What is the actual situation of a hidden world that pays money to Wikipedia editors to post articles

ByGiulia Forsythe

Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, is a site that gathers a tremendous amount of information from all over the world, and everyone should have used it once or twice as a research material. Wikipedia is said to be the site that has the most access count in the world now, but there is no example to misuse it illegally as a place of company's PR using the posting system. Such a state, the so-called stealth marketing (stema) revealed the actual condition of a trader who uses Wikipedia and the countermeasure of Wikipedia against it.

The Covert World of People Trying to Edit Wikipedia for Pay - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/08/wikipedia-editors-for-pay/393926/?single_page=true

On January 11, 2013, James Heilman, a doctor engaged in emergency treatment and one of the editors of Wikipedia, decided to use Kiko Plasty(Percutaneous kyphotic surgery)I was about to edit the item of.

Kaifoplasty is one of the methods of treating the spinal fracture caused by compression with balloons. In Wikipedia, this annotation was attached to this treatment method "There is room for discussion", but there was a proposal to change from one user to "confirmed" on its credibility. Dr. Haemann confirmed the results of research published in 2009 which was shown, but decided to dismiss the rewriting of the text as content is insufficient.

Kaifo Plastici is a similar treatment and Bertebro Plasty which injects cement instead of a balloonPercutaneous vertebroplasty), It is said that it is a treatment method of spinal fracture crushed vertebrae, and in Japan Kaifor Plasticy is receiving health care.

These two treatments are treatments that began to spread in the 1990s, but the effect has not been scientifically verified for a long time, and the results of the research that it is "placebo effect" were also announced . However, it seems that the number of patients receiving this treatment has increased with age. Dr. Rachel Back Binder, a physician at Monarch University in Australia, says, "In my opinion, Kaiofoplasty is a treatment that has not been proved yet and its effect is equivalent to the placebo effect."

ByMichael Dorausch

Professor Shawn Tutton of the University of Wisconsin Medical College said, "If my mother complained of pain with a vertebral compression fracture, I would like to treat Vertoblasty I will recommend it without hesitation, "he says that he puts his trust in therapy.

Dr. Heilman who investigated the editorial proposal of Kaifoplasty began to have an interest in whom exactly cast this proposal. Therefore, Dr. Heilman searched the Wikipedia user name of the person who made the proposal on Google and sifted various search results, and found out that the person called Kim · Sherbull uses the same e-mail address as the user of Wikipedia It was. Furthermore, Dr. Heilman says Mr. Shellble sells medical equipmentMedtronicHe said that he worked at the company and that Medtronic had sold equipment related to Kypo Plasty.

ByJwilly

Although the evidence that Kaifor Plasticy is superior to Bertebro Plasty is not confirmed, it will make a big difference for medical equipment manufacturers. That is because Kaifoplasty's treatment kit is sold at a price of hundreds of thousands of yen against the treatment kit of Viteburo Plasty generally sold for tens of thousands of yen. In 2007 Medtronic was procuring materials at the cost of 4 billion dollars (about 480 billion yen at that rate) to manufacture the Kaifoplasty treatment kit.

Mr. Sherbull has already retired from Medtronic, and Medtronic also shows no correspondence regarding this matter. However, according to the record that Dr. Heilman interacted with the user, it seems that it is confirmed that Mr. Shelbull is the person who made the suggestion.

In this way, Wikipedia, which explains a wealth of items and generates huge traffic everyday, is inevitable to be regarded as "an important market tool" in addition to simply being an online dictionary. It is an important issue how to place the editor 's work, which is operated by volunteers almost entirely, with the company' s advertising activities, which is carried out with a large budget.

ByKristina Alexanderson

Since dismissing the above editing, dry comments such as "discrimination" about Doelman doctor will be written in "note" of the corresponding article. Although I was writing a comment as "Clay 1500", I found that this user's real name is Mr. Clay · Shower, and Mr. Shoubbe is also known to be an employee of Medtronic . Mr. Schwabe says "Heilman wrote that comment because he felt that he did not appreciate the article fairly," he said he emphasizes that it is not a writing as an employee of Medtronic.

