Last week I found myself speaking to a number of people about the fast evolution of the Wikipedia article on the [[Virginia Tech massacre]], and how Wikipedia has become the first-stop for many folks to get the immediate snapshot of history.

That’s why I often say, “If news is the first draft of history, Wikipedia is the instantaneous working draft of history.”

Some folks asked for more tangible numbers, so I decided to crunch through them, to find out what was going on behind the scenes. Top of the list as most prolific contributor is most certainly Natalie Erin, a female student at Antioch College who made 183 separate edits to the article. US-based editors dominated this stateside event, but there was representation from Canada, Germany, and Finland.

At the peak editing period (about 3-4 hours after the story broke) there was roughly one edit saved every 10 seconds. This would not have been possible without the some tools Wikipedia has developed — individual section editing, automatic resolution of simple edit collisions, and the tiered system of Squid servers that helped handle the massive load of read requests, while the industrial database servers could handle the “editing.”

As of April 25, there were 7828 edits to the article. About 30% of the editors that contributed were IP “anonymous” editors with no accounts, though they only contributed 13% of all the edits.

A chart of nearly nine days of activity looks almost like a seismic tremor. You can see the peaks most certainly coincide with the waking hours in the States and the news cycles of US-based news organizations.

It would be interesting to see the results from other seminal breaking news events in Wikipedia’s history, namely the [[2004 Indian Ocean earthquake]] and
[[7 July 2005 London bombings]]. As the reporting of these two events was spread out over a longer period, I would expect to see a more stretched out graph for London, and even moreso for the tsunami, which took a lot of reporting to sort out the total impact of that catastrophe.

There has been debate on the Wikipedia lists about whether Wikipedia should be serving this function as a running update of news. I stick to my post back in September 2006:

Wikipedia uniquely fills the gap between “the news” and the history books. It’s an instantaneous cumulative view of the state of the world, given the best information at that point in time. Rather than shedding this function, we should be embracing and celebrating it.

Back in 1995, when I was teaching journalism, I pondered when a “rolling memory” system might be realized given the development of the Internet. That’s why I was captivated by Wikipedia back in 2003. Wikipedia has accomplished this, whether by design or fluke. And it’s been revolutionary.

NB: Below are the raw results, culled from the user pages of the top 21 contributors to the article. They are ranked by number of edits to the article, which in itself is not necessarily an indicator of the most “significant” contributor. For more reading, Noam Cohen of the NY Times described the crush of folks in a nice piece for the paper.

Top editors of the article, with edit counts. All information culled from explict references in their Wikipedia user page:

• 183 Natalie Erin, 23 year old female student, Antioch College, Ohio
• 147 Kizor, from Finland
• 127 ElKevbo, no info
• 118 Ronnotel, software engineer, Chicago, Illinois
• 110 W guice, no info
• 103 Sfmammamia, mother, professional writer/editor, San Francisco, California
• 86 Halo, no info
• 81 Abe Lincoln, from Thuringia, Germany
• 75 Swatjester, from Tallahassee, Florida
• 68 Gdo01, from Florida
• 67 AEMoreira042281, Adam Moreira, Graduate student at Queens College, Brooklyn, New York
• 55 Markm62, attorney, Sacramento, California
• 55 John Stattic, no info
• 52 WhisperToMe, male teenager, Houston, Texas
• 49 Jmw0000, Jarred Michael F. Weiner, 20 year old math major, Binghamton University, New York
• 47 Rdfox 76, no info
• 47 Netscott, Scott Stevenson
• 47 Mercenary2k, Vicky, 25 year old Pakistani, from Toronto, Canada
• 46 Golbez, Andrew, from North Carolina
• 46 Dcandeto, from New Jersey
• 46 Coemgenus, Coemgenus Salminis, 28 year old lawyer, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

As of 25 April:

• 7828 total edits to the article
• 6781 edits from registered editors
• 1047 edits from IP editors
• 13.4 % of edits are from IPs

• 2270 total unique (distinct) editors
• 1572 unique registered editors
• 698 unique IP editors
• 30.7% of unique editors are IP editors

• Peak editing hour: EDT 1600-1700 on 16 April
• 354 total edits
• 6 edits per minute
• An edit every 10 seconds

So I finally had a chance to peruse the new Shin Kong Place shopping mall that Kaiser Kuo first blogged about. It’s one subway stop east of Guo Mao, usually the furthest extreme of any luxury shopping in Beijing. Now you’ve got a reason to venture out one more station.
In one word - incredible. It is as high end as it gets in Beijing, and this six story mall is as modern and luxurious as anything you’ll see in Singapore and Hong Kong. And unlike many other mall launches in China, nearly everything is open and doing business right now — food court, gourmet grocery, department store and all.

The one notable exception — Fauchon, the Paris-based gourmet chain. They are preparing not one, not two, but three floors for their store. This marks their first one in China, and only their second in Asia. As someone who used to buy bagfulls of stuff from their shop in Paris to take back home, I’m counting down the minutes.
Again, I’m not sure this is entirely sustainable, having all these high end malls battling for limited consumers. You are already seeing problems filling up places like Oriental Plaza, The Place and China World Trade Center. We may be seeing a drastic crash post-2008 with too much luxury commercial spaces and too few customers.

But in the meantime, I’m going to enjoy the pate.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project came out with a report yesterday that focuses on Wikipedia use. (Link to page and PDF report) Some impressive results:

More than a third of American adult internet users (36%) consult the citizen-generated online encyclopedia Wikipedia, according to a new nationwide survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. And on a typical day in the winter of 2007, 8% of online Americans consulted Wikipedia.

Interesting that these numbers are only in response to the specific question, “Do you ever use the internet to look for information on Wikipedia?” It does not seem to count folks that stumble across Wikipedia unwittingly through Google searches, without explicitly “consulting” Wikipedia.

As for the complete set of numbers:

Pew’s chart shows this means Wikipedia is clearly a multi-billion dollar brand with a juicy demographic.

Variety magazine is reporting that the popular US “reality” TV show Survivor will be shot in China.

Production of U.S. entertainment projects in mainland China had been rare, due to logistical and government restrictions. But with a growing economy, China has begun a more open policy, including its active wooing to host the 2008 Beijing Olympics. While bigscreen features, such as the 2006 “The Painted Veil,” forged new ground by filming completely in China, CBS’s lensing of an entire series is a precedent for an American network.

The China setting should also boost “Survivor’s” appeal to overseas auds. Skein airs in numerous countries around the world.

The move to China for the 15th edition takes the skein away from an island setting for the first time since the 11th installment, set in Guatemala.

[NB: skein seems to be the industry lingo for “series”]

Let the jokes start to fly.

I also wonder whether China’s authorities understand the tradition stereotyping and making an ethnic freak show out of the inevitable Survivor “food challenge.” It never portrays the host culture in a good light.

Though I do have the perfect candidate — eat a bowl of stinky tofu and drink a whole bottle of Dragon Seal red wine. Wait for the Mentos and Coke reaction.

So there is an AP story making the rounds about a furniture manufacturer that erroneously translated “dark brown” in Chinese into “nigger brown” in English, and that it showed up on the label of a sofa delivered to a family in Toronto, Canada. Obviously, it was a shock to the black family who thought it was to be a joyous occasion.

So yes, this is the darker side (no pun intended!) of globalization and of things lost in translation. During the reporting of this, I was called for comment, but could not provide much insight other than, “That’s not good.”

But it seems the new couch owner is going a bit far:

Moore is consulting with a lawyer and wants compensation. Last week, she filed a report with the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

Commission spokeswoman Afroze Edwards said the case is in the initial stages and could take six months to two years to resolve.

Moore, 30, has three young children, and said the issue has taken a toll on her family.

“Something more has to be done. We don’t just need a personal apology, but someone needs to own up to where these labels were made, and someone needs to apologize to all people of color,” Moore said. “I had friends over from St. Lucia yesterday and they wouldn’t sit on the couch.”

This is a bit much, but all normal in North America where lawsuits speak louder than anything else. Welcome to a globalized world with American-style litigation!

All indications are it was an innocent, though boneheaded, translation error. For folks living in China is a daily occurrence/chuckle/guffaw. Read the recent WSJ story on it from February 5, 2007 for more juicy tidbits.

This label error is not hate speech or an intent to malign. I hope the label is fixed, there are sincere apologies, and the case gets thrown out quickly.

UPDATE: I should point to the Wikipedia article on the word [[nigger]] for those not familiar with the impact of the word.

Kaiser Kuo details the glittery mall that opened up at Huamao, between the 3rd and 4th ring roads. That you have such high end stores that far out is quite amazing to folks who’ve been in Beijing.

I passed by the other day, and it is quite an amazing place. I worry how much of this the city can sustain long term though.

Legal movie DVD’s are pretty scarce in China. Piraters sell discs here for a flat rate per piece of media. Yes, that means Ishtar sells for the same price as the latest quality Casino Royale dub. Typically this is around 10 RMB per disc. That’s about US $1.30.

