Wikipedia founder hails role in US politics

FRANK JORDANS

The founder of Wikipedia hailed the online encyclopedia's role in helping halt US legislation aimed at cracking down on Internet piracy, saying the proposed bills needed to be stopped because they were flawed.

The idea to black out Wikipedia's English pages for 24 hours came from the site's volunteer editors, who voted overwhelmingly in favor of the move.

Wikipedia was among a number of sites that argued the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act would hurt technological innovation and infringe on free-speech rights. But the protest by Wikipedia, which has 470 million visitors each month, was the most high-profile stunt last week before Congress postponed the legislation indefinitely.

"Ordinary users of the Internet who really use it for doing their own creative work and sharing it with others, really believe very strongly in the importance of Net freedom," Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday.

The bills, he said, were "very badly designed, technologically incompetent, and just something that we felt needed to be stopped."

Wales said campaigners against the bills were told that with bipartisan support and strong lobbying by the movie and music industries, - who claim US companies lose billions of dollars to piracy every year - meant the legislation would almost certainly pass.

"I just thought: 'You know, I don't think that's true, I think we can do something about it.' So we did. And it worked," he said.

Some of Wikipedia's editors criticised the decision to take a political stance, saying it might hurt the site's credibility as an impartial source of information.

But Wales said that most of those involved with Wikipedia had been supportive.

"The drive to do this came from our community," he said. "A very long discussion and debate ensued that culminated in a vote that was overwhelmingly in favour."

Wales spoke during a visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where business and political leaders are meeting this week to discuss the state of the world. The Wikipedia founder has been a regular visitor in recent years along with a handful of artists, activists and innovators who are allowed to join the annual event in the Swiss Alps.

With Wikipedia's influence as a repository of facts continuing to grow, some big corporations have been tempted to edit their own entries in the online encyclopedia to remove unflattering information.

The worldwide CEO of public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, Mark Penn, told the AP earlier this week that companies "have to be vigilant for wildly inaccurate information."

Wales cautioned corporations against attempting to do any editing themselves.

"Never edit the entry about your company," he said, noting that Wikipedia has put in place a system for alerting its volunteers to inaccurate information. "If you're a PR firm, never edit an entry about one of your clients. Instead approach the community transparently."

Wikipedia is in the process of making changes to its site to encourage more people without computer coding skills to edit its pages, said Wales.

"We think (this) is going to bring in a whole new category of editors who are geeks, but not computer geeks, which we think is very important," he said. "Two years from now for sure you'll have a very different environment."

Wikipedia and its commercial sister-site Wikia are also investing in technology to make them easier to use on mobile devices.

Wales said the sites are becoming increasingly popular as a means of looking up quick facts while watching TV or playing video games - a phenomenon known as 'second screen' use.

"Something like Lost with a huge ensemble cast, a lot of subplots, a lot of symbolism and arcane bits of knowledge in the show. It's a really perfect companion for a wiki," he said. "What we've found is that maybe people are watching TV but they're reading about the show and looking up information as they watch it."

- AP