Kazakhstan

thekohser · Unread post by **thekohser** » Fri Mar 27, 2015 10:42 am

Carcharoth wrote:Goodness only knows what will happen in any power vacuum that arises after Nazarbayev's decades long rule.

Rauan will assume power and appoint Jimbo as Foreign Minister. It'll be fine, don't worry.

Unread post by **HRIP7** » Fri Mar 27, 2015 12:31 pm

Carcharoth wrote:I've been following this thread and topic with some interest, because I actually visited Kazakhstan in 2012. My memories of the place include being told by a security guard to delete photographs I took in a shopping mall, and the way sometimes the place felt more Russian than Russia, but with an emphasis on Kazakh nationality and ethnicity as well.

Goodness only knows what will happen in any power vacuum that arises after Nazarbayev's decades long rule.

It's not just that. Foreign policy people like Allison like Nazarbayev because of his stance on nuclear proliferation.

But you cannot go about spouting how you are a champion of free speech, while at the same time doing realpolitik with dictators.

Moreover, working with dictators ("he's a bastard, but he's our bastard") often has undesirable long-term effects that in aggregate far outweigh the short-term benefits. The oppressed population remembers on whose side you were, and so do their children. The whole Middle East is arguably a testament to that.

Vigilant · Unread post by **Vigilant** » Fri Mar 27, 2015 12:52 pm

HRIP7 wrote:
Carcharoth wrote:I've been following this thread and topic with some interest, because I actually visited Kazakhstan in 2012. My memories of the place include being told by a security guard to delete photographs I took in a shopping mall, and the way sometimes the place felt more Russian than Russia, but with an emphasis on Kazakh nationality and ethnicity as well.

Goodness only knows what will happen in any power vacuum that arises after Nazarbayev's decades long rule.
It's not just that. Foreign policy people like Allison like Nazarbayev because of his stance on nuclear proliferation.

But you cannot go about spouting how you are a champion of free speech, while at the same time doing realpolitik with dictators.

Moreover, working with dictators ("he's a bastard, but he's our bastard") often has undesirable long-term effects that in aggregate far outweigh the short-term benefits. The oppressed population remembers on whose side you were, and so do their children. The whole Middle East is arguably a testament to that.

And large hunks of Central and South America...

Poetlister · Unread post by **Poetlister** » Fri Mar 27, 2015 4:45 pm

HRIP7 wrote:Moreover, working with dictators ("he's a bastard, but he's our bastard") often has undesirable long-term effects that in aggregate far outweigh the short-term benefits. The oppressed population remembers on whose side you were, and so do their children. The whole Middle East is arguably a testament to that.

That all depends how you define the Middle East, of course.

Unread post by **HRIP7** » Sat Mar 28, 2015 4:52 pm

One of my Signpost colleagues found this jewel:

https://archive.today/COdXn
https://archive.today/eXuu3
https://archive.today/O1q1l

https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Edu ... Kazakhstan
https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tal ... Kazakhstan

Primary Contacts[edit]

Kazakh students at Wikimania 2013 in Hong Kong

Rauan Kenzhekhanuly
Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, Founder of WikiBilim

Dr. Bakytgul Salykhova, Teacher Trainer

Program Description[edit]
WikiBilim[edit]
WikiBilim encourages Kazakh Wikipedia’s use in educational institutions in Kazakhstan.
Four student clubs are getting started and 10 Wikipedia Ambassadors run campus-based trainings each week.
Rauan sees students as the main consumers of the information they’re creating on Kazakh Wikipedia, and he hopes to encourage them to join the community of editors and contribute to the 200,000 article goal WikiBilim set last year.
Wikipedia Clubs[edit]
Dr. Salykhova helped to organize “Wikipedia Clubs” in intellectual schools. From February to May 2013, they held seminars and workshops for students and teachers in 10 public schools in Kazakhstan, events that were attended by over 300 students and 40 teachers. During the seminars she explained how to write encyclopedic articles, how to edit, upload photos and make links. During the workshops, students worked both individually and in groups to write articles and then they present them in front of other students. She likes and try to use Wikipedia article writing as a tool in the teaching of school and university subjects. In her example, she used Kazkah literature. This is link for some of the editing articles https://kk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D2%9A%D0 ... _Salykhova.

Additional Information[edit]
Wikimedia Blog: Kazakh students travel to Wikimania 2013 in Hong Kong
Wikimedia Blog: Class assignment inspired Wikipedian of the Year to grow Kazakh Wikipedia

Today I met Dr. Bakytgul Salykhova at EduWiki in Edinburgh and she told me about the outreach work she is doing training teachers to edit Kazakh Wikipedia in Kazakhstan. In addition to training teacher, they also have wiki clubs in some schools that were specially chosen because they are highly academic, have internet connection and computers, and were interested in having a wiki club on their campus. Dr. Salykhova goes to those schools and presents to students in assemblies and then teaches the interested students how to edit Wikipedia, and now teachers in the schools work with the students, too. They translate articles from English and Russian into Kazakh. Many Kazakh students attended Wikimania 2013 in Hong Kong and felt so inspired. (See blog post here: https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/23/k ... ania-2013/.) They realized that they only have 200,000 articles in Kazakh Wikipedia, and they wanted to do something about that. But it's not always easy because they are only 14 or 15 years old and sometimes the quality of their content is lacking. And so Dr. Salykhova would like to learn more about how to use Wikipedia as a teaching tool in high school classrooms and is interested in hosting an EduWiki conference for teachers in Almaty or Astana. She and I will be following up after the conference. Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 16:44, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

Unread post by **HRIP7** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 7:57 am

I asked Anna Koval (WMF) about the Kazakh outreach programme two days ago. No reply to date.

Also:

https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/w ... 77332.html

The recent Newsweek story on the Wifione / IIPM admin corruption case[1]
has clear implications for Wikipedia Zero.

Wikipedia Zero creates hundreds of millions of passive Wikipedia users who:

- Cannot see the sources of a Wikipedia article (I believe SMS users cannot
even see which statements *are* sourced and to what)
- Cannot view alternative sources
- Cannot meaningfully edit Wikipedia (lacking access to new sources)

At the same time, Wikipedia Zero creates a monopoly position for Wikipedia
that makes the site an even greater target for manipulation by local
elites, who *do* enjoy full read/write access to Wikipedia. Such monopolies
are fundamentally incompatible with the values underlying the idea of a
free and open web. Monopolies ultimately result in *control* rather than
*freedom* of information.

