Meddling on the Beaver’s Wikipedia Page

While there are some on the user-generated encyclopedia who don’t believe that the Beaver is notable enough to warrant an entry, it does, at any rate, exist. The entry that is present as of today is quite laudatory of the paper, and makes some rather dubious claims as to the extent of readership and its ability to influence national and global press (for instance in its coverage of Erik Ringmar’s dressing down by the LSE) as well as its ‘extensive readership within the LSE‘.

So far, so good for the Beaver. And indeed, for all of its faults (including, to our continued dismay, its total inability to update its website), the Beaver does generally do a fine job of reporting on student issues, even if it periodically gets drawn into international affairs where it has no business being. But it appears that the Wikipedia entry may well be an inside job, with numerous edits being charted on the page coming from unregistered users logging in from LSE IP addresses (all of the IPs beginning with 158.143.xxx.xxx belong to the LSE). Further revealing their agenda, these various IP addresses (see here, here and here) have only been used for edits to the Beaver’s article, with some also being used to edit the LSESU’s Wikipedia Page.

Your Observer doesn’t have access to IP figures to determine which terminals the edits came from (if they were from E204, for instance), but the circumstantial evidence is interesting nonetheless. As mentioned, some of these unregistered users also made edits to the SU’s page, however that article has somewhat less of a problem in terms of unregistered users contributing the bulk of edits, although many of the most recent edits are unregistered (if mostly not from LSE IPs). Although the rules for Wikipedia are not absolutely binding, it does appear that members of the Beaver collective writing about the Beaver on Wikipedia would constitute a Conflict of Interest which is strongly discouraged. The main question to ask is whether or not these edits present the Beaver from a Neutral Point of View.

Can the edits made by these unregistered users be considered neutral?

What’s On

 Students have the opportunity to learn more about the life and influence of Muhammad in a lecture by Professor Tariq Ramadan. The event, sponsored by the LSESU Islamic Society, may help provide an introduction for some, and further context for others, on the founder of Islam.

When, Where: Tuesday, 7pm in U8 (Tower One)

The Socialist Worker Student Society are holding a talk on student protests, in particular focusing on student protests in France in 2006. Among the speakers are Kamel Tafer, a spokesperson for the French National Student Coordination which played a key role in organizing demonstrations, and Gabriel LeFleur, a member of UNEF, the national students union of France.

When, Where: Wednesday, 5-7pm in Z132 (St Philips Building)

With all the talk of corporate greening, how much of the promises being made by international conglomerates is just so much (more) hot air? What is the responsibility of business and corporate social responsibility today? Dr. Sadhvi Dar from the University of London and Ben Watson of FairPensions will speak at this event from the LSESU Oxfam Society.When, Where: Wednesday, 5pm in S78 (St Clements Building)

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