Wikinews is a free-content news source wiki and a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. The site works through collaborative journalism. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has distinguished Wikinews from Wikipedia by saying "on Wikinews each story is to be written as a news story as opposed to an encyclopedia article."2 The neutral point of view policy espoused in Wikinews distinguishes it from other citizen journalism efforts such as Indymedia and OhmyNews.3 In contrast to most projects of the Wikimedia Foundation Wikinews allows original work under the form of original reporting and interviews.4 The English Wikinews is the only Wikimedia site that grants press passes to reporters endorsed by the local community.5 According to Thelwall et al. Wikinews has been most successful in covering large news events involving large numbers of people such as Hurricane Katrina and the Virginia Tech Shootings where first hand experience or the availability of first hand accounts forms a larger part of the entry and where the wealth of reportage makes a central clearing house valuable.6 Contents 1 History 2 Additional projects 3 Interviews 4 Criticism 5 References 6 External links History The beta version logo used until February 13 2005

The first7 recorded proposal of a Wikimedia news site was a two-line anonymous post on January 5 2003 on Wikipedia community's Meta-Wiki.8 Daniel Alston who edited Wikipedia as Fonzy9 claimed to have been the one who posted it.710 The proposal was then further developed by German freelance journalist software developer and author Erik Mller.7 Early opposition from long-time Wikipedia contributors many of them pointing out the existence of Wikipedia's own news summaries gave way to detailed discussions and proposals about how it could be implemented as a new project of the Wikimedia Foundation.

In November 2004 a demonstration wiki was established to show how such a collaborative news site might work. In December 2004update the site was moved out of the "demo" stage and into the beta stage. A German language edition was launched at the same time. Soon editions in Italian Dutch French Spanish Swedish Bulgarian Polish Portuguese Romanian Ukrainian Serbian Japanese Russian Hebrew Arabic Thai Norwegian Chinese Turkish and Korean (in that chronological order) were set up.

On March 13 2005 the English edition of Wikinews reached 1000 news articles. Just a few months later in September 2005 the project moved to the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.11

On April 29 2006 the English edition of Wikinews reached 5000 news articles. On September 5 2007 just over a year later the English edition of Wikinews reached 10000 news articles. Wikinews has related news: English Wikinews publishes 10000th article Additional projects

While Wikinews focuses primarily on text articles members are expanding the site into other media. These projects include Audio Wikinews which delivers Ogg Vorbis audio files Wikinews Video 2.0 (test phase) and Wikinews Print edition which is a daily edition intended to be printed.

On April 28 2008 Wikinews also started the plans for Wikimedia Radio which is aimed at a 24/7 streaming audio broadcast of various programs and news mainly from participating Wikimedia projects.12 Interviews Wikinews reporter David Shankbone with Israeli president Shimon Peres in 2007.

Wikinews reporters have conducted interviews with several notable people. In December 2007 Wikinews interviewed Israeli President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Shimon Peres.13 Some other notable interviews have included writers actors and politicians such as Augusten Burroughs14 2008 Republican nomination hopefuls and independent/third party candidates for President Tony Benn Eric Bogosian Nick Smith and John Key and World Wide Web co-inventor Robert Cailliau.13 Criticism