The Wifione case illustrates that even in the English Wikipedia attempts at
manipulation, focused on topics that the average Wikipedia contributor has
little interest in or knowledge about, can be successful and remain
undetected for years. Small, regional-language Wikipedias are far more
unstable still, as the example of the Croatian Wikipedia demonstrated all
too clearly.

Wikipedia is far too vulnerable to become the gatekeeper for information in
developing countries -- if such a gatekeeper were even desirable (which it
is not).

To give another example, I see that Wikipedia Zero is available in
Kazakhstan.

Jimmy Wales recently asserted on Reddit that the Kazakh government "does
not control the Kazahk *[sic]* Wikipedia".[2]

The Kazakh government, however, seems to disagree with Jimmy Wales.[3]

The Kazakh Prime Minister's official website has stated since 2011 that the
Kazakh Wikipedia project "is implemented under the auspices of the
Government of Kazakhstan and with the support of Prime Minister Karim
Massimov", quoting the head of WikiBilim and 2011 Wikipedian of the Year,
who today holds the office of a Deputy Governor in the Kazakh government[4]
and is the Founding Director of a Brussels-based think tank, the "Eurasian
Council on Foreign Affairs", which is widely considered a PR front of the
Kazakh government.[5][6][7]

Is aiding the market dominance and penetration of such a source through
Wikipedia Zero in line with movement values? Is the type of collaboration
described on Wikimedia's Outreach page for Kazakhstan?[8] I don't think so.

I thought we were on the side of those fighting for freedom of speech, not
the side of those suppressing it.

It's a concrete example of Wikipedia Zero aiding an oppressive government
in the control of information -- not at some point in the future, but today.

For a thoughtful examination of the issues surrounding Wikipedia Zero, I'd
ask everyone to take 5 minutes of their time to listen to the presentation
Thomas Lohninger gave at the Chaos Communication Congress in December 2014,
"Net Neutrality: Days of Future Past?"[9] Time code 37:00 onward.

I would be glad to see the Wikimedia Foundation rejoin the ranks of those
fighting for freedom of speech, and a free and open web for all.

[1] http://www.newsweek.com/2015/04/03/mani ... 16133.html
[2] https://archive.today/nyt1z – for the entire discussion tree, see https://archive.today/V1uG4
[3] https://archive.today/7kSLO
[4] http://www.inform.kz/eng/article/2730173
[5] http://www.silkroadreporters.com/2015/0 ... azakhstan/
[6] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 57426.html
[7] http://www.equaltimes.org/pr-firms-at-t ... e-of-human
[8] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Edu ... Kazakhstan https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tal ... Kazakhstan
[9] http://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/201 ... inger.html

Unread post by **HRIP7** » Thu Apr 02, 2015 11:41 pm

Casey Michel, Eurasianet, April 2, 2015: Wikipedia Founder Distances Himself from Kazakhstan PR Machine

The key to massaging your own Wikipedia profile is not getting caught. But Kazakhstan’s efforts to turn the freely editable online encyclopedia into free advertising are yet again in the spotlight.

On March 20, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales hosted an Ask Me Anything conversation (AMA) on Reddit, a social-networking platform. Before long the audience was questioning Wales’s and Wikipedia’s roles in helping to improve Kazakhstan’s image. Back in 2011, Wales awarded a once-and-future Kazakh government employee, Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, the inaugural “Wikipedian of the Year” for his work with WikiBilim, a Kazakh-language platform criticized both for receiving state funds and for publishing multiple articles toeing the authoritarian government’s line. At the time, Wales told EurasiaNet.org, “As far as I know, the WikiBilim organization is not politicized.”

But during the AMA, Wales backpedaled on his decision to name Kenzhekhanuly the first Wikipedian of the Year.

Wales was on the receiving end of a fresh round of criticism last year when Kenzhekhanuly was named deputy governor of Kazakhstan’s Kyzylorda region. During the AMA, a commenter asked Wales if he would have bestowed the award had he known Kenzhekhanuly would go on to serve as deputy governor. “If I had known in 2011 that someone would get a job that I disapprove of in 2014, would I refuse to give them an award in 2011?” Wales responded. “Yes, I would have refused to give that award.”

Wales also clarified that Kenzhekhanuly “was not a government official” at the time of the award – which is, technically, true. However, according to Kenzhekhanuly’s LinkedIn profile, before receiving the award he had served both as a policy adviser to the governor in Kazakhstan’s Mangystau region, as well as first secretary at Kazakhstan’s embassy in Moscow. After the AMA, Wales said by email that he was “not aware” Kenzhekhanuly had held those positions.

[...]

Vigilant · Unread post by **Vigilant** » Fri Apr 03, 2015 12:34 am

HRIP7 wrote:Casey Michel, Eurasianet, April 2, 2015: Wikipedia Founder Distances Himself from Kazakhstan PR Machine

The key to massaging your own Wikipedia profile is not getting caught. But Kazakhstan’s efforts to turn the freely editable online encyclopedia into free advertising are yet again in the spotlight.

On March 20, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales hosted an Ask Me Anything conversation (AMA) on Reddit, a social-networking platform. Before long the audience was questioning Wales’s and Wikipedia’s roles in helping to improve Kazakhstan’s image. Back in 2011, Wales awarded a once-and-future Kazakh government employee, Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, the inaugural “Wikipedian of the Year” for his work with WikiBilim, a Kazakh-language platform criticized both for receiving state funds and for publishing multiple articles toeing the authoritarian government’s line. At the time, Wales told EurasiaNet.org, “As far as I know, the WikiBilim organization is not politicized.”

But during the AMA, Wales backpedaled on his decision to name Kenzhekhanuly the first Wikipedian of the Year.

Wales was on the receiving end of a fresh round of criticism last year when Kenzhekhanuly was named deputy governor of Kazakhstan’s Kyzylorda region. During the AMA, a commenter asked Wales if he would have bestowed the award had he known Kenzhekhanuly would go on to serve as deputy governor. “If I had known in 2011 that someone would get a job that I disapprove of in 2014, would I refuse to give them an award in 2011?” Wales responded. “Yes, I would have refused to give that award.”

Wales also clarified that Kenzhekhanuly “was not a government official” at the time of the award – which is, technically, true. However, according to Kenzhekhanuly’s LinkedIn profile, before receiving the award he had served both as a policy adviser to the governor in Kazakhstan’s Mangystau region, as well as first secretary at Kazakhstan’s embassy in Moscow. After the AMA, Wales said by email that he was “not aware” Kenzhekhanuly had held those positions.

