Microsoft to Wikipedia: Just the facts, please
MS-Watch | at | by Mike
Since August, Microsoft has sought to get changed what it believes are inaccuracies contained in Wikipedia articles about desktop file formats, particularly Open XML. After months of slow responses from Wikipedia, changes were made, following word that the company offered to pay Rick Jelliffe to correct entries. The Talk:Ecma Open XML discussion page catalogs some of the requests and changes.
News stories proliferated over the last couple days, with many aghast that Microsoft would offer to pay someone to edit Wikipedia posts. Initially, I shared a similar view, which my colleague Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols expressed yesterday, about the pay-for-edit offer. But in the more than 24 hours since, my position has changed, and I'm backing Microsoft on what was an arguably risky endeavor.