MyWikiBiz

Directory:MyWikiBiz

Revision as of 18:50, 21 May 2008 by MyWikiBiz (talk | contribs) (→‎Paid editing: spacing on MyWikiBiz article, since I scanned this from Jonathan Zittrain's book.)
MyWikiBiz
MyWikiBiz logo
SloganAuthor Your Legacy
Type [[Company_Type:=Private|Private]]
Founded [[Year_Started:=2006|2006]]
FounderGregory 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]]
ProductsSee complete services listing
OwnerGregory 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 allows people and enterprises to author their own legacy on the Internet. The brand began as a service creating Wikipedia articles for paying corporations. The current Internet publishing site at MyWikiBiz.com uses a semantic web version of the famous MediaWiki software. The MyWikiBiz directory currently contains over 34,000 pages of content about corporations and individuals. The business is headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, with its web server in California.

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 creating a 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

Gregory Kohs and his sister started the MyWikiBiz venture in Pennsylvania in July 2006, initially as a paid editing service, writing encyclopedic content for inclusion in Wikipedia and other community-edited sites. 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. Although no official Wikipedia policy prohibited paid-for contributions, and although Wikipedia endorsed cash-for-editing via its Reward Board, 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 [1] 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, financial conflicts of interest became regulated under Wikipedia's new conflict of interest policy.[2] In October 2006, despite there being little 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. Days later, Wales issued MyWikiBiz a trademark violation complaint, but the legal threat was ignored, as it had no basis in law.

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

News coverage


<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

Geolocation

Template:Mapit-US-cityscale

Additional Reading

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