Wikiscanner and loss of privacy
Just read the News of Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s staff edited Wikepedia to remove potentially damaging details. Also came across the news of department of defense staff editing the Wikipedia to alter damaging content.
I have kind of non positive words against Wikiscanner. On one hand indeed it will prohibit the Governments and Corporate to edit Wikipedia to suit their needs. On the other hands it kills the democracy of Wikipedia. More and more organizations will start banning access to Wikipedia. Wikipedia is supposed to be the most democratic project ever created on the net. I don’t think that Wikipedia will gain any reputation by banning all Corporate / Governments. The concept of Wikipedia allows everyone to edit it. If someone edits Wikipedia and put in some ill-intended content, it is always taken care by the Wikipedia community.
Indeed every coin has two sides. If there is a wrong worded article placed in Wikipedia and a government employee, who know the facts think that he can word it better, I think he has full right to do it. If you don’t allow Government, corporate to edit the content, then very soon Wikipedia may become a haven for rebels, terrorists and other in general anti society elements. I checked some of the edits done by the employees of Australian Government. These edits includes “List of Airports in Australia”, “Rail Transport in Australia” etc. If Government decides to stop its employees from editing the Wikipedia, these articles will be incomplete. At the same time I do see a bit of editing done where government is a party. Why not allow them to correct the entries which they think have been put wrong way. If they edit too much, Anti government community member will edit entry and make it more appropriate. That’s how democracy works.
With making edit information public and making it available to media, it is the privacy loss of individuals working in organizations. There may be a few people accessing and editing Wikipedia in their office time (heck most of the people do their personal stuff at work). But by making this information public, some corporate even take action against the employees who have been very vocal at Wiki community. It will further add to loss of Wikipedia.
Overall I say, making everything public or slamming the government is never always good idea. People should respect to learn privacy of others.