[...]

Ooooh, that's gonna leave a mark.

Holy shit, his "Ask me anything" link goes right to my base question...

I don't think the unblocking of my Vigilant account is going to happen anytime soon.

Unread post by **HRIP7** » Fri Apr 03, 2015 10:09 am

Joe Peerson, Silk Road Reporters, April 2 2015: Wikipedia Founder Distancing Self from Kazakh PR Machine

thekohser · Unread post by **thekohser** » Tue Apr 07, 2015 12:36 pm

Another news source that says Jimbo is a flip-flopper:

Wikipedia founder thinks twice about Kazakhstan
April 6, 2015
NewEurope Online

If anything, the accompanying photo of Jimbo is great, in all its rotundity. I've modified it slightly here:

Jimmy Wales, in Saturday Night Fibber

Vigilant · Unread post by **Vigilant** » Tue Apr 07, 2015 2:27 pm

Jimmy's turning into Eric Corbett.

Unread post by **Peter Damian** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 9:50 pm

HRIP7 wrote:Casey Michel, Eurasianet, April 2, 2015: Wikipedia Founder Distances Himself from Kazakhstan PR Machine

The key to massaging your own Wikipedia profile is not getting caught. But Kazakhstan’s efforts to turn the freely editable online encyclopedia into free advertising are yet again in the spotlight.

On March 20, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales hosted an Ask Me Anything conversation (AMA) on Reddit, a social-networking platform. Before long the audience was questioning Wales’s and Wikipedia’s roles in helping to improve Kazakhstan’s image. Back in 2011, Wales awarded a once-and-future Kazakh government employee, Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, the inaugural “Wikipedian of the Year” for his work with WikiBilim, a Kazakh-language platform criticized both for receiving state funds and for publishing multiple articles toeing the authoritarian government’s line. At the time, Wales told EurasiaNet.org, “As far as I know, the WikiBilim organization is not politicized.”

But during the AMA, Wales backpedaled on his decision to name Kenzhekhanuly the first Wikipedian of the Year.

Wales was on the receiving end of a fresh round of criticism last year when Kenzhekhanuly was named deputy governor of Kazakhstan’s Kyzylorda region. During the AMA, a commenter asked Wales if he would have bestowed the award had he known Kenzhekhanuly would go on to serve as deputy governor. “If I had known in 2011 that someone would get a job that I disapprove of in 2014, would I refuse to give them an award in 2011?” Wales responded. “Yes, I would have refused to give that award.”

Wales also clarified that Kenzhekhanuly “was not a government official” at the time of the award – which is, technically, true. However, according to Kenzhekhanuly’s LinkedIn profile, before receiving the award he had served both as a policy adviser to the governor in Kazakhstan’s Mangystau region, as well as first secretary at Kazakhstan’s embassy in Moscow. After the AMA, Wales said by email that he was “not aware” Kenzhekhanuly had held those positions.

[...]

Right, so he can't wriggle out by saying he wasn't aware of it when he gave the award, or in 2013 or 2014. I am searching for the threads where he was asked about this earlier. He surely must have been aware, no?

Unread post by **Peter Damian** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 10:01 pm

Aha

Kazakhstan’s government sanctioned a foundation called WikiBilim last year, which creates material for a Kazakh Wikipedia. The organisation, which has 25 staff, is backed by Kazakhstan’s sovereign oil wealth fund and run by Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, an ex-government official.

He [Jimmy] told The Telegraph attempts to link Mr Blair's work with Wikipedia in kazakhstan were the work of "some deranged conspiracy theorists". The friendship was raised by Andreas Kolbe, a prolific UK-based Wikipedia contributor and frequent critic of the way the Wikimedia Foundation operates. Mr Wales told him to “please stay off my Talk page”.

“I've had enough of you. I'll delete anything you post there, and if you persist, I'll ask others to help delete anything you post there,” he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/w ... dship.html

If I remember right, Jimmy got a copy of this report deleted from the Daily Mail, but failed to intimidate the Telegraph. Since he was interviewed by the Telegraph, and since he complained about the article, how was he not aware that Kenzhekhanuly was an ex-government official.

Jimmy was also interviewed by a Kazakh friend of mine, where she also mentioned the fact. Has he forgotten this?

DanMurphy · Unread post by **DanMurphy** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 10:05 pm

Peter Damian wrote:Aha

Kazakhstan’s government sanctioned a foundation called WikiBilim last year, which creates material for a Kazakh Wikipedia. The organisation, which has 25 staff, is backed by Kazakhstan’s sovereign oil wealth fund and run by Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, an ex-government official.

He [Jimmy] told The Telegraph attempts to link Mr Blair's work with Wikipedia in kazakhstan were the work of "some deranged conspiracy theorists". The friendship was raised by Andreas Kolbe, a prolific UK-based Wikipedia contributor and frequent critic of the way the Wikimedia Foundation operates. Mr Wales told him to “please stay off my Talk page”.

“I've had enough of you. I'll delete anything you post there, and if you persist, I'll ask others to help delete anything you post there,” he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/w ... dship.html
If I remember right, Jimmy got a copy of this report deleted from the Daily Mail, but failed to intimidate the Telegraph. Since he was interviewed by the Telegraph, and since he complained about the article, how was he not aware that Kenzhekhanuly was an ex-government official.

Jimmy was also interviewed by a Kazakh friend of mine, where she also mentioned the fact. Has he forgotten this?

His dissembling on this is absurd. He and the WMF handed the Wikipedia Kazakhstan keys to a group of people wholly-funded by the Kazakh government, who it turned out (unsurprisingly) were all Kazakh government folks. His claim that "he didn't know" any of this doesn't make him look any better. Quite the contrary.

Vigilant · Unread post by **Vigilant** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 11:58 pm

Peter Damian wrote:
HRIP7 wrote:Casey Michel, Eurasianet, April 2, 2015: Wikipedia Founder Distances Himself from Kazakhstan PR Machine

The key to massaging your own Wikipedia profile is not getting caught. But Kazakhstan’s efforts to turn the freely editable online encyclopedia into free advertising are yet again in the spotlight.

On March 20, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales hosted an Ask Me Anything conversation (AMA) on Reddit, a social-networking platform. Before long the audience was questioning Wales’s and Wikipedia’s roles in helping to improve Kazakhstan’s image. Back in 2011, Wales awarded a once-and-future Kazakh government employee, Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, the inaugural “Wikipedian of the Year” for his work with WikiBilim, a Kazakh-language platform criticized both for receiving state funds and for publishing multiple articles toeing the authoritarian government’s line. At the time, Wales told EurasiaNet.org, “As far as I know, the WikiBilim organization is not politicized.”

