140pedia....needs you

Yet again it's been a long time between posts, but this will change as I have finally started work again after moving half way around the world....promise. Today, the story that has caught my eye is a rather clever, funny and original mash-up of two giants of the modern digital age by the creators of one of the funniest Internet memes.

So what do you get when you mix all this together, well, you get 140pedia brought to you by the I Can Has Cheezburger guys. 140pedia is the result of mashing twitter up with Wikipedia where everything is given a 140 character explanation/or meaning. For example

Cheezburger (thing)
A misspelling of cheeseburger — a meat sandwich made with cholesterol and fat. Also a coveted food of all cats on the Internet.

Or.....

Viagra (Drug)
The little blue wonder-drug of the 90s that let impotent men to cause headaches in their formerly headache-free sig. others.

As you can see, it's very mush in keeping with the ethos of the I Can Has Cheezburger guys in that it's completely irreverent. The site doesn't have that much on it at the moment, but you can submit your own entries and our course tweet your favourite existing entries.

MyTake - It's like a funny, online version of the Oxford dictionary with a social sharing aspect thrown in to boot. Is this going to spread like wildfire, probably. I'll certainly be submitting a few entries.

I am also not Sarah Palin

Another day, another Wikipedia scandal. This time, it is Sarah Palin’s entry that has been, shall we say, finessed. Here are the facts: about a day before she was announced as the running mate for McCain, the entry for Sarah Palin was significantly changed with a more than positive glow added by a user called Young Trigg. Trigg, as my colleague Ed Hoover told me this morning, is in fact the name of Sarah Palin’s baby son….the plot thickens.   

Apparently, the last edits by Young Trigg were made only a few hours before the big announcement, just in time for the million-plus hits it was about to receive.  Young Trigg has since disappeared into nowhere and Wikipedia is now only allowing established editors to change the entry. The usual ruckus then commenced with questions over Young Trigg’s integrity until he came out to answer all the speculation: “I am not Sarah Palin. I am not a member of Sarah Palin’s family, or even Michael Palin’s family…..I will acknowledge that I volunteer for the McCain campaign, one of thousands of people nationwide who are working to elect the best candidate for the job. Palin was not the nominee when I made my edits, though I am certainly excited about the selection. I don’t believe I have a conflict of interest problem.” It's a bit like Spartacus, only without the swords...and the hero....

MyTake – I have this vision of little Trigg editing the entry himself, sort of like Stewie from Family Guy, only without the British accent. In all seriousness, Wikipedia is becoming a huge part of the political battle and the importance being placed upon it is fairly obvious from incidents like this. As a PR practitioner who always advises transparency online, I’d probably say that they have gotten away with it – of the people that hit that page in all its polished glory, I bet only a handful hear about the fact that it was altered by a “volunteer for the McCain campaign”. To close, I’d like to follow Young Trigg and say that I am also not Sarah Palin. I am also not a member of Sarah Palin’s family, or even Michael Palin’s family. I will acknowledge that I write this blog, one of thousands of people all over the world that write blogs. Palin was the nominee when I wrote this post. I don’t believe I have a conflict of interest problem – I am a non-violent person and I believe myself to be quite interesting. 

No Wikipedia love for Corey

Corey's at it again - and he didn't actually do anything! This time he's managed to upset the good folk at Wikipedia , where there has been heated debate as to whether or not he deserves his own entry.

An entry for the most notorious MySpacer to date was created by a user called Fosnez and was online for a whopping 35 minutes before being deleted by other users. The deletion sparked a huge debate that Corey supporters eventually lost.

Run for PM, then you might get an entry....