Westerners also get a nice chuckle from the mangled “blurbs” on the back of the DVD cover, where it’s either a terrible English description, or something erroneously cut-and-pasted from a completely different film.

So imagine my surprise when browsing in a store I picked up the box DVD set of Family Guy, Season 4. In front of me was a surprisingly well crafted blurb. Not only was it perfect English, there was something familiar about it.

The back cover read:

Obviously there were some odd things:

1. It had “See X below” which meant it was obviously copy/pasted from something larger
2. It was much better than your average blurb
3. It was remarkably informative and balanced

It reminded me of something I might read in Wikipedia.

Curiosity got the better of me, so I bought the seven disc set for a whopping 70 RMB (just under US $10) even though I’m not terribly fond of the show.

While the [[Family Guy]] article now reads quite different, thanks to the complete edit history of the article being available, we find the December 1, 2006 version reads:

Family Guy is an American animated comedy created by Seth MacFarlane for FOX in 1999. The show was cancelled once in 2000 and again in 2002, but strong DVD sales and reruns on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim led FOX to resume production of the show in 2005 (see “Return to television” below). To date it is one of only a handful of shows in television history to be cancelled and later revived by the power of their fan bases, and one of the few shows to be brought back to air by the same network that cancelled it. (See also Cagney and Lacey and Doctor Who). The title character is Peter Griffin, an inept blue collar head of a lower-middle class family frequently beset by the consequences of his foolish antics. Family Guy’s brand of humor is notable for the usually brief, frequently nonsensical cutaways (usually featuring oddball pop culture references) and flashbacks to various points in history, geography, and reality involving the characters and their outlandish actions (see “Structure and comedic approach” below).

So there you are.

Wikipedia: bringing information to pirated DVDs near you.

When I was with Columbia University in 1995-2003, I designed and created the Pulitzer.org web site, and help craft the first Pulitzer guidelines for online submissions.

So I put on that hat again, and give you links to the Wall Street Journal’s 2007 Pulitzer Prize winning stories on China.

The Wall Street Journal chronicled the effects of China’s rush to capitalism in a series of front page articles in 2006. (taken from the WSJ site, merged with additional summaries)

• Blogger Hits Home by Urging Boycott of Chinese Property, “Bubbling Anger: Blogger Hits Home By Urging Boycott Of Chinese Property — Campaign Against High Prices Garners Mr. Zou Support From Middle-Class Buyers — A Grilling by Security Agents,” Andrew Browne, A1, 6/12/06. How rising property prices are sparking growing discontent even among the middle class of the boomtown of Shenzhen.

• As China’s Auto Market Booms, Leaders Clash Over Heavy Toll, “Bumpy Ride: As China’s Auto Market Booms, Leaders Clash Over Heavy Toll — Vehicles Foul Air, Jam Streets But Plump Local Coffers; Restrictions Remain Few — McDonald’s Targets a Niche,” Gordon Fairclough and Shai Oster, A1, 6/13/06. China’s air grows more polluted as its government encourages an auto revolution

• In Booming China, a Doctor Battles a Polluting Factory, “River of Tears: In Booming China, A Doctor Battles A Polluting Factory — Fouled Waters Lead to Flood Of Protests Nationwide; Officials’ Mixed Messages — Inspired by Erin Brockovich,” Shai Oster and Mei Fong, A1, 7/19/06. Why China isn’t shutting down the factories that pollute its water – a disconnect between China’s central government and its local provinces.

• China’s Big Push to Stoke Economy Rattles Rural Tibet, “Western Frontier: China’s Big Push To Stoke Economy Rattles Rural Tibet — Meatpacking Modernization Threatens Beloved Yaks; New Train Brings Suspicion — Ni Ma’s Quiet Resistance,” James T. Areddy, A1, 8/24/06. China’s capitalist push reaches Tibet and challenges basic Buddhist practices.

• Booming Municipalities Defy China’s Effort to Cool Economy, “Growing Pains: Booming Municipalities Defy China’s Effort to Cool Economy — Hyper-Investment a Worry; A Monumental Pagoda For Once-Sleepy Zhengzhou — Satellites Spying on Bulldozers,” Andrew Browne, A1, 9/15/06. Why even Beijing’s top leaders have little control over its economy.