But during the AMA, Wales backpedaled on his decision to name Kenzhekhanuly the first Wikipedian of the Year.

Wales was on the receiving end of a fresh round of criticism last year when Kenzhekhanuly was named deputy governor of Kazakhstan’s Kyzylorda region. During the AMA, a commenter asked Wales if he would have bestowed the award had he known Kenzhekhanuly would go on to serve as deputy governor. “If I had known in 2011 that someone would get a job that I disapprove of in 2014, would I refuse to give them an award in 2011?” Wales responded. “Yes, I would have refused to give that award.”

Wales also clarified that Kenzhekhanuly “was not a government official” at the time of the award – which is, technically, true. However, according to Kenzhekhanuly’s LinkedIn profile, before receiving the award he had served both as a policy adviser to the governor in Kazakhstan’s Mangystau region, as well as first secretary at Kazakhstan’s embassy in Moscow. After the AMA, Wales said by email that he was “not aware” Kenzhekhanuly had held those positions.

[...]
Right, so he can't wriggle out by saying he wasn't aware of it when he gave the award, or in 2013 or 2014. I am searching for the threads where he was asked about this earlier. He surely must have been aware, no?

It almost doesn't matter.

In Case A, he did know and is actively lying about his involvment, knowledge and conflict of interest.

In Case B, prior to giving the inaugural Wikipedian of the Year award, he did absolutely no due diligence, never googled the guy's name, never asked anyone any questions.
Purely incompetent.
One wonders, how did he get this person's name without ever googling him or having his qualifications presented?

Only in Jimboland ...

Unread post by **Peter Damian** » Thu Apr 09, 2015 6:44 pm

I emailed Anthony with the details of my research from the book, including an interview with Wikibilim, but I never got to see Ting Chen’s report on the Almaty press conference in June 2011. It’s clear from Ting’s comment here that the trip was on expenses, i.e. presumably paid out of public donations to the WMF, and he mentions writing a report. When I asked Jimmy in July 2013 if I could see the report, he told me to contact Ting directly. Ting declined to reply, as did Kat Walsh. I dared to suggest that the WMF was being ‘secretive’ Jimmy replied “it's just laughable to say that the WMF is secretive at all. Just laughable. It's evidence of your total disconnection with the facts of reality that you would even suggest such a thing.”So Jimmy, if I am totally disconnected with reality, how is it so hard to get public disclosure of an official report sent to the WMF board nearly four years ago? I understand WMF is a private organisation, and that it has the legal right to withhold information. But then don’t say it is ‘laughable’ to point out the secrecy, and don’t say this is evidence of “total disconnection with the facts of reality”. Ha. 5.80.83.4 (talk) 18:40, 9 April 2015 (UTC)

DanMurphy · Unread post by **DanMurphy** » Thu Apr 09, 2015 6:53 pm

thekohser · Unread post by **thekohser** » Thu Apr 09, 2015 6:56 pm

Peter Damian wrote:
I emailed Anthony with the details of my research from the book, including an interview with Wikibilim, but I never got to see Ting Chen’s report on the Almaty press conference in June 2011. It’s clear from Ting’s comment here that the trip was on expenses, i.e. presumably paid out of public donations to the WMF, and he mentions writing a report. When I asked Jimmy in July 2013 if I could see the report, he told me to contact Ting directly. Ting declined to reply, as did Kat Walsh. I dared to suggest that the WMF was being ‘secretive’ Jimmy replied “it's just laughable to say that the WMF is secretive at all. Just laughable. It's evidence of your total disconnection with the facts of reality that you would even suggest such a thing.”So Jimmy, if I am totally disconnected with reality, how is it so hard to get public disclosure of an official report sent to the WMF board nearly four years ago? I understand WMF is a private organisation, and that it has the legal right to withhold information. But then don’t say it is ‘laughable’ to point out the secrecy, and don’t say this is evidence of “total disconnection with the facts of reality”. Ha. 5.80.83.4 (talk) 18:40, 9 April 2015 (UTC)

Ting Chen (who beat me in that particular year's WMF board election) said (in German):

Jimmy gave Rauan the prize solely because the editor figures had risen consistently and persistently in Kazakh Wikipedia since early 2011.

That is an excellent example of how easy it is to leverage Jimbo's "assume good faith" pathology against him. The Kazakh regime was able to pay young government stooges to start replacing Kazakh Wikipedia with Official Kazakhstan Encyclopedia. And not only was Jimbo's thought process not to investigate what was spurring such unusually suspicious traffic activity, his thought was to give some money to and bestow honors on the guy orchestrating the scheme!

Vigilant · Unread post by **Vigilant** » Thu Apr 09, 2015 7:00 pm

thekohser wrote:
Peter Damian wrote:
I emailed Anthony with the details of my research from the book, including an interview with Wikibilim, but I never got to see Ting Chen’s report on the Almaty press conference in June 2011. It’s clear from Ting’s comment here that the trip was on expenses, i.e. presumably paid out of public donations to the WMF, and he mentions writing a report. When I asked Jimmy in July 2013 if I could see the report, he told me to contact Ting directly. Ting declined to reply, as did Kat Walsh. I dared to suggest that the WMF was being ‘secretive’ Jimmy replied “it's just laughable to say that the WMF is secretive at all. Just laughable. It's evidence of your total disconnection with the facts of reality that you would even suggest such a thing.”So Jimmy, if I am totally disconnected with reality, how is it so hard to get public disclosure of an official report sent to the WMF board nearly four years ago? I understand WMF is a private organisation, and that it has the legal right to withhold information. But then don’t say it is ‘laughable’ to point out the secrecy, and don’t say this is evidence of “total disconnection with the facts of reality”. Ha. 5.80.83.4 (talk) 18:40, 9 April 2015 (UTC)
Ting Chen (who beat me in that particular year's WMF board election) said (in German):
Jimmy gave Rauan the prize solely because the editor figures had risen consistently and persistently in Kazakh Wikipedia since early 2011.
That is an excellent example of how easy it is to leverage Jimbo's "assume good faith" pathology against him. The Kazakh regime was able to pay young government stooges to start replacing Kazakh Wikipedia with Official Kazakhstan Encyclopedia. And not only was Jimbo's thought process not to investigate what was spurring such unusually suspicious traffic activity, his thought was to give some money to the guy orchestrating the scheme!