After this interaction, Dr. Heilman received an email from Dr. Douglas Beaor, a radiologist living in Oklahoma. In e-mail Mr. Beolu recommended to check the paper in 2009 in detail, and said that the content of the indication was scientific based on good intentions. However, when the following two points become clear, it changes completely.

Mr. Beol served as a consultant for several companies, but since 2005 he has also been involved in Medtronic, at least he received $ 150,000 (about 15 million yen) from the company between 2012 and 2014 It is clear that it is. In addition, Mr. Beaul included more than 30 addresses in the CC when sending mails, but the name is "experts of spinal reinforcement in North America", and Dr. Heilman said " It is looking back on the situation. By the time the mail exchange ended, the address added to the CC reached more than 300 in all.

Dr. Heilman seems to have received contacts from companies such as IMS Health, GlaxoSmithKline, Alexion Pharma, among others, Medtronic's aggressive Wikipedia rewrite efforts are the worst case It is looking back.

ByMike Young

In 2007, representing the Wikimedia FoundationJimmy WalesIt is said that Mr. said that PR behavior by companies and others rewriting the contents of the article in exchange for money told Wikipedia that it is "opposite" to the purpose. Wikipedia did not respond to PR activities extensively once, but since 2010 it will strengthen the monitoring activities against PR activities that contradict such Wikipedia philosophy."Wiki-PR" company that was engaged in the editing work of Wikipedia for promotional purposesWas banished from the Wikipedia community at this time, Wikipedia will strengthen efforts on advertising activities and stealth marketing.

According to this, Mike Wood of freelance Wikipedia editor says that there is a change in the air of the community as well. Thanks to the atmosphere that became tougher for newcomers than before, even in situations where once a mistake was a little misunderstood, in situations where experienced editors are now intervening It says there is.

Due to its influence, it was announced in 2012A studyIt is indicated that the number of cooperators (Contributer) involved in the operation of Wikipedia is on a downward trend, and the reason is that there is no atmosphere that the community fully welcomes new participants as a reason.


In addition, according to Dr. Heilmann, the number of editors who dealt with medical topics from 2008 to 2013 has actually decreased by 40%. The editor's community has been influenced thanks to illegal acts of stemmer due to fewer hands and it is no longer giving time to more valuable work. "

Also, it is said that the fact that a terminal accessing Wikipedia is moving to a smartphone or tablet has an influence. Professor Andrew Lee of American UniversityArticles for the New York Times"Wikipedia has been supported by people who use keyboards (such as PCs) to find materials and talk about modifications." Smartphones are not a suitable terminal for such usage. "

Wikipedia managed by good will collaborators is a site that aims to be in a neutral position while holding numerous problems. On the other hand, however, it is true that there are individuals and companies that have the idea of ​​using that mechanism to tie into commercial activities. Beyond having such a mechanism, it is important for employers to have that mental attitude.

The following figure shows a description about Ebola hemorrhagic fever with WikipediaOxford Textbook of Zoonoses(A specialized book on animalogenic infections published by Oxford University Press). Although the yellow part is a part where it overlaps, the description of Wikipedia is 2010, whereas the Oxford Textbook of Zoonoses quotes the same entry in the 2011 version book, It is also happening that the author of Oxford University Press sets "Wikipedia" as "reference source".


Although not all Wikipedia descriptions are arbitrary, it can be said that Wikipedia's reality at the present time is that it is not possible to completely eliminate any intention by taking the mechanism into consideration. Although Wikipedia that collects a lot of information can be said to be a high-value-value site indeed, on the other hand, the side to use also understands such a background sufficiently, attaches attitude to confirm the contents well by using another information source etc. together It is likely that it is important not to forget.