Mike Godwin, "reporter" Options

[EricBarbour]

Did you know that Mike Godwin occasionally writes for Reason, that famous libertarian rag?

Did you know that Mike visited the Occupy Oakland protest?

[mnemonic]

Glad you all found the Occupy Oakland piece worth reading and discussion. Frank Ogawa Plaza is only three blocks from my front door, so it was easy to visit the site, and I walk by it several times a week.

[thekohser]

Glad you all found the Occupy Oakland piece worth reading and discussion. Frank Ogawa Plaza is only three blocks from my front door, so it was easy to visit the site, and I walk by it several times a week.

Mike, are you enjoying your work at Mad River? How is it different from the work you did for the Wikimedia Foundation?

[mnemonic]

Glad you all found the Occupy Oakland piece worth reading and discussion. Frank Ogawa Plaza is only three blocks from my front door, so it was easy to visit the site, and I walk by it several times a week.

Mike, are you enjoying your work at Mad River? How is it different from the work you did for the Wikimedia Foundation?

Yes, Mad River is great. The difference is mainly that with Mad River I've been able to work with the project almost from scratch. Wikimedia Foundation was in a different place in its growth curve when I came on board in 2007, and is in an even more different place now. (I have to caution you that obviously I'm barred by attorney-client privilege and other legal and ethical constraints from talking about any privileged or confidential matters regarding either Mad River or Wikimedia Foundation. I'm happy, however, to answer questions here about my coverage of the Occupy Oakland intervention.) I enjoyed just about everything in my work at Wikimedia Foundation, and my successor, Geoff Brigham, and I get along quite well.



This post has been edited by mnemonic:

[thekohser]

...obviously I'm barred by attorney-client privilege and other legal and ethical constraints from talking about any privileged or confidential matters regarding either Mad River or Wikimedia Foundation.

Party pooper.

[mnemonic]

...obviously I'm barred by attorney-client privilege and other legal and ethical constraints from talking about any privileged or confidential matters regarding either Mad River or Wikimedia Foundation.

Party pooper.

I should add that I'm happy to talk about the nonprivileged aspects of the FBI matter (or non-privileged aspects of other issues I've worked on) as well. It's just that Eric Barbour opened this topic for the purpose of ridiculing me as a reporter, so it seems appropriate to reserve it for that topic. I wouldn't want to be the cause of topic drift.

[EricBarbour]

I should add that I'm happy to talk about the nonprivileged aspects of the FBI matter (or non-privileged aspects of other issues I've worked on) as well. It's just that Eric Barbour opened this topic for the purpose of ridiculing me as a reporter, so it seems appropriate to reserve it for that topic. I wouldn't want to be the cause of topic drift.

If it helps: I posted that not because it's "bad reporting", it's actually good. Thing is, Mike, your stint
at the WMF has turned you into a lightning-rod for Wikipedia critics, and (sad to say) you've become
a slightly absurd figure because of it. You're now a "net-celebrity", partly because of the WMF and
partly because of your time at the EFF, and (of course) that "Godwin's Law" bit. Celebrities tend to
become targets of criticism, as you well know.

And as for Oakland: can't stand the place. I would not have bought real estate there, even if I had known
about the value explosion of the last 30 years, in advance. It's a nasty town. The treatment of the
Occupy people should underline that. I'd even call it the "Buffalo NY of the west coast", if there weren't
several equally-good candidates on the west coast. It's starting to develop the symptoms of a corrupt
former industrial city, even though it hasn't "died" yet, as Buffalo has. Complaints about the Oakland
police have become legion.

(Just btw: feel free to ignore Ottava. And again, if you'd like to learn things about Wikipedia that
no one has ever told you, PM me.)

This post has been edited by EricBarbour:

[mnemonic]

I should add that I'm happy to talk about the nonprivileged aspects of the FBI matter (or non-privileged aspects of other issues I've worked on) as well. It's just that Eric Barbour opened this topic for the purpose of ridiculing me as a reporter, so it seems appropriate to reserve it for that topic. I wouldn't want to be the cause of topic drift.

If it helps: I posted that not because it's "bad reporting", it's actually good. Thing is, Mike, your stint
at the WMF has turned you into a lightning-rod for Wikipedia critics, and (sad to say) you've become
a slightly absurd figure because of it. You're now a "net-celebrity", partly because of the WMF and
partly because of your time at the EFF, and (of course) that "Godwin's Law" bit. Celebrities tend to
become targets of criticism, as you well know.

And as for Oakland: can't stand the place. I would not have bought real estate there, even if I had known
about the value explosion of the last 30 years, in advance. It's a nasty town. The treatment of the
Occupy people should underline that. I'd even call it the "Buffalo NY of the west coast", if there weren't
several equally-good candidates on the west coast. It's starting to develop the symptoms of a corrupt
former industrial city, even though it hasn't "died" yet, as Buffalo has. Complaints about the Oakland
police have become legion.

(Just btw: feel free to ignore Ottava. And again, if you'd like to learn things about Wikipedia that
no one has ever told you, PM me.)

I thought I was always slightly absurd. It disturbs me to think that I've only recently achieved slight absurdity. I think Google Analysis has hits on "Mike Godwin" peaking sometime in 2007 before I joined WMF. As for being a lightning rod for Wikipedia critics, certainly I've followed WR long enough to be
aware of how quickly that happens here.

I'm glad you thought the Occupy Oakland piece was good. I just figured you put scare quotes around "reporter" to raise questions about my journalistic cred. As it happens, I was a reporter years before I went to law school. These days, I publish stuff from time to time to keep my hand in.

I'm interested in anything you want to tell me in PM, Eric. Keep in mind, however, that there are legal/ethical limits on what I can share (although certainly I can talk about such things as what dealing with the FBI was like).

[GlassBeadGame]

I thought I was always slightly absurd. It disturbs me to think that I've only recