San Diego WikiScanner is a hot new website that allows users to follow the history of editorial changes on Wikipedia, the user-edited online encyclopedia of almost everything. Created by a computer science grad student, WikiScanner allows the curious to find out the Internet address of those making alterations to Wikipedia content. WikiScanner also provides the identity of the owner of the address, which in many cases turns out to be a corporation or government office with a possible interest in making itself look good. One local case in point is the biography of Mary Lindenstein Walshok, the associate vice chancellor of public programs and dean of extended studies at UCSD. In April 2005, according to WikiScanner, Walshok's one-paragraph biography on Wikipedia was edited by someone using a UCSD Internet address to add: "Mary is decorated with the rank of Knighthood, First Class, of the Royal Order of the Polar Star by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, in recognition of her significant contribution to the development of entrepreneurship in Sweden, May 2002."
San Diego WikiScanner is a hot new website that allows users to follow the history of editorial changes on Wikipedia, the user-edited online encyclopedia of almost everything. Created by a computer science grad student, WikiScanner allows the curious to find out the Internet address of those making alterations to Wikipedia content. WikiScanner also provides the identity of the owner of the address, which in many cases turns out to be a corporation or government office with a possible interest in making itself look good. One local case in point is the biography of Mary Lindenstein Walshok, the associate vice chancellor of public programs and dean of extended studies at UCSD. In April 2005, according to WikiScanner, Walshok's one-paragraph biography on Wikipedia was edited by someone using a UCSD Internet address to add: "Mary is decorated with the rank of Knighthood, First Class, of the Royal Order of the Polar Star by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, in recognition of her significant contribution to the development of entrepreneurship in Sweden, May 2002."
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