MyWikiBiz
Coordinates: 39°56′23″N 75°36′42″W / 39.939586°N 75.611783°W
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Foundation date | 2006 |
| Headquarters | West Chester, Pennsylvania, US |
| Founder(s) | Gregory Kohs |
| Key people | Gregory Kohs (CEO) |
| Slogan(s) | Author Your Legacy |
| Website | www.mywikibiz.com |
| Alexa rank | 246,654 (August 2012[update])[1] |
| Type of site | Wiki |
| Advertising | Google AdSense |
| Registration | optional (required to edit pages) |
| Available in | Multilingual |
| Launched | 2006 |
| Current status | Active |
MyWikiBiz is a wiki directory that allows people and enterprises to write about themselves. The brand began as a service creating Wikipedia articles for paying corporations; the founder and owner of MyWikiBiz, Gregory Kohs, was soon blocked from Wikipedia.[2] As of September 2012[ref], the MyWikiBiz directory contained over 80,000 pages of content about corporations and individuals. The business is headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania.[3]
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History[edit]
Kohs and his sister started the MyWikiBiz venture in Pennsylvania in July 2006, initially as a paid editing service, writing content for inclusion in Wikipedia and other community-edited sites.[4][5] He considered the example of Wikipedia's "Reward Board", where interested parties would offer cash rewards or gifts to create or improve Wikipedia articles, as indicating his venture was within community standards.[3] MyWikiBiz's prices ranged between $49 and $99 USD for adding entries that conformed to Wikipedia's standards and policies.[3] No official Wikipedia policy prohibited paid-for contributions.[6] Kohs argued that there were tens of thousands of clearly notable companies and nonprofit organizations unrepresented on Wikipedia.[7]
Professor Jonathan Zittrain of the Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society discussed the case of MyWikiBiz in his book The Future of the Internet – And How to Stop It.[8] Kohs also appeared on Attack of the Show! on January 25, 2007, and discussed MyWikiBiz.[9]
Paid editing issues[edit]
Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales called the commercialized editing "antithetical" to Wikipedia's mission and "absolutely unacceptable"[3] and blocked Kohs' account from editing Wikipedia.[8] However, in August 2006, Wales issued a "mutually beneficial" compromise[10] where he encouraged MyWikiBiz to author and post content on a GFDL-compliant section of MyWikiBiz.com, which could then be scraped by non-paid, independent editors into Wikipedia and other GFDL sites.[8] Kohs' company had state that he was committed to following Wikipedia style and to write only about notable companies on Wikipedia.[3] The first few weeks that he wrote articles onto his own site saw ten articles transferred to Wikipedia that way.[11]
In October 2006 Wales again blocked Kohs from Wikipedia, and cautioned any business from using its services. In late October 2006, Kohs formed a partnership to promote and market a wiki-based directory at Centiare.com,[3][12] after which Kohs moved its contents to MyWikiBiz.com.[13] Heise Online expressed a suspicion that while MyWikiBiz's "attempted corporate infiltration" of Wikipedia was discovered, MyWikiBiz was not an isolated case.[14]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "Mywikibiz.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2012-08-02.
- ^ Read, Brock (2007-01-24). "Wikipedia Blocks a Pay-for-Play Scheme". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
- ^ a b c d e f Bergstein, Brian (2007-01-24). "Idea of paid entries roils Wikipedia". MSNBC/Associated Press. Retrieved 2008-08-20.
- ^ MyWikiBiz.com (2006-08-08). "MyWikiBiz press release: Wikipedia – Open For Business". 24-7 Press Release. Retrieved 2008-08-20.
- ^ Metz, Cade (2008-02-06). "Wikipedia ruled by 'Lord of the Universe'". The Register. Retrieved 2008-08-20.
- ^ Peer, Mathias (2006-08-24). "Wikipedia-Artikel, die man kaufen kann (Wikipedia articles that you can buy)". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 2008-08-20.
- ^ Noisette, Thierry (2006-08-11). "Wikipedia, nouvel enjeu de relations publiques (Wikipedia, a new issue of public relations)" (in French). ZDNet. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
- ^ a b c Zittrain, Jonathan (2008). The Future of the Internet – And How to Stop It. Yale University Press. p. 140. ISBN 0-300-12487-2.
- ^ dvinson (2007-01-15). "Attack of the Show: Blog, January 15, 2007". Attack of the Show: Blog. G4TV. Retrieved 2007-10-15. "Gregory Kohs, webmaster for mywikibiz.com and Molly Wood, the Executive Editor from C-Net join us tonight at 7PM to discuss!"
- ^ Wales, Jimmy (2006-08-09). "MyWikiBiz". WikiEn-L. Retrieved 2008-08-20.
- ^ "Why the idea of paid entries annoys Wikipedia". Mail & Guardian. November 9, 2007. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
- ^ "Centiare on the heels of Wikipedia". press release. 2007-01-05. Retrieved 2008-08-20.
- ^ Sebastian Ryszard Kruk, Bill McDaniel, and W. William D. McDaniel, ed. (2008). Semantic Digital Libraries. Springer. p. 58. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
- ^ Jellen, Richard (2007-03-31). "Edit-War um Friedrich Merz (Edit War on Friedrich Merz)" (in German). Heise Online. Retrieved 2008-08-20.
External links[edit]
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