Separating WikiLeaks from wiki

Letter to the Portland Tribune

I read your coverage of Oregon-related revelations from emails leaked by WikiLeaks with great interest (“Wiki-Oregon: What the latest leaks say about state politics,” Nov. 8 Tribune). The story’s headline, however, lends credence to an unfortunate and widespread misconception — one with particular significance to Oregonians.

To put it simply: WikiLeaks is not a wiki.

The word “wiki,” first applied to software by Oregon inventor Ward Cunningham, bears no trademark — so Julian Assange didn’t need permission to apply it to WikiLeaks. Assange acknowledged in 2010 that emulating the success of Wikipedia was an initial ambition of WikiLeaks.

Oregonian William Beutler, now a Washington, D.C.-based communications consultant, explored WikiLeaks’ lack of “wiki-ness” in depth in a 2010 blog post. Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia and graduate of Portland’s Reed College, called WikiLeaks “enemies of the U.S.” Cunningham stated, “WikiLeaks doesn’t use much of the wiki offerings. It’s not really a collaborative effort.”

Large-scale, internet-based collaboration is an increasingly important part of how the world operates; wiki software, and wiki-based Internet titan Wikipedia, help people around the world build and refine information resources.

Oregonians continue to play an important role: WikiProject Oregon, which I helped establish in 2006, has been positively reviewed in academic literature. Its members’ efforts have yielded more than 20,000 articles related to Oregon to date, 200 of which have been peer reviewed. Cascadia Wikimedians, a group founded in 2012, supports the building of Wikipedia and related sites throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Your readers will benefit if you avoid abbreviating WikiLeaks as “wiki.”

Pete Forsyth
Wiki Strategies, founder and principal
The Wikipedia Signpost, editor in chief
Southeast Portland

Originally published at portlandtribune.com.