So, the claim is that Jimbo did ZERO DUE DILIGENCE on the recipient of the inaugural winner of the most prestigious prize in all of wikiland?

And that's good ... how?

Unread post by **HRIP7** » Fri Apr 10, 2015 9:17 am

Peter Damian wrote:Aha

Kazakhstan’s government sanctioned a foundation called WikiBilim last year, which creates material for a Kazakh Wikipedia. The organisation, which has 25 staff, is backed by Kazakhstan’s sovereign oil wealth fund and run by Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, an ex-government official.

He [Jimmy] told The Telegraph attempts to link Mr Blair's work with Wikipedia in kazakhstan were the work of "some deranged conspiracy theorists". The friendship was raised by Andreas Kolbe, a prolific UK-based Wikipedia contributor and frequent critic of the way the Wikimedia Foundation operates. Mr Wales told him to “please stay off my Talk page”.

“I've had enough of you. I'll delete anything you post there, and if you persist, I'll ask others to help delete anything you post there,” he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/w ... dship.html
If I remember right, Jimmy got a copy of this report deleted from the Daily Mail, but failed to intimidate the Telegraph. Since he was interviewed by the Telegraph, and since he complained about the article, how was he not aware that Kenzhekhanuly was an ex-government official.

Jimmy was also interviewed by a Kazakh friend of mine, where she also mentioned the fact. Has he forgotten this?

The deleted Daily Mail article: https://web.archive.org/web/20121224215 ... links.html

The Daily Dot called the Wikipedian of the Year a "Kazakh government man through and through", a "former paid propaganda flack for the authoritarian Kazakh government, known for its iron control over free media and awful human-rights record", in December 2012.

Rauan Kenzhekhanuly's career in the Kazakh government has been public knowledge for years. He has a candid LinkedIn profile, which has been up since at least 2012 (it was linked to here in the early days of this thread). His prior jobs included:

- First Secretary of Kazakhstan's embassy in Moscow.
- Policy Adviser to the Governor of Mangystau Oblast.
- Moscow Bureau Chief of Khabar, Kazakhstan's state-owned TV broadcaster.

In 2008 he received a medal from President Nazarbayev, for his "contribution to the formation and development of Republic of Kazakhstan".

Wales still defended the award in 2013, saying he would give it again, "proudly", even in full awareness of the government funding.

Unread post by **HRIP7** » Fri Apr 10, 2015 10:06 am

Vigilant wrote:So, the claim is that Jimbo did ZERO DUE DILIGENCE on the recipient of the inaugural winner of the most prestigious prize in all of wikiland?

And that's good ... how?

There is another dimension to Wales' (and Gardner's) visibility in Davos, his friendship with Blair and all those Kazakhstan consultants, even the Belfer Center's links to the Stanton Foundation, which Wales, being entirely focused on protecting his own ass, has never really allowed a discussion of.

We know that there is a whole little army of "friends of Kazakhstan" surrounding Wales, who are all keen to promote the Kazakh regime in the West. Wales co-chaired a meeting in Davos that was reportedly attended by Nazarbayev personally.

Now put yourself in the shoes of Nazarbayev and his host of willing servantsconsultants. Does anyone think they never discussed this, and this Kazakh Wikipedia thing (including state funding for 25 paid staff) just happened? Not even the Kazakhs themselves thought that.

In June 2011 Kazpravda openly reported (in English) that WikiBilim was "purpose-organized by Kazakhstani activists of Wikipedia at the initiative and for the money of Samruk-Kazyna".

Yet the line Wikimedia and Harvard sold to the community, and the public, was that it was just Rauan and his mates – the Kazakh equivalent of a wiki meet-up in a pub.

Rauan worked in civil service in Kazakhstan [this makes him sound like a lowly civil servant rather than the high-flying diplomat he was] for several years before jumping at an opportunity to do a one-year fellowship at Harvard University in Boston [I am sure lots of Kazakhs, regardless of political views, get that sort of opportunity!]. As part of his fellowship, he took a class at the Kennedy School in fall 2010 that changed his life: Nicco Mele’s “Media, Politics, and Power in the Digital Age”, part of a pilot of the Wikipedia Education Program [paid for by the Stanton Foundation]. Students in Professor Mele’s class were required to read Andrew Lih’s book “The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World’s Greatest Encyclopedia” and contribute to the English Wikipedia. Rauan was hooked.

“Thanks to Nicco’s class I discovered the Wikipedia world. The influence was so profound that it brought me to a new path in my career,” he says. [New path indeed. Now handsomely rewarded, with a deputy governor job and funding for a Brussels think tank.] “While editing the article in English Wikipedia, I checked the Kazakh version as well. However, I was disappointed when I saw that Kazakh Wikipedia doesn’t have sustainable community.”

Rauan set out to change that. He recruited some friends [Yep. Just some mates.] and founded WikiBilim(bilim means “knowledge” in Kazakh), a nonprofit organization devoted to expand the availability of free knowledge on the internet in the Kazakh language. [You bet. Government-written knowledge, that is, like the Kazakh National Encyclopedia.]

In addition to this PR support from Wikimedia (how often do Wikimedia blog posts end up on the Harvard website?), WikiBilim used – and claimed permission to use – WMF trademarks. They were actually described (or described themselves?) as the "regional branch" of the Wikimedia Foundation in Kazakhstan on the Creative Commons website. So this wasn't all just Wales' doing.

thekohser · Unread post by **thekohser** » Fri Apr 10, 2015 11:40 am

Is there any way we could get the Daily Mail to go on record, for why they pulled that story down?

DanMurphy · Unread post by **DanMurphy** » Fri Apr 10, 2015 11:54 am

thekohser wrote:Is there any way we could get the Daily Mail to go on record, for why they pulled that story down?

I thought it was pretty convincingly established on this thread long ago that the Mail article had simply been plagiarized from the Telegraph. I was convinced of that at least.

Unread post by **HRIP7** » Fri Apr 10, 2015 12:07 pm

thekohser wrote:Is there any way we could get the Daily Mail to go on record, for why they pulled that story down?

Wales commented on the removal of the Daily Mail article here, in a masterful display of the politician's art of answering a different question than the one that was asked.

Do you not find it contradictory having such a cooperation with the Wikibilim public fund, which is funded by a state which in 2012 was included in a list of Internet enemies by international journalist organization "Reporters without Borders" (RSF) and which occupies 160th place in the RSF press freedom index?

