Wikipedia losing contributors, to streamline editing

Wikipedia is trying to simplify its editing procedures in response to declining numbers of contributors, founder Jimmy Wales said on the sidelines of an annual meeting today.
The user-generated online encyclopedia has been unable to attract new volunteer contributors after others stop helping out.

 

"We are not replenishing our ranks," the Associated Press quoted Wales as saying at the meeting in Haifa, Israel. "It is not a crisis, but I consider it to be important."

In March, the Web site had about 90,000 active contributors, and it's trying to recruit another 5,000 by June 2012, AP reported. It has more than 15 million registered users and 1,000 administrators, according to Wikipedia stats, and Google's DoubleClick Ad Planner indicates that it is one of the most popular sites on the Web.

Some contributors leave because Wikipedia has been around for 10 years and there is less demand for new articles. Others move on for personal reasons. Wales told the AP that the typical contributor is "a 26-year-old geeky male" who may move on to other pursuits and leave the site. Flame wars over edits also drive volunteers away.

To help stem the tide, Wikipedia says it will expand a program for teachers to assign entry writing to students. It will focus on students in India, Brazil, Canada, Germany, and Britain.
Wales told the more than 600 attendees in Haifa that content rules are "convoluted," the AP reported. "A lot of editorial guidelines... are impenetrable to new users," he said.

In a recent survey of Wikipedia editors, the most popular motivation cited for editing more frequently was "having others compliment you on your edits/articles."

To that end, the site has introduced WikiLove, feel-good icons that can be sent to editors to encourage them, similar to the "Like" button on Facebook, which, of course, may or may not be worth liking.

White House: Need to monitor online 'extremism'

A White House terrorism strategy released today says Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks aid in "advancing violent extremist narratives" and should be monitored by the government.
The 12-page strategy (PDF), which outlines ways to respond to violent extremism, promises that: "We will continue to closely monitor the important role the Internet and social-networking sites play in advancing violent extremist narratives."
President Obama said in a statement accompanying the report that the federal government will start "helping communities to better understand and protect themselves against violent extremist propaganda, especially online."
While much of the White House document is focused on al Qaeda--which The Washington Post recently reported is on the "brink of collapse"--it also talks about domestic terrorists, neo-Nazis, anti-Semitic groups, and a broad "range of ideologies" that promote radicalization.

 

Today's announcement may signal that monitoring of social networks will broaden beyond the U.S. Department of Homeland Security already does. Depending on the details, it could also raise concerns about how to balance Americans' privacy rights with desire of security agencies to collect and analyze information that is, more or less, publicly available.
In June 2010, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed publicly (PDF) that its agents were permitted to create accounts on social-networking sites in some situations.
DHS's National Operations Center "will monitor activities on the social-media sites" using search engines, aggregators, and other tools, last year's announcement said. "The NOC will gather, store, analyze, and disseminate relevant and appropriate de-identified information to federal, state, local, and foreign governments, and private sector partners..."

In addition, the Electronic Frontier Foundation unearthed documents showing that DHS officials were sending "friend" requests to people applying for U.S. citizenship. DHS conducted extensive monitoring of social networks during Obama's inauguration.

In 2009, CIA investment arm In-Q-Tel invested in Visible Technologies, which monitors millions of posts on social-networking Web sites, Wired reported. Tax collectors, too, are "nabbing scofflaws by mining information posted on social-networking Web sites," according to The Wall Street Journal, and the FBI has previously supported legislation that would allow federal police to monitor the Internet for "illegal activity."
This move toward monitoring social networks hasn't been without controversy. A New York Times editorial suggested these techniques may go too far: "If government agents are joining social networks under false pretenses to spy without a court order, for example, that might be crossing a line."
It's also not been limited to the United States.

In 2009, the U.K. Home Office announced it would monitor all conversations on social-networking sites, including Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Twitter, and Skype, in a crackdown on terrorists' use of the Internet. So has the Chilean government. And, of course, some repressive regimes have simply blocked Web sites completely.

