Catching Wikipedia Edits Easily – Enter WikiScanner!

Have you ever wondered who it is that sits and edits the millions of web pages that form the free-to-edit online encyclopedia called Wikipedia? If you are seriously interested in knowing who the editors are, you can now check at a new website called WikiScanner.

WikiScanner is a Wikipedia-related website that enables users to detect details about the sources behind the innumerable changes you see on the online dictionary. The URL for the site is wikiscanner.virgil.gr.

WikiScanner is the brainchild of a graduate student in computer science. This is how it works: You make a change on a Wikipedia page. WikiScanner checks for this change with the computer network on which the change was carried out. This it does using the IP address of the editor’s computer or network.

The first time any mention was made of WikiScanner was sometime last week, when Wired News carried a story on this new application that helped make the process of detecting the editors’ network information easier.

Ever since, more and more people are paying attention to and noticing the small changes that are being made to countless Wikipedia pages by government organizations and non profit agencies. Sometimes, the edits to a particular page are done by the organization that put up the page itself.

There have been numerous instances of corporate houses carrying out edits on their individual pages. These edits were usually done to delete any criticism about the company’s products and services or policies.

The Wikipedia Foundation founder, Jimmy Wales, said the organization itself was against this kind of self-editing practices. While there was no official policy or strict rule the site was following regarding these edits, he said the site, as a guideline and on principle, decreed that users did not indulge in such editing.

WikiScanner has generally been receiving good press, especially from experts and analysts familiar with the industry. They felt it would be able to do a good job in ensuring big corporates did not manipulate Wikipedia to present better images of themselves.