- The Wikimedia Foundation is not supported in any form by the Government of Kazakhstan. We have categorically rejected any support. The Daily Mail had to remove your material (the paper edition talked about the relationship between Jimmy Wales, Tony Blair and President Nursultan Nazarbayev - auth.), and Telegraph had to make corrections to the material.

The Daily Mail article did indeed seem like just a rip-off of the Telegraph piece. However, the above Wales quote suggests that he was in touch with both papers (he certainly was in touch with The Telegraph).

DanMurphy · Unread post by **DanMurphy** » Fri Apr 10, 2015 12:31 pm

HRIP7 wrote:
thekohser wrote:Is there any way we could get the Daily Mail to go on record, for why they pulled that story down?
Wales commented on the removal of the Daily Mail article here, in a masterful display of the politician's art of answering a different question than the one that was asked.
Do you not find it contradictory having such a cooperation with the Wikibilim public fund, which is funded by a state which in 2012 was included in a list of Internet enemies by international journalist organization "Reporters without Borders" (RSF) and which occupies 160th place in the RSF press freedom index?

- The Wikimedia Foundation is not supported in any form by the Government of Kazakhstan. We have categorically rejected any support. The Daily Mail had to remove your material (the paper edition talked about the relationship between Jimmy Wales, Tony Blair and President Nursultan Nazarbayev - auth.), and Telegraph had to make corrections to the material.
The Daily Mail article did indeed seem like just a rip-off of the Telegraph piece. However, the above Wales quote suggests that he was in touch with both papers (he certainly was in touch with The Telegraph).

In that March 2013 interview Wales said:

Kazakh-Wikipedia is wholly owned and operated by Foundation Wikimedia, which is located in California, in the United States, and is not under the control or patronage of Karim Massimov in any shape or form. He's only publicly praised the project, which to me is completely fine, and that, of course, I can in no way control!

His comment is completely at odds with the truth as presented by Massimov's official government site in Dec. 2011:

“Kazaksha Wikipedia” project is implemented under the auspices of the Government of Kazakhstan and with the support of Prime Minister Karim Massimov, head of “Wikibilim” public fund Rauan Kenzhekhanuly said in an interview for PM.kz site.
“The Prime Minister expressed his support to the projects on the Kazakh content development.in particular, this is further implementation of “Kazaksha Wikipedia”, Rauan Kenzhekhanuly said.

The Government and the Prime Minister also expressed their support to the idea on promotion of Creative Commons (CC) licenses allowing to create favorable legal infrastructure for development of free content.

“We start building free online library of Kazakhstan on the basis of CC licenses. There is also a project on establishment of free educational video portal,” R.Kenzhekhanuly added.

As earlier reported, the work on development of “Kazaksha Wikipedia” was started in June 2011. The Kazakh universities, editor office of “Kazakhstan Encyclopedia” and volunteers developing the Kazakh content in the Internet are helping the fund.

“The number of articles in the Kazakh part of Wikipedia increased 10 times to 117 thousand. Thu number of active users participating in the writing and editing the articles makes 250 people compared to 4 people in April 2011,” the head of the project noted.

Due to it the Kazakh language climbed up 125 positions to 38th place in the Wikipedia languages rating and entered the number of 40 “Mature” Wikipedias. “Wikibilim” Kazakh fund (note: Wikibilim is wholly-funded by the Kazakh government and staffed by government employees) was named the Global Wikipedian 2011 at the international conference “Wikimania 2011” held in Israel in August this year.

Unread post by **HRIP7** » Fri Apr 10, 2015 1:45 pm

DanMurphy wrote:note: Wikibilim is wholly-funded by the Kazakh government and staffed by government employees

Actually they also claimed to have funding from the Open Society Institute/Open Society Foundations and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

I have to date been unable to find corroboration of that Open Society funding from sources other than WikiBilim. I would be interested to know if and when exactly this happened, and what exactly it was in support of.

As for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia made a complaint to Radio Free Europe last year that mentioned WikiBilim in passing.

Anthonyhcole · Unread post by **Anthonyhcole** » Sun Apr 12, 2015 12:07 am

The hard question has been auto-archived, unaddressed. It's safe to come back to your talk page now, Jimmy.

Unread post by **Zoloft** » Sun Apr 12, 2015 12:17 am

Anthonyhcole wrote:The hard question has been auto-archived, unaddressed. It's safe to come back to your talk page now, Jimmy.

Of course, there are other questions, Jimmy. Being a public figure has several downsides. Accountability for what you achieve and how you behave is the one that most pertains to you.

Anthonyhcole · Unread post by **Anthonyhcole** » Sun Apr 12, 2015 1:21 am

Zoloft wrote:
Anthonyhcole wrote:The hard question has been auto-archived, unaddressed. It's safe to come back to your talk page now, Jimmy.
Of course, there are other questions, Jimmy. Being a public figure has several downsides. Accountability for what you achieve and how you behave is the one that most pertains to you.

I think we expect too much of public figures simply by dint of them being public figures. But anyone who anoints himself the spokesperson for all who would build the world's encyclopedia and then unrepentantly welcomes WikiBilim into our warm embrace should consider leaving. He won't even admit his misstep and apologise. Good one Jimmy. You're living right up to the reputation.

Unless you sort this out - really sort it out and that includes owning up to your own incompetence in it - this will seriously hurt the encyclopedia's reputation and be a major factor in your humiliating fall from grace in the public's eye. If you don't care about the former, I'm sure you do about the latter. Assume a little genuine humility here, or have it forced upon you in a most uncomfortable way.

You got lucky with that 60 Minutes puff piece. You well know there is more than enough negative stuff on the record now for a less-charitable producer to gut you and your foundation. It's past time for you to start acting like a responsible adult or leave.

Vigilant · Unread post by **Vigilant** » Sun Apr 12, 2015 3:08 am

Anthonyhcole wrote:
Zoloft wrote:
Anthonyhcole wrote:The hard question has been auto-archived, unaddressed. It's safe to come back to your talk page now, Jimmy.
Of course, there are other questions, Jimmy. Being a public figure has several downsides. Accountability for what you achieve and how you behave is the one that most pertains to you.
I think we expect too much of public figures simply by dint of them being public figures. But anyone who anoints himself the spokesperson for all who would build the world's encyclopedia and then unrepentantly welcomes WikiBilim into our warm embrace should consider leaving. He won't even admit his misstep and apologise. Good one Jimmy. You're living right up to the reputation.