Like Wikipedia (see Reliability of Wikipedia) Wikinews is criticized for its perceived inability to be neutral or include only verified and true information. Robert McHenry former editor-in-chief of the Encyclopdia Britannica criticized15 the credibility of the project: Above all the central question about the Wikinews effort is its credibility. Making a newspaper is hard...Someone who wants to do it but doesn't really know how hasn't solved the problem by gathering a lot of other people who don't know either. McHenry was skeptical about Wikinews' ability to provide a neutral point of view and its claim to be evenhanded: "The navet is stunning."15 In a 2007 interview Sue Gardner at that time a special adviser to the board of the Wikimedia Foundation and former head of the Canadian Broadcasting Company's Internet division CBC.ca dismissed McHenry's comment stating "Journalism is not a profession ... at its heart it's just a craft. And that means that it can be practiced by anyone who is sensible and intelligent and thoughtful and curious ... I go back to the morning of Virginia Tech  the morning I decided I wanted to work here WMF. The conversation on the talk page that day was extremely thoughtful. I remember thinking to myself that if my own newsroom had been having a conversation that intelligent (I was offsite that day) I would have been delighted. So yes in my opinion you absolutely have proved Robert McHenry wrong. And you will continue to."16 Wikinews has also had issues with maintaining a separate identity from Wikipedia which also covers major news events in real-time. Columnist Jonathan Dee of The New York Times pointed out in 2007 that "So indistinct has the line between past and present become that Wikipedia has inadvertently all but strangled one of its sister projects the three-year-old Wikinews... Wikinews has sunk into a kind of torpor; lately it generates just 8 to 10 articles a day... On bigger stories there's just no point in competing with the ruthless purview of the encyclopedia."17 Andrew Lih and Zachary M. Seward commented on the continuing issue in a 2010 piece in the Nieman Journalism Lab "Why Wikipedia beats Wikinews as a collaborative journalism project." Lih wrote "it's not clear that the wiki process really gears itself towards deadlines and group narrative writing" and that "if you're trying to write something approaching a feature piece it's much harder to get more than two or three people to stay consistent with the style."18 Lih considers Wikipedia's stricter "formula" for article composition an advantage in a large wiki with many editors.18 References "Wikinews.org Site Info". www.alexa.com. Alexa Internet. http://www.alexa.com/data/details/trafficdetails/wikinews.org. Retrieved 2011-06-05.  Joanna Glasner (29 November 2004). "Wikipedia Creators Move Into News". WIRED. http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/11/65819. Retrieved 2007-04-21.  Aaron Weiss (10 February 2005). "The Unassociated Press". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/10/technology/circuits/10wiki.htmlex1177300800&en024e251d2c696137&ei5070. Retrieved 2007-04-21.  Wikinews:Original reporting. Wikinews:Credential verification Thelwall Mike and Stuart David (2007) RUOK Blogging Communication Technologies During Crises Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication pp. 523548 http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue2/thelwall.html  a b c Erik Mller: The history of Wikinews and my role in it Wikinews.org accessed July 2 2010 Archived log entry of the anonymous post on Meta-Wiki. Archived log entry of the userpage of User:Fonzy on the English Wikipedia which states his real name. Log entry of User:Fonzy editing this article on the English Wikipedia. Wikinews switches to Creative Commons license Wikimedia Radio a b K.C. Jones (January 14 2008). "Wikinews Gets Big Interview: Israeli President Shimon Peres". Information Week. http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtmlarticleID205604529.  Asper Colleen (April 2008). "David Shankbone with Colleen Asper". The Brooklyn Rail. http://www.brooklynrail.org/2008/04/books/david-shankbone-with-colleen-asper.  a b Weiss Aaron (February 10 2005). "Jimmy Wales president of Wikimedia where articles written by users are open to revision by others". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/10/technology/circuits/10wiki.htmlr1&orefslogin .  "Interview with Sue Gardner of the Wikimedia Foundation" Wikinews; October 24 2007. Dee Jonathan (2007-07-01). "All the News Thats Fit to Print Out". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/magazine/01WIKIPEDIA-t.html. Retrieved 2007-12-31.  a b Seward Zachary M. (2009-02-08). "Why Wikipedia beats Wikinews as a collaborative journalism project". Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism. http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/02/why-wikipedia-beats-wikinews-as-a-collaborative-journalism-project/. Retrieved 2009-02-09.  External links The Wikinews Ace: Why Shimon Peres sat down with David Shankbone Columbia Journalism Review Wikinews: Multilingual Portal Wired News: Wikipedia Creators Move into News Wikinews RSS Feed Wikinews Original Reporting RSS Feed Wikinews Reports  blog by Wikinews reporters v d eProjects of the Wikimedia Foundation Wikibooks  Wikimedia Commons  Wikinews  Wikipedia  Wikiquote  Wikisource  Wikispecies  Wikiversity  Wiktionary Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wikinews