Sue Gardner to get $25K from Knight Foundation

[thekohser]

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation just this year established the first "Knight Innovation Award", worth $25,000 to the recipient, plus another $25,000 to the innovative startup of the winner's choosing. Guess who won? Our favorite WMF executive director, of course!

No surprise, the Wikipedia article about the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (T-H-L) was largely written by a Knight communications manager, Robertsonadams (T-C-L).

[enwikibadscience]

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation just this year established the first "Knight Innovation Award", worth $25,000 to the recipient, plus another $25,000 to the innovative startup of the winner's choosing. Guess who won? Our favorite WMF executive director, of course!

No surprise, the Wikipedia article about the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (T-H-L) was largely written by a Knight communications manager, Robertsonadams (T-C-L).

Is a cease and desist letter in the works?

[EricBarbour]

Mr. Adams was also the creator of the Wikipedia biographies of John S. Knight (T-H-L) and James L. Knight (T-H-L), in 2005. The latter is still a stub after 8 years.

[HRIP7]

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation just this year established the first "Knight Innovation Award", worth $25,000 to the recipient, plus another $25,000 to the innovative startup of the winner's choosing. Guess who won? Our favorite WMF executive director, of course!

No surprise, the Wikipedia article about the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (T-H-L) was largely written by a Knight communications manager, Robertsonadams (T-C-L).

Is a cease and desist letter in the works?

Someone should ask Jimbo, given how close the topic of paid advocacy editing is to his heart.

[thekohser]

Someone should ask Jimbo, given how close the topic of paid advocacy editing is to his heart.

Jimbo would say that the editor at least disclosed his conflict of interest, and while he shouldn't have directly edited the article about his employer or the namesake founders, his activity took place before the "Bright Line Rule" had been formally decreed by Sir Jimbo.

[Cedric]

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation just this year established the first "Knight Innovation Award", worth $25,000 to the recipient, plus another $25,000 to the innovative startup of the winner's choosing. Guess who won? Our favorite WMF executive director, of course!

No surprise, the Wikipedia article about the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (T-H-L) was largely written by a Knight communications manager, Robertsonadams (T-C-L).

Is a cease and desist letter in the works?

Cease and desist letters are for bad people who are enemies of the wiki. Hagiographies are the reward of good people who are friends of free culture.

"Wrong thinking shall be punished!

Right thinking shall be as swiftly rewarded."

[enwikibadscience]

Someone should ask Jimbo, given how close the topic of paid advocacy editing is to his heart.

Jimbo would say that the editor at least disclosed his conflict of interest, and while he shouldn't have directly edited the article about his employer or the namesake founders, his activity took place before the "Bright Line Rule" had been formally decreed by Sir Jimbo.

Was that what he decreed to the community after announcing his intention to seek greater powers or somethhing in December 2012?

[enwikibadscience]

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation just this year established the first "Knight Innovation Award", worth $25,000 to the recipient, plus another $25,000 to the innovative startup of the winner's choosing. Guess who won? Our favorite WMF executive director, of course!

No surprise, the Wikipedia article about the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (T-H-L) was largely written by a Knight communications manager, Robertsonadams (T-C-L).

Is a cease and desist letter in the works?

Cease and desist letters are for bad people who are enemies of the wiki. Hagiographies are the reward of good people who are friends of free culture.

"Wrong thinking shall be punished!

Right thinking shall be as swiftly rewarded."

Can a stub really be a hagiography?

[EricBarbour]

Can a stub really be a hagiography?

Mr. Adams did almost nothing on Wikipedia, except the article about the Knight Foundation and the articles about its founders. I would say that qualifies.

[HRIP7]

Someone should ask Jimbo, given how close the topic of paid advocacy editing is to his heart.

Jimbo would say that the editor at least disclosed his conflict of interest, and while he shouldn't have directly edited the article about his employer or the namesake founders, his activity took place before the "Bright Line Rule" had been formally decreed by Sir Jimbo.

Just remind me ... when was that again?

[thekohser]

Someone should ask Jimbo, given how close the topic of paid advocacy editing is to his heart.

Jimbo would say that the editor at least disclosed his conflict of interest, and while he shouldn't have directly edited the article about his employer or the namesake founders, his activity took place before the "Bright Line Rule" had been formally decreed by Sir Jimbo.

Just remind me ... when was that again?

That depends.

Some might say June 2009:

"It is not ok with me that anyone ever set up a service selling their services as a Wikipedia editor, administrator, bureaucrat, etc.," he writes. "I will personally block any cases that I am shown. There are of course some possibly interesting alternatives, not particularly relevant here, but the idea that we should ever accept paid advocates directly editing Wikipedia is not ever going to be ok. Consider this to be policy as of right now."

For certain, the rule was fully fleshed out by the first half of 2012:

...you have not made any edits to article space (only talk pages) for many months - this is a very good thing indeed...

You will have my full support as long as a simple rule is followed: no editing of Wikipedia article space by paid advocates. There is absolutely no reason to ever do this - the talk pages, notice boards, wikiprojects, and OTRS provide ample opportunity for ethical engagement of Wikipedia. This is easy.

We can confirm Jimbo's recent support of his rule, even regarding some difficult test cases. On the goodness of Talk-page-only editing, see his praise of Arturo from BP. On the innocence of COI editors who acted prior to Jimbo's Bright Line Rule becoming widely known, see his forgiveness of the Uninor company writing its Wikipedia article in 2009.

[HRIP7]

Thanks, Greg.

[Mancunium]

Knight innovation award winner selects MuckRock for $25,000 grant
Poynter, 17 December 2013 link

Wikimedia’s Sue Gardner received the Knight Foundation’s first innovation award Monday night and she paid it forward with a $25,000 grant to MuckRock, an open government platform that eases requests for public records. Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation which operates the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, was honored for her leadership in digital media and universal access to the Internet. Since she was named as foundation executive director in 2007, Wikipedia has grown to become the world’s fifth largest website, the Knight Foundation said in a press release. [...]

Beyond a $25,000 award for herself, Gardner received a $25,000 grant to give away to a startup of her choosing — and she selected MuckRock. MuckRock’s user interface allows journalists and others to easily submit Freedom of Information requests to federal and state agencies.

MuckRock also makes requests for its own projects. In one of its latest efforts, it sought public records on the Boston Police Department’s automated license plate reader scanning program and found the department violated its own program rules and fell short in following up on leads produced by the scans. “The Boston Police Department, which took all scanners offline indefinitely as a result of MuckRock’s public records request, also gathered data on dozens of its own officers and failed to protect the sensitive personal information the surveillance program gathered,” according to a post by MuckRock’s Shawn Musgrave. [...]

MuckRock: link