Unless you sort this out - really sort it out and that includes owning up to your own incompetence in it - this will seriously hurt the encyclopedia's reputation and be a major factor in your humiliating fall from grace in the public's eye. If you don't care about the former, I'm sure you do about the latter. Assume a little genuine humility here, or have it forced upon you in a most uncomfortable way.

You got lucky with that 60 Minutes puff piece. You well know there is more than enough negative stuff on the record now for a less-charitable producer to gut you and your foundation. It's past time for you to start acting like a responsible adult orand leave.

Fixed that for you.

Unread post by **HRIP7** » Tue Apr 14, 2015 10:41 am

Just noticed this, dated Saturday, 31 January 2015, on the website of the Kazakh Embassy to the UK:

Meeting of Ambassador Erzhan Kazykhanov with the founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales (archive)

The issues of development of the Kazakh segment of Wikipedia, as well as various aspects of cooperation of the Internet-encyclopedia with Kazakhstan’s leading Internet-resources were discussed at the meeting. Besides, an issue of organisation of Jimmy Wales’s first visit to Kazakhstan was touched upon as well.

To date, the Kazakh-language section of Wikipedia comprises over 41,000 registered users. It has from 10 to 12 million views each month. The Kazakh language has risen from 127th up to 32th position in Wikipedia’s languages list.

This meeting obviously predated the Reddit discussion in which Wales backed off from the award (which was to be presented in Kazakhstan, in the presence of the prime minister and president) for the first time.

thekohser · Unread post by **thekohser** » Tue Apr 14, 2015 10:53 am

HRIP7 wrote:Just noticed this, dated Saturday, 31 January 2015, on the website of the Kazakh Embassy to the UK:

Meeting of Ambassador Erzhan Kazykhanov with the founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales (archive)
The issues of development of the Kazakh segment of Wikipedia, as well as various aspects of cooperation of the Internet-encyclopedia with Kazakhstan’s leading Internet-resources were discussed at the meeting. Besides, an issue of organisation of Jimmy Wales’s first visit to Kazakhstan was touched upon as well.

To date, the Kazakh-language section of Wikipedia comprises over 41,000 registered users. It has from 10 to 12 million views each month. The Kazakh language has risen from 127th up to 32th position in Wikipedia’s languages list.
This meeting obviously predated the Reddit discussion in which Wales backed off from the award (which was to be presented in Kazakhstan, in the presence of the prime minister and president) for the first time.

I guess that was one good reason for moving from St. Petersburg, FL, to London. No Kazakh embassy in Florida.

Unread post by **HRIP7** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 10:33 am

The recent 60 Minutes programme showed Jimmy Wales telling a delegation of Kazakh schoolchildren at Wikimania 2014, "You're the real bright spot in your region. You know, all of your neigbouring countries are maybe not so good."

https://archive.org/details/KPIX_201504 ... 0/end/2820

(For context, view the preceding minute of the programme.)

Unread post by **HRIP7** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 10:46 am

Just for context, in terms of freedom of speech, which Wales professes to care so much about, here are the World Press Freedom Index ranks of some countries in the region:

#54 Mongolia
#88 Kyrgyzstan
#116 Tajikistan
#152 Russia
#160 Kazakhstan
#166 Uzbekistan
#176 China
#178 Turkmenistan

The 2015 World Press Freedom Index assigns ranks from 1 (Finland, best) to 180 (Eritrea, worst). Can anyone explain to me in what sense Kazakhstan is the real bright spot there?

Carcharoth · Unread post by **Carcharoth** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 10:53 am

The context of the wider region was mentioned in a recent BBC Magazine article:

Dreaming of Uighuristan

"The Chinese influence in Central Asia is growing [...] They almost control Uighur society in Kazakhstan."

Going back to last year, it may have been pointed out already, but the wider geopolitics include issues such as this:

Nervous Kazakhstan 'sensitive' about Ukraine question

"Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has even talked of leaving President Putin's Eurasian Economic Union "if it threatens independence""

Difficult to tell which way the chips will fall. In some very real sense, The Great Game (T-H-L) over Central Asia never really went away (as has been pointed out here in the past, and as anyone familiar with the region's history should be aware). Instead of the British Empire and Russia, it is now Russia, China and (less so) the USA.

Unread post by **HRIP7** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 11:07 am

Carcharoth wrote:The context of the wider region was mentioned in a recent BBC Magazine article:

Dreaming of Uighuristan

"The Chinese influence in Central Asia is growing [...] They almost control Uighur society in Kazakhstan."

Going back to last year, it may have been pointed out already, but the wider geopolitics include issues such as this:

Nervous Kazakhstan 'sensitive' about Ukraine question

"Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has even talked of leaving President Putin's Eurasian Economic Union "if it threatens independence""

Difficult to tell which way the chips will fall. In some very real sense, The Great Game (T-H-L) over Central Asia never really went away (as has been pointed out here in the past, and as anyone familiar with the region's history should be aware). Instead of the British Empire and Russia, it is now Russia, China and (less so) the USA.

There is no question that there are wider geopolitical considerations at stake. The Belfer Center folks for example, as far as I can make out, like the Kazakh regime because of its stance on nuclear non-proliferation and its openness to business. There is tons of money to be made in Kazakhstan.

However, realpolitik is not among the professed values of the Wikimedia movement.

thekohser · Unread post by **thekohser** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 12:27 pm

HRIP7 wrote:Can anyone explain to me in what sense Kazakhstan is the real bright spot there?

Your question is probably rhetorical and/or satirical, but to answer it anyway...

In Jimbo's feeble, one-track mind, he saw editor numbers swelling on the Kazakh Wikipedia. He didn't see them swelling on the neighboring countries' Wikipedias. He didn't bother himself to investigate the how or the why of the increase in editors (they were being hired by a government-funded program, in fact), and so, sending the Kazakhs his praise was a simple conclusion in Jimbo's feeble mind. That his mean-spirited side also kicked in ("all of your neighboring countries are maybe not so good") should be no surprise. After all, when he moved the WMF to the Silicon Valley region, he belittled St. Petersburg, Florida. When he moved himself to London, he in turn belittled Silicon Valley.

EricBarbour · Unread post by **EricBarbour** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 11:12 pm

Worth mentioning: Kazakhstan had an election yesterday, and the results were hysterically funny.

Kazakh leader apologizes for 97.7 percent re-election victory
Nazarbayev Wins ‘Unnoticeable’ Vote to Extend Kazakh Rule

Kazakh “voters were not offered a genuine choice between political alternatives,” the OSCE said in a statement on its website. “The incumbent and his political party dominate politics and there is lack of credible opposition in the country, with several prominent critics of the government either imprisoned or living in exile.”