• A Poison Spreads Amid China’s Boom, “A Poison Spreads Amid China’s Boom — Dangerously high levels of lead are discovered in many children; ground zero is Xinsi Village — An imported charm proves deadly in Minneapolis,” Shai Oster and Jane Spencer, A1, 9/30/06. How lead contaminated the children of a Chinese village - and beyond.

• It May Be Too Late for China to Save the Yangtze Goddess, “It May Be Too Late For China to Save The Yangtze Goddess — Scientists Track the Dolphins But Might Have to Settle For Finding Them Extinct,” Shai Oster, A1, 12/6/06. We break the news, announced a week later, that China’s polluted Yangtze has caused the almost certain extinction of the baiji dolphin, the first extinction of a mammal in decades.

• How Capitalist Transformation Exposes Holes in China’s Government, “How Capitalist Transformation Exposes Holes in China’s Government,” By Jason Dean, 12/18/06, A2. A column outlining the challenges China faces after shifting from one extreme to the other, from Communism to a form of extreme capitalism that provides few protections for its people or its workers.

• So Much Work, So Little Time, “With so much work, so little time, an invisible army builds Beijing. As 2008 Olympics approach, migrants like Wei Zhongwen combat injuries, loneliness,” Mei Fong, A1, 12/23/06. How the migrants behind Beijing’s reconstruction, which now number two million, lack basic protections, and heat in the bitter cold – and often pay for their work.

• Illegal Power Plants, Coal Mines in China Pose Challenge for Beijing, “Illegal Power Plants, Coal Mines Plague China,” Shai Oster, A1, 12/27/06. How one-fifth of China’s power plants are illegal, increasing demand for polluting coal and making it hard to close dangerous mines that kill thousands.

In dramatic fashion, the Wall Street Journal’s China bureau reporters have won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.

For a distinguished example of reporting on international affairs, in print or in print and online, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Awarded to The Wall Street Journal Staff for its sharply edged reports on the adverse impact of China’s booming capitalism on conditions ranging from inequality to pollution.

Kudos to the bureau chief Rebecca Blumenstein and the bylined reporters for the winning package:

• James Areddy
• Andrew Browne
• Jason Dean
• Gordon Fairclough
• Mei Fong (my wonderful wife)
• Shai Oster
• Jane Spencer

I say “dramatic” as last year the New York Times won the same award for China -related reportin. And because the Pulitzer board has always been known for “spreading it around” to different topics and publications it seemed unlikely to award it a second year in a row to China coverage.

So it comes as somewhat of a shock, since even just this weekend, folks were not very optimistic about the bureau’s chances. Congrats also to the other great reporters and news assistants in the bureau that helped make it all happen.

The traditional speech by the presenter at the Pulitzer Prize ceremony in New York goes something like this: “Congratulations. You now know what your obituary will say — ‘Mei Fong, Pulitzer-prize winning reporter…’ ”

Traveling to Tokyo, Prague and Beijing in one week hasn’t left much time to blog. But the last few days, there were some interesting China stories, both dealing with intellectual property.

First off, to the embarrassment of Google, there appears to be lifting of “content” from Sohu.com when it comes to Google’s Pinyin input method editor (IME) for Chinese language. Now, it’s not unusual for folks to dissect and learn from each others’ code and language dictionaries, but this one seems to rise above the level of corporate intelligence. The way folks found out is because Google’s software gave the same wrong match that Sohu/Sogou’s software did. Whoops. This same phenomenon has been observed in mapmaking for centuries, where tell-tale errors indicate whether a map has been copied from another. Google has issued a mea culpa, which Fons Tuinstra has detailed. China Web 2.0 Review also has a good overview of the issue.

Second, the US is putting pressure on China over copyright infringement regarding films, music and software. In the balance are “two complaints to the World Trade Organization accusing China of unfair trade practices.” Yes, Hollywood and other firms have a case regarding IP, as 90% of the content here is pirated. In fact, it’s quite hard to find an establishment in China that sells them legally.

But let’s remember: it’s not going to amount to much in the grand scheme of things, in terms of trade imbalance. When the average salary of the PRC citizen is barely above US $100 a month, folks will not shell out US $10-20 for a legal movie or music CD. In Beijing, the CD/DVD shop at Oriental Plaza, just minutes away from the seat of the national government, carries all pirated discs. In short — it will be some time before the PRC consumer has enough disposable income to make the RIAA and MPAA happy with a big revenue stream.

The only real substantive issue is computer software. If you can make sure every business in China purchase legal copies of Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop, you might start seeing some real money that makes a difference. The key is making businesses step up to pay for licensed software, rather than depending on going after individuals. Better ROI on enforcement, and more willing payers.