Grr, *I* have never been on Colbert Report. Okay, now I'm getting jealous... (j/k)

Go Virgil! Think you can get on Oprah too?

Elonka :)

WikiScanner on the Colbert Report

A whole new level of fame for Virgil. He did something that made Penny Arcade. :)

Wikipedia Scanner on Penny Arcade

July 19, 2007 - Cryptography

A discussion with cryptographer Elonka Dunin about her work including her attempts to decode the message on the "Kryptos" sculpture at the CIA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

As some of the lead-up to the NOVA show....

Thursday, 7/19, from 11 a.m. to Noon Central, I'll be interviewed on the local NPR station, KWMU. This will *not* be a national broadcast, it's more of a "podcast." Or in other words, if you have any interest, you can tune in to the live stream at kwmu.org. They will also be re-broadcasting locally at 10 p.m., and will have the recording available on their website for about 6 months.

The show will be a one-hour talkshow called "St. Louis on the Air", and I'll be fielding phone-in questions about Kryptos and cryptography.

Caveat: These scheduled times should always be taken with a grain of salt, since things can be pre-empted depending on what else is going on in the news.

FYI,

Elonka :)

NPR Podcast on 7/19: - Elonka talks about Kryptos

It is one of the 12 most visited websites in the world, indispensable to millions of users. From Aa ('an 80km river in northern France') to ZZ Top ('an American blues rock band'),online encyclopedia Wikipedia has entries on just about everything.

But last week the website was engulfed in controversy after it was revealed that one of its main contributors had faked his qualifications.

. . .

The scandal has thrown the authority of the encyclopedia into doubt. Critics argue that anyone with access to the internet is allowed to edit the entries, though Wikipedia insists that the sheer number of users ensures errors are swiftly corrected.

But not everyone is convinced. Here, four well-known personalities examine their own entries on the website and give their verdicts...

Daily Mail - 'Wikipedia - how accurate is the online encyclopedia? '

He said that before coming to Wikia, "I was an account manager with a Fortune 20 company, where I worked on a ten person team that managed roughly $500,000,000 in annual sales. Prior to that, I was a paralegal for five years," including "nearly a year with a firm in Louisville that represented doctors in medical licensure matter and a three month special position with a United States Bankruptcy Trustee."

A Centre spokesman confirmed Jordan attended from 2001 to 2003, and a UK spokesman said he was enrolled in the fall semester of 2003 at the former Lexington Community College, now Bluegrass Community and Technical College.

A spokeswoman for U of L said nobody by that name has attended the university since 1920, and a spokeswoman for the U.S. bankruptcy trustee said the office had no record Jordan had worked there.

J. Fox DeMoisey, a lawyer who represents doctors in licensure cases, said Jordan had worked in his office for about six months as a secretary and receptionist.

This article is from the Louisville Journal, with a bit more information on the "real" Ryan Jordan.

Wikipedia editor who posed as professor is Kentucky dropout

What's one of the best sections of any newspaper or magazine? The corrections section. In the case of the New Yorker, these come under the heading of the Editors' Note. And the most recent issue has quite the doozy:

Foreign Policy: With Wikipedia, what you see is not always what you get

Internet site Wikipedia has been hit by controversy after the disclosure that a prominent editor had assumed a false identity complete with fake PhD.

The Essjay scandal continues to splatter far and wide....

BBC News: Fake professor in Wikipedia storm

In a blink, the wisdom of the crowd became the fury of the crowd. In the last few days, contributors to Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia, have turned against one of their own who was found to have created an elaborate false identity.

New York Times: A Contributor to Wikipedia Has His Fictional Side

It's been quite a week to be a Wikipedia critic.

The Wikicritic market, previously one of a few concerned voices drowned out by the tidal din of Wiki-love-chants, is now itself flooded with me-toos. I can't go anywhere without hearing about this "controversy" that is bouncing around places that normally give Wikipedia nothing but a big hug and a pat on the ass.

In case you've been missing out on it, the short form is this: a popular editor of Wikipedia was hired by the Wikia company and in doing so revealed that he wasn't a guy with some college degrees but in fact was a 24-year old kid from Kentucky. This made a lot of people unhappy, and in the ensuing discussions, Jimbo Wales and strongly alleganced Wikipedians have tried to downplay it, mostly because that position's always worked before. It's not working as well this time.

That's the short form, which is not all that accurate. Here's some elaboration.

Jason is one of those critics that sort of reminds me of Rush Limbaugh. I agree with some of what he says, I disagree with some of what he says, but no matter what he says, I usually come away doing two things: I'm laughing, and I'm thinking. Both are good. ;)

Or in other words, keep the salt shaker handy, but his comments are worth a look.

Elonka :)

Jason Scott comments on the Wikipedia/Essjay scandal

From Slashdot :

"A prominent Wikipedia administrator and Wikia employee has been caught lying to the media and 'other' professors about his academic credentials. Wikipedia's Essjay has been representing himself as 'a tenured professor of theology at a private university in the eastern United States; I teach both undergraduate and graduate theology. My Academic Degrees: Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies (B.A.), Master of Arts in Religion (M.A.R.), Doctorate of Philosophy in Theology (Ph.D.), Doctorate in Canon Law (JCD).' His real identity came to light after Wikia offered him a job: It turns out that he is really 24 years old with no degree living in Louisville, KY. Wikipedia's co-founder, Jimbo Wales, says 'I regard it as a pseudonym and I don't really have a problem with it.' How will this affect Wikipedia's already shaky reputation with the academic world?"

This story, about a Wikipedia editor with fraudulent credentials who was promoted to a position where he's going to be sitting in judgment on whether or not other editors have used good judgment, has caused an uproar within the Wikipedia community, and is lighting up the blogosphere.

For anyone interested in following the developments, probably the best collection of links so far is at Kelly Martin's blog.

My own, internal to Wikipedia, comments about the matter, in wiki-speak, at Essjay's talkpage: [1].

*Disappointed. I've seen Essjay do many good things for Wikipedia over the years, and I am confident that he can continue to do good things in the future. But to lie so blatantly about something so important, and then to have so little remorse about it, this concerns me greatly. It's one thing to choose to remain anonymous, to make small exaggerations about one's accomplishments, or to establish an innocuous fictional identity to protect privacy. It's another to create detailed fraudulent credentials as a way of boosting credibility in an academic environment.[2] Essjay didn't make up an identity like, "Father of 4 in Ohio, working as an insurance salesman." He made up an identity that was designed to maximize credibility within this culture, and within subjects where he was editing. And further, he referred to that identity as a way of establishing his credentials to ''outside'' parties.[3][4] I am, frankly, appalled at this lack of judgment, and agree that EssJay should resign from ArbCom, especially considering that he never ran for the position, but ... [ Read More (0.1k in body) ]

Wikipedia Source For 'New Yorker' A Fraud