From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates: 39°56′23″N 75°36′42″W / 39.939586°N 75.611783°W / 39.939586; -75.611783 (MyWikiBiz)

MyWikiBiz is a wiki directory that allows people and enterprises to write about themselves. The brand began as a service creating Wikipedia articles for paying corporations, which hibernated when the owner of MyWikiBiz was banned from Wikipedia.^[1] As of January 2010, the MyWikiBiz directory contained over 53,000 pages of content about corporations and individuals. The business is headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania.^[2] The site was founded by Gregory Kohs, a market researcher.^[3]

Professor Jonathan Zittrain of the Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society discussed the case of MyWikiBiz in his book The Future of the Internet - And How to Stop It.^[4] Kohs appeared on Attack of the Show! on January 25, 2007, and discussed MyWikiBiz.^[5] Heise Online expressed a suspicion that while MyWikiBiz’s “attempted corporate infiltration” of Wikipedia was discovered, MyWikiBiz was not an isolated case.^[6]

History and Wikipedia controversy over paid editing

Gregory Kohs and his sister started the MyWikiBiz venture in Pennsylvania in July 2006, initially as a paid editing service, writing content for inclusion in Wikipedia and other community-edited sites.^[7][8] The idea came from Wikipedia’s Reward Board, where interested parties would offer cash rewards or gifts to create or improve Wikipedia articles.^[2] MyWikiBiz’s prices ranged between $49 and $99 for adding entries that conformed to Wikipedia's standards and policies.^[2] No official Wikipedia policy prohibited paid-for contributions at the time.^[9] Kohs argued that there were tens of thousands of clearly notable companies and nonprofit organizations unrepresented on Wikipedia.^[10]

Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales called the commercialized editing "antithetical" to Wikipedia’s mission and "absolutely unacceptable"^[2] and blocked Kohs' account from editing Wikipedia.^[4] However, in August 2006, Wales issued a "mutually beneficial" compromise^[11] where he encouraged MyWikiBiz to author and post content on a GFDL-compliant section of MyWikiBiz.com, which could then be scraped by non-paid, independent editors into Wikipedia and other GFDL sites.^[4]

In October 2006 Wales again banned Kohs from Wikipedia, and cautioned any business from using its services, which, according to Kohs, caused MyWikiBiz to go into "hibernation". In late October 2006, Kohs formed a partnership to promote and market a wiki-based directory at Centiare.com,^[2][12] but when the site's owner pulled the plug on the site, negotiated a transfer of its contents to MyWikiBiz.com

References

External links

• MyWikiBiz