Update 4:20 p.m. PT: Here's some background from a House Homeland Security hearing on July 27, where Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, warned of Internet radicalization:

We're investigating the radicalization of Muslim youth in the United States. Does anybody on this panel disagree with the notion that the radicalization of Muslim youth in the United States poses a threat to our homeland security? I take it by your silence that you agree with the idea that the radicalization of Muslim youth in the United States poses a direct threat to the security and safety of our homeland security. We know that three dozen Americans have left the United States, mostly from Minnesota, to join forces in Somalia, to receive training under al-Shabaab, to receive training by Al Qaida...
And clearly, al-Awlaki is becoming the emerging threat, you know, on the scene, in my judgment. He's radicalizing Muslim youth over the Internet here in the United States. And what easier way to do it? If you can't get into the country with travel documents, why not radicalize people who are already here? [Ed. Note: Anwar al-Awlaki is an alleged al Qaeda leader. Emphasis added.]

The same day, a subcommittee of the House Intelligence Committee held a hearing, where chairman Sue Myrick, a Republican from North Carolina, also stressed Internet radicalization. Referring to Samir Kahn, a U.S. blogger who reportedly moved to Yemen:

You know he was here, we knew it but we really couldn't do anything about it. Now, he's very successful because he's in a country where he can radicalized, he is radicalizing. We have proof of that with our young people. And you know, parents are very concerned about this happening to the young people because as you said the Internet, et cetera, is very easy today for people to get on any site they want to, and you know, be involved.
So, what is it that we can do? ... You know, what can we do and ensure that in the future not only with him but with others, how do we stop this or how can we continue to fight back against what could become homegrown terrorism, none of us want to see, and you know, that happens right here in our own backyard?

Of stolen secrets and surveillance

 

A widespread cyber-espionage campaign stole government secrets, sensitive corporate documents, and other intellectual property for five years from more than 70 public and private organizations in 14 countries, according to a McAfee researcher who uncovered the effort.

The campaign, dubbed "Operation Shady RAT" (RAT stands for "remote access tool"), was discovered by Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at the cyber-security firm McAfee. The targets cut across industries, including government, defense, energy, electronics, media, real estate, agriculture, and construction. The governments hit include the U.S., Canada, South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, and India.

Meanwhile, a White House terrorism strategy says Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks aid in "advancing violent extremist narratives" and should be monitored by the government. President Obama said in a statement accompanying the report that the federal government will start "helping communities to better understand and protect themselves against violent extremist propaganda, especially online."

iPad fastest at web browsing among mobile devices

The iPad blew away several other mobile devices at loading Web pages, according to a recent speed test conducted by researchers at Compuware.
Though the test was geared toward smartphones, and the iPad was used only as a reference point, Apple's popular tablet proved speedier at web browsing than the iPhone, HTC Desire, BlackBerry Torch, and several other mobile devices.
Conducted in July, the test tried to determine the impact of each device on Web site performance. Specifically, the analysis looked at two different measurements: 1) Page load time - how long it takes for a Web page to fully load; and 2) Perceived render time - how long it take for the visible portion of a page to appear to load in the browser.
To ensure that the results were of real-world conditions rather than those in a lab, Compuware took measurements from more than 200 million pages downloaded by the mobile devices of actual users in the U.S. last month. The firm captured and aggregated data via both cellular and Wi-Fi connections and different mobile browsers to see how users actually experience Web performance on their devices.
The results were then pared down to show only devices with more than one million page views.

 

In top place, the iPad's load time was 6.8 seconds, while its perceived render time was 5.09 seconds. Trailing close behind was the HTC Desire with a load time of 6.87 seconds and a perceived render time of 5.16 seconds.

Of the ten mobile devices analyzed (11 if the iPad is counted), the iPhone ended up about mid-range with a load time of 10.81 seconds and a perceived render time of 8.08 seconds. Though not a smartphone, the iPod Touch was included as well and scored slightly behind the iPhone.
In last place was the Motorola Droid with a load time of 15.35 seconds and a perceived render time of 11.92 seconds.

Compuware, which acquired Gomez in 2009, sells tools to enterprise customers to help them optimize their server applications. Gomez specifically helps customers monitor and manage their Web sites and Web-based applications.