Directory:MyWikiBiz

MyWikiBiz
Slogan	Author Your Legacy
Type	[[Company_Type:=Private|Private]]
Founded	[[Year_Started:=2006|2006]]
Founder	Gregory J. Kohs
Headquarters	Template:Country data US [[City:=West Chester|West Chester]], [[State_Name:=Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]], [[Country_Name:=United States|USA]]
Key people	[[Key_Person1:=Gregory Kohs|Gregory J. Kohs]], CEO
Industry	[[NAICS_Code1_Title:=Internet publishing and broadcasting|Internet publishing]] [[NAICS_Code2_Title:=Independent artists, writers, and performers |Independent artists, writers, and performers]]
Products	See complete services listing
Owner	Gregory J. Kohs
Contact	MyWikiBiz.com 489 Lake George Circle West Chester, PA  US  19382-2188 302.463.1354  na [http://www.mywikibiz.com www.mywikibiz.com]   [mailto:info@mywikibiz.com Email]
Reference	Year End: 12/31 DUNS: 796762651 NAICS:51611 71151 Entity: [[Entity_Type:=Sole proprietor|Sole]] Latitude: 39°56′22.5″N Longitude: 75°36′42.4″W

MyWikiBiz is a wiki directory business that at one time created Wikipedia articles for paying corporations. The current site at MyWikiBiz.com allows people and business enterprises to author their own legacy on the Internet, using a semantic web version of the famous MediaWiki software. The MyWikiBiz directory contains over 34,000 pages of content about corporations and individuals.

According to its main page:

MyWikiBiz is a new directory where you can author your legacy on the Internet. We think you are notable, even if Wikipedia has rejected an article about you or your enterprise as being "non-notable". With MyWikiBiz, you create a beautiful, reader-friendly page that will get picked up by Google, Yahoo!, and MSN Search engines.

Business propositions

MyWikiBiz suggests several reasons for contributing content to its directory. Unlike traditional encyclopedias, editors who are legally responsible for the entity they are writing about may "protect" their advocate point-of-view, without fear of someone else altering their content. Editors may also earn money at MyWikiBiz by authoring a popular page, embedding Google AdSense ads within it, and keeping 100% of the revenues generated from that page's advertising. Page owners may also advertise and sell their products and services on MyWikiBiz. Contributors who are more interested in the community-edited dynamic of an encyclopedia like Wikipedia can do so with any topic that is not about a legal entity, such as "Jupiter" or "chess".

History of the site

Paid editing

Gregory Kohs and his sister started the MyWikiBiz venture in Pennsylvania in July 2006, initially as a paid editing service for encyclopedic content for inclusion in Wikipedia and other community-edited sites. Its tiers of service were priced at $49, $79, and $99 per article. Kohs stated his intention to make neutral, sourced content, and expected the general public to continue altering and improving the articles he created. Though no official Wikipedia policy prohibited paid-for contributions, Chairman Emeritus of the Wikimedia Foundation Jimmy Wales first called the commercialized editing "antithetical" to Wikipedia's mission. However, in August 2006, Wales issued a "mutually beneficial" compromise where he encouraged MyWikiBiz to author and post content on a GFDL-compliant section of MyWikiBiz.com, which could then be scraped by non-paid, independent editors into Wikipedia and other GFDL sites. Over the course of late 2006, though, financial conflicts of interest became regulated under Wikipedia's new conflict of interest policy.[1] In October 2006, despite there being no reason to do so, Wales aggressively reversed his earlier compromise with MyWikiBiz, banning the account from Wikipedia and cautioning any business from using its services.

Centiare alliance and takeover

In late October 2006, the owner of Centiare.com reached out to Kohs to form a partnership that resulted in Kohs promoting and marketing the alternative wiki directory at Centiare. This effort gained strength through early 2007, but ultimately began to fade. When Centiare's owner opted to pull the plug on the site, Kohs negotiated a transfer of the entire contents of Centiare.com to MyWikiBiz.com. Thus, MyWikiBiz has undergone a substantial re-branding and re-purpose from its original mission.

External links

• MyWikiBiz
• Original Press Release
• MyWikiBiz listing on Centaire.com
• MyWikiBiz's Wikipedia contributions
• MyWikiBiz's Wikipedia block log

News coverage

• "Idea of paid entries roils Wikipedia" Brian Bergstein, Associated Press, January 24, 2007.
• "Wikipedia Blocks a Pay-for-Play Scheme", Brock Read, The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 24, 2007
• "Wikipedia-Artikel, die man kaufen kann", Von Mathias Peer, Die Welt, August 24, 2006
• "Wikipedia Controversies: Victims of Wikipedia.... or Wiki Whiners?", Dan Tobias, Dan's Political and Controversial Site
• "Editing for hire leads to intervention" Wikipedia Signpost. August 14, 2006.
• "Account used to create paid corporate entries shut down" Wikipedia Signpost. October 9, 2006.

Origin

Founded in 2006 by Gregory J. Kohs, MyWikiBiz initially set out to create and edit neutral-point-of-view Wikipedia articles for payment. However, key leaders and administrators of Wikipedia expressed concerns about the potential conflict of interest in such practice. MyWikiBiz adapted to these concerns and currently pursues activity in other non-Wikipedia editing spaces that utilize wiki markup languages, including Centiare.

Consulting and speaking

Kohs is available for speaking engagements and press interviews, regarding the promises and perils of community-edited spaces on the Internet. He recently spoke about wiki implementation at the annual conference of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy in July 2007, with his portion of the presentation available for download.

Greg Kohs’ presentation of wiki was both insightful and knowledgeable. I hope to have him return for further discussions on such an exciting emerging topic. -- Rebecca Morgan, Director of Communications, AACP

Associated Press photo, 2007.

The story of MyWikiBiz was broadly publicized in over 150 mainstream media outlets, including the Washington Post, USA Today, MSNBC.com, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, as well as a television appearance on the G4 TV network.

MyWikiBiz has a devoted interest in the success of the Semantic Web. We have the ability to communicate to complete novices the amazing advantages (and some disadvantages) of Semantic Web, or as it's also known -- Web 3.0.

<adsense> google_ad_client = 'pub-4781341637005814'; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60; google_ad_format = '468x60_as'; google_ad_type = 'text_image';//2006-12-28: Centiare Directory space google_ad_channel = '2388332058'; google_color_border = '6699CC'; google_color_bg = '003366'; google_color_link = 'FFFFFF'; google_color_text = 'AECCEB'; google_color_url = 'AECCEB'; </adsense>

Internal links

• Directory:MyWikiBiz is "owned" by User:MyWikiBiz.
• To Do List
• Thoughts from other sites

External links

• Our first press release We began our biz in the bright sunlight of full disclosure
• A public compromise from Jimmy Wales The agreement brokered with the co-founder of Wikipedia
• A public dispute with Wales When our agreement was withdrawn by the co-founder of Wikipedia
• MyWikiBiz changes "teams" We're so happy we found Centiare!
• Mainstream media story Over 150 publishers pick up the AP story

Geolocation

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Centiare is a unique online directory that anyone can use. The directory facilitates search engine optimization (SEO) in new and powerful ways. You can set up your very own Directory page about yourself or your business, and no other users can edit it. That's how the Directory pages work -- if you create it, you own it. Within these "user-owned" commercial, non-profit, government, personal, and property Directory listings, you're encouraged to express advocate points-of-view (APOV); include links to your products, artwork, blogs, or books you've written; and create wiki-links to any other pages in Centiare that you find interesting.

What makes Centiare different?

Centiare is powered by the same collaboration and editing software used by Wikipedia, but taken to the next level. With the addition of custom extensions that enhance its core functionality, you can do things on Centiare that just aren't possible (or welcome) on Wikipedia or other wiki sites. Things like:

• Monetize your Directory listing and/or Main page article
• Plug in YouTube videos within a page (example)
• Promote your resume, an auction, your products, whatever!
• List your "friends" within Centiare (example)
• Upload not only pictures, but also MP3 files, PDF or Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, and more
• Perform multi-level searches for specific things, like:

-- White male, over 6 feet, with a Masters degree, in Pennsylvania

-- Home heating oil company, at least 50 years in business, in New Jersey

-- Entities between the 36th and 40th parallels (example)

Those amazing searches are all possible because the best Centiare users will employ semantic tagging capabilities to organize, search, and report on information.

Meanwhile, for topics that would not have any legal standing in a courtroom (i.e., things like rainfall, fiber optic cable, the Rocky Mountains, glue, surfing), Centiare has the familiar Main page article space. Articles in Main space should be written with a neutral point-of-view (NPOV), and they may be edited by any user (nobody has "ownership" of Main space articles).

Directory Listings

Centiare's custom extensions and modifications bring the power of the MediaWiki program to users who wish to create and control their own Directory articles/pages. Within protected Directory listings, users are free to advocate, advertise and promote individual and/or commerical/non-profit acitivities without interference from other users/editors. Just be the first user to start an appropriate Directory topic (must be something that has standing in a court of law), and from that point on, you're the only user who will have access to edit that page and all its sub-pages.

Note: at this time, users are allowed to create Directory space articles about entities which they do not own or have a legal interest in. However, keep in mind that you may not use Centiare to libel others; and, if and when the rightful owner of an article topic appears, they can and will "claim" the space, which will be transferred immediately by a Centiare sysop.

Semantic Tagging

Centiare's custom extensions and modifications enable cross-referenced relationships and attributes to be generated automatically. Simply by using semantic tags in an accompanying Infobox or throughout a page article, Directory pages and portal listings can produce general/customized reports to help potential customers find the information they need relevant to your company and/or service offerings.

User Registration

Only registered users are allowed to create and/or edit any content on Centiare (including Main page entries). As such, registered users enjoy two primary benefits:

1. They can create their own Directory or User page listings in order to promote, market, or otherwise advocate commercial activities; and
2. They can create custom queries (i.e. by editing a page) and generate reports covering listings, friends, interests, etc., based on their own specified needs.

If you're not yet a registered user, you can register right now.

Additional Reading

• Read a 3-page presentation by marketing research guru Gregory Kohs about Centiare and the semantic web (requires PowerPoint).

• You can read the various reviews that independent critics have written about Centiare. Here are the most recent ones:

--Semantic web expert, Harry Chen, covers Centiare with "MediaWiki Opens for Business".

--IdeaGrove was the very first blog to profile Centiare, with a story entitled "Move Over Yellow Pages".