Thanks Jimbo!

The objections were noted in Kazakhstani presidential election, 2015 (T-H-L). Watch that article for "mysterious deletions".

thekohser · Unread post by **thekohser** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 4:06 am

EricBarbour wrote:The objections were noted in Kazakhstani presidential election, 2015 (T-H-L). Watch that article for "mysterious deletions".

Better yet, watch the Kazakh version of the article. It already seems to be spouting WikiBilim's "official" version of knowledge:

Google Translate wrote:President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev new global test of confidence for the successful completion of the course of the country's national scale should be said that the mandate of its strategic course and thirty of the most powerful country in the world and continued to move his way to the large-scale modernization of the country.

Vigilant · Unread post by **Vigilant** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 4:17 am

thekohser wrote:
EricBarbour wrote:The objections were noted in Kazakhstani presidential election, 2015 (T-H-L). Watch that article for "mysterious deletions".
Better yet, watch the Kazakh version of the article. It already seems to be spouting WikiBilim's "official" version of knowledge:

Google Translate wrote:President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev new global test of confidence for the successful completion of the course of the country's national scale should be said that the mandate of its strategic course and thirty of the most powerful country in the world and continued to move his way to the large-scale modernization of the country.

Totally, totally not controlled by the Kazakh government...totally.

Unread post by **HRIP7** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 7:27 am

I would say Elections in Kazakhstan (T-H-L) in the English Wikipedia (permalink to status at the time of writing) is also controlled by the Kazakh government.

Or check

Kazakhstan#Human_rights_and_media

Kakahstan#Rule of Law

Kazakhstan#Anti-corruption initiatives

These are almost complete whitewashes, making Kazakhstan sound like the most advanced country in the world. One Kazakh embassy liked the Kazakhstan article so much, they tweeted it. Only in Wikipedia ...

I advised Wales of all of that months ago on Twitter, and asked him to initiate an investigation. Zero response.

thekohser · Unread post by **thekohser** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 10:23 am

HRIP7 wrote:I advised Wales of all of that months ago on Twitter, and asked him to initiate an investigation. Zero response.

Too busy with Ms. Kopel, counting the $500K gift from the United Arab Emirates.

Vigilant · Unread post by **Vigilant** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 4:19 pm

thekohser wrote:
HRIP7 wrote:I advised Wales of all of that months ago on Twitter, and asked him to initiate an investigation. Zero response.
Too busy with Ms. Kopel, counting the $500K gift from the United Arab Emirates.

DanMurphy · Unread post by **DanMurphy** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 5:08 pm

thekohser wrote:
EricBarbour wrote:The objections were noted in Kazakhstani presidential election, 2015 (T-H-L). Watch that article for "mysterious deletions".
Better yet, watch the Kazakh version of the article. It already seems to be spouting WikiBilim's "official" version of knowledge:

Google Translate wrote:President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev new global test of confidence for the successful completion of the course of the country's national scale should be said that the mandate of its strategic course and thirty of the most powerful country in the world and continued to move his way to the large-scale modernization of the country.

Second graph:

On 14 February 2015, the People's Assembly unanimously voted on the initiative to move presidential elections forward from 2016 to 2015. One motivation was that early elections would help the development of the country; another one was that it is a disadvantage to hold both presidential and parliamentary elections in the same year.

Source for that? The government-owned Kazakhstan Pravda.

The Wikipedia administrator responsible for that bit of "knowledge" and deployment of its "source" is one Yaroslav Blanter (T-H-L).

thekohser · Unread post by **thekohser** » Tue May 19, 2015 2:21 pm

While it was briefly mentioned in another Wikipediocracy post, I want to draw special attention to the opinion piece published by Haaretz, authored by Jimmy Wales and his hand-picked foundation-runner, Orit Kopel.

Wikipedia founder takes on censorship: Free information is key to functioning democracy
Haaretz
By Jimmy Wales and Orit Kopel
May 18, 2015

Interesting paragraphs:

The president of Kazakhstan, for instance, amended the communications law in 2014 to allow his regime to block websites and shut off communication networks without a court order. In the previous year, investigative reporters were restricted from publishing information about the corruption of public officials by an overly restrictive privacy protection law. As a result of the governmental control over the Internet, private bloggers and opposition activists have been practicing self-censorship to evade government reprisal.

Kazakhstan boasts about the increasing Internet penetration rates in the country in recent years. This is without doubt a step forward. However, such achievement must be viewed in light of the expanding censorship and governmental control over the Internet under the current Kazakh regime. Until the Internet users in Kazakhstan are free to express their opinions without fear, flattering statistics of user access should always be perceived with extreme skepticism.

No mention whatsoever that in 2011, Jimmy Wales pledged $5,000 to the once-and-future Kazakhstan government operative who was replacing Kazakh Wikipedia with a state-approved version.

EricBarbour · Unread post by **EricBarbour** » Wed May 20, 2015 8:37 am

He probably got the "photo-op" he wanted from Wiki-Bilim, and now it's time to turn his back....sounds like classic Jimbo to me.

thekohser · Unread post by **thekohser** » Wed May 20, 2015 10:34 am

It seems that Haaretz, after about 20 hours, still has not published my comment on the Jimmy Wales and Orit Kopel article.

Vigilant · Unread post by **Vigilant** » Wed May 20, 2015 3:53 pm

EricBarbour wrote:He probably got the "photo-op" he wanted from Wiki-Bilim, and now it's time to turn his back....sounds like classic Jimbo to me.

They really should put his photo in the article about NPD

Unread post by **HRIP7** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 7:18 am

The Kazakhstan articles, long a sort of walled garden, are now at the conflict-of-interest noticeboard:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ... Kazakhstan (permalink)

I told Wales about this last December on Twitter. He did nothing.

The problem is: if Wikipedia can't even deal with anonymous manipulation of its content about the world's 9th largest country (by area), a country with enormous mineral wealth and economic significance, what will it do for human knowledge if Wikidata and Wikipedia content is plugged into Google and Bing to become the world's default answer to everything?

(Unrelated to Kazakhstan, Thompson Coburn have a COI/N section too, a little further down.)

thekohser · Unread post by **thekohser** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 2:50 am

HRIP7 wrote:...Thompson Coburn have a COI/N section too, a little further down.

Your going after an editor like this is going to damage the great progress being made in bolstering the ratio of female editors, and surely Jimbo will be further disappointed in you...