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Anonymous Wikipedia edits from the Norwegian parliament and government offices

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Re: Anonymous Wikipedia edits from the Norwegian parliament and government offices

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I randomly scanned through the list and found the same thing, nothing suspicious. If the government was really determined to change history, you would think they wouldn't be doing it from their own IP ranges...

The thing is we are conditioned to believe that anything the government does, especially anonymously, is necessarily bad. From what I've seem on the list, this has been some kind of an effort to actually improve the arcticles, and update government related information, like embassy addresses and websites. It looks like there is a bunch of responsible, well intentioned and helpful people in the government - at lealst…

>>> The thing is we are conditioned to believe that anything the government does, especially anonymously, is necessarily bad.

I definitely noticed this trend here, in HN. While it's popular and not surprising in general public (cheap joke sort of thing), it's quite disappointing here.

Re: Anonymous Wikipedia edits from the Norwegian parliament and government offices

#32
post #2

Better to just link to the tool: https://github.com/edsu/anon . ++ - Denmark ( https://twitter.com/FTingetWikiEdit ) - Sweden ( https://twitter.com/RiksdagWikiEdit ) - United States ( https://twitter.com/congressedits ) - Chile ( https://twitter.com/CongresoEdita ) - United Kingdom ( https://twitter.com/parliamentedits ) - France ( https://twitter.com/wikiAssemblee ) - Canada ( https://twitter.com/gccaedits ) ++ Loca…

If anyone wants to try this historically for an arbitrary IP block, Google's BigQuery has a snapshot of English Wikipedia edits from April 2010: https://developers.google.com/bigquery/docs/dataset-wikipedi...

Here's an example query: https://gist.github.com/jarib/c16345c19971e324ac82

Please star this issue to bring the snapshot up to date: https://code.google.com/p/google-bigquery/issues/detail?id=1...

Re: Anonymous Wikipedia edits from the Norwegian parliament and government offices

#33
Wikipedia is getting very awkward - it is clear that some articles are 100% propaganda, while others appear to have honest insight into world events.

I guess it's good to break the habit of thinking that history (like AP US History) can be read in an "unfiltered" way, but without something like a comprehensive database of every single Wikipedia edit, with tools to help detect bias (example: CIA wants to edit an article) Wikipedia will become a victim in the information arms race.

In this particular case, I think statistics can reverse the obvious "tragedy of the commons" situation with Wikipedia.

For example: tools to help with associating edits / edit conspiracy / sockpuppet detection

Re: Anonymous Wikipedia edits from the Norwegian parliament and government offices

#34

This is one of those cases where the changed Title on HN misleads [1]. These aren't changes from the 'government' they are changes from 'parliament and government offices'. Occams Razor would suggest they are more likely to be staffers and the occasional Patsy Cline-loving MP, rather than cabinet policies being enacted. [1] Title as I write is "10 years of anonymous Wikipedia edits from the Norwegian government"

I'm sorry about that. That's on me. It was necessary to edit it to get below the 80 char limit for post titles.

All good - I suspected that was the reason.

Re: Anonymous Wikipedia edits from the Norwegian parliament and government offices

#35
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you Norwegian? Because my understanding is that Scandinavians tend to be the most trusting of their governments and have the least corrupt and most transparent governments (perhaps excluding Iceland). It would strike me as odd to hear someone from Norway say they are conditioned to believe anything government does is necessarily bad.

Why excluding Iceland all the sudden? Iceland and Denmark have traditionally been included in the Scandinavian "zomg bestest democracy!!" model.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchenware_Revolution

Re: Anonymous Wikipedia edits from the Norwegian parliament and government offices

#36
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Muddy the waters"? I think lines, not water, are blurred :)

It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to understand what was meant : )

"Rocket engineer"? I think surgeons work on bodies, not rockets :)

Re: Anonymous Wikipedia edits from the Norwegian parliament and government offices

#37
post #2

Better to just link to the tool: https://github.com/edsu/anon . ++ - Denmark ( https://twitter.com/FTingetWikiEdit ) - Sweden ( https://twitter.com/RiksdagWikiEdit ) - United States ( https://twitter.com/congressedits ) - Chile ( https://twitter.com/CongresoEdita ) - United Kingdom ( https://twitter.com/parliamentedits ) - France ( https://twitter.com/wikiAssemblee ) - Canada ( https://twitter.com/gccaedits ) ++ Loca…

- Australia (https://twitter.com/AussieParlEdits)

- South Africa (https://twitter.com/parlizaedits)

- Germany (https://twitter.com/reichstagedits)

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