Changes in Wikipedia's EA Entry Traced Back to EA Headquarters
Someone using an IP traced back to Trip Hawkins [http://www.ea.com].
The changes were discovered and first reported by Wikipedia Scanner [http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/48482]that can link anonymous Wiki edits to their originating sources. According to their report, the entry underwent a "cleanup" in November 2006, which included removing Hawkins as the company founder from the "key people" section of the company's description, as well as a reference to him in the company description.
Months later, someone using the same IP deleted Hawkins' name from the opening paragraph of the company's history, and added a new paragraph highlighting the role of current EA Chairman Larry Probst [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Probst].
Criticisms of EA were also heavily deleted, and references to a class-action lawsuit brought by employees were modified to put a positive spin on the company's role, saying EA "led the industry in reforming work/life balance issues that are endemic to the software industry." Links to the ea_spouse [http://ea-spouse.livejournal.com/274.html]blog were also deleted.
According to the report, the offending IP is the most active Wikipedia [http://www.wikipedia.com]user among all IP addresses registered to EA, and has been responsible for a full third of the over 1,300 Wikipedia changes made by those IPs. EA has declined to comment on the matter.
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Someone using an IP traced back to Trip Hawkins [http://www.ea.com].
The changes were discovered and first reported by Wikipedia Scanner [http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/48482]that can link anonymous Wiki edits to their originating sources. According to their report, the entry underwent a "cleanup" in November 2006, which included removing Hawkins as the company founder from the "key people" section of the company's description, as well as a reference to him in the company description.
Months later, someone using the same IP deleted Hawkins' name from the opening paragraph of the company's history, and added a new paragraph highlighting the role of current EA Chairman Larry Probst [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Probst].
Criticisms of EA were also heavily deleted, and references to a class-action lawsuit brought by employees were modified to put a positive spin on the company's role, saying EA "led the industry in reforming work/life balance issues that are endemic to the software industry." Links to the ea_spouse [http://ea-spouse.livejournal.com/274.html]blog were also deleted.
According to the report, the offending IP is the most active Wikipedia [http://www.wikipedia.com]user among all IP addresses registered to EA, and has been responsible for a full third of the over 1,300 Wikipedia changes made by those IPs. EA has declined to comment on the matter.
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