gotten an awesome scoop.
Of course, what’s key with Wikipedia’s scoop isn’t so much the scoop, but it’s when someone noticed the updated entry announcing Johnnie Cochran’s death. How many other key pieces of information appear in Wikipedia in a flash that no one notices?
April 8th, 2005 at 2:31 am
So, what you suggest is that the news is often already around at the Wikipedia, it only needs a smart way of distributing it on wikinews. That seems an interesting cooperation model
April 8th, 2005 at 6:43 am
I have to say I was a little peeved that the Foundation didn’t let us run the story at least at the same time Yahoo did. (To be clear, they didn’t prevent us, but they also didn’t tell us about it at all.) But if you read Jimmy Wales’ user page on Wikipedia he doesn’t seem to think much of Wikinews…
April 8th, 2005 at 6:56 am
Whoops, I thought you were talking about the Yahoo support! Regards Cochran – we (Wikinews) could’ve been just as fast, but we would have needed someone who knew that quickly to have written an article and to have published it. Weirdly, the anon IP user who posted the news on Wikipedia has only ever engaged in vandalism beyond that one edit! I’m guessing they just heard it on the local news or something, and was first-to-the-punch that way.
April 8th, 2005 at 1:58 pm
Yes, better cooperation between Wikipedia and Wikinews would improve Wikinews dramatically. As Dan100 points out, it’s not very easy to do at this point. Not only do the Wikinews folks need to sell the importance of what they’re doing to the powers that be at Wikipedia/Wikimedia, but they also have to figure out how to convince people who are updating Wikipedia entries with information that could make a good news story to contribute to Wikinews. It will be tough.