Microsoft 'tried to doctor Wikipedia'

一名软件工程师卷入了与试图收买他、对“维基百科”上的条目进行美化的微软公司的纠纷。

微软公司自称“技术传道士”的道格·马修在周一的时候发电子邮件给瑞克·杰利夫，希望能够利用后者的技术特长对在线百科全书的一些技术性文章进行修改。

杰利夫先生在悉尼大学获得经济学专业的学位，现于Pyrmont软件下属的Topologi公司担任首席技术官一职。

而微软的这一手段被看作是对“维基百科”编辑流程进行掩饰干涉的企图。

“维基百科”允许任何人添加或是修改其上的文章，并且依靠义务的仲裁人对文章的不准确之处进行修正。微软已否认其与杰利夫套近乎是种卑鄙或下流的手段。

在由马修先生在线公布的写给杰利夫的电子邮件中，杰利夫被问及他是否对于改正几篇关系到微软竞争对手的产品标准的、“错误的”和“歪曲的”的文章感兴趣。

这封邮件促使杰利夫将他与微软的交易公布于他的博客上，以使他确保微软不会在“维基百科”的文章发表前先批准这些文章。

杰利夫对微软这一提议的揭发爆料引发了众怒。他表示不支持微软。

“全部揭发是这个交易的一部分！否则我就不会有任何兴趣了，”他如此写道。

杰利夫拒绝作更多的公开评论。

微软的一名女发言人卡瑟琳·布鲁克尔声称并没有涉及到任何金钱的交易，但是没有说这个合同是否已经收回。

A software engineer has been embroiled in a controversy in which Microsoft stands accused of trying to use him as a paid proxy to finesse entries on the Wikipedia site.

Doug Mahugh, Microsoft "technical evangelist", emailed the engineer, Rick Jelliffe, on Monday, hoping to use Mr Jelliffe's expertise to modify a number of technical articles in the online encyclopedia.

Mr Jelliffe holds an economics degree from the University of Sydney and is chief technical officer at Topologi, a Pyrmont software company.

But the Microsoft approach has been interpreted as an attempt to disguise its hand in the editing process.

Wikipedia allows anyone to add to and modify articles, and relies on volunteer moderators to correct inaccuracies. But Microsoft has rejected suggestions it was being sneaky or underhanded by approaching Mr Jelliffe.

In the email to Mr Jelliffe, which Mr Mahugh has since published online, Mr Jelliffe was asked if he would be interested in correcting "errors" and "slanted language" found in Wikipedia entries relating to rival computer software standards, one of which was developed by Microsoft.

The email encouraged Mr Jelliffe to disclose his deal with Microsoft in his blog, and reassured him that Microsoft did not have to approve any of the Wikipedia edits before they were made.

Mr Jelliffe's disclosure of the offer on his blog sparked a flurry of criticism. He denied he was pro-Microsoft.

"Full disclosure was part of the deal! I wouldn't have been interested otherwise," he wrote.

Mr Jelliffe has refused to add to his published comments.

A Microsoft spokeswoman, Catherine Brooker, said no money had changed hands, but did not say whether the contract had been withdrawn.