We are the Knights Who Say Wiki

From: spencer_katt@ziffdavis.com

Sent: Monday, February 6, 2006 12:10 AM

To: eWEEK readers

Subject: Editing the past; changing of the guard; the end of TV as we know it

"He who controls the past," said Spencer in an ominous Orwellian tone, "must have changed the wiki!" The Lynx was laughing with a phone pal about the recent flap over whether congressional staffers should be spending their time changing wiki entries. Apparently, some of the changes, which Wikipedia says number more than 1,000, made by U.S. House staffers have been so juvenile that Wikipedia has reportedly blocked Senate and House IP addresses from making new entries at this time.

At the forefront of the debacle are wiki changes made by the staff of Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., that concerned the legislators breaking a term-limit promise and the abundance of funds in his campaign war chest. An onslaught of disparaging edits on Meehans wiki soon followed after the legislators staff made the content changes. "So, if they do an updated flick of George Orwells 1984, I guess Winston Smith can work at the Ministry of Wiki Wrangling," mused the Mouser.

The pal asked Spence what else was new in the Bay State, and the Kitty informed him that Massachusetts just hired a new CIO. Louis Gutierrez succeeds Peter Quinn, who stepped down recently amid controversy after his efforts to see that state documents be stored in the OpenDocument format, as opposed to proprietary formats such as Microsoft Office.

Spence, who was feeling under the weather for the second time this winter, bid his pal adieu and amused himself with an IBM business-value report titled "The end of TV as we know it." Citing what it calls The Generational Chasm, Big Blue splits TV viewers into two camps, one labeled Massive Passives and the other called Gadgetiers and Kool Kids. The report, which uses a 2012 forecast period, states that on-demand, digital downloading and Tivo-like recording technologies have sounded the death knell for television as we know it. "Thats funny, I always thought Joanie Loves Chachi sounded the death knell for TV as we know it back in the 70s," cackled the Kitty.

Soon, the KattPhone alerted the Kitty to the news that Mike Capellas, who recently left his CEO post at MCI after its acquisition by Verizon, has joined Ciscos board of directors. "Too bad Carly Fiorina, a Cisco board member from 2001 to 2003, wasnt still there," said Spence. "Its tough at a new company to find new folks to merge with." As the Katt downed more cold remedies, he saw that North Dakota and other rural areas are considering using balloons instead of cell towers to cover gaps in wireless coverage. "It also gives the Air Force a new excuse for the constant UFO sightings in rural locales," quipped the Kitty. "The governments old weather balloon excuse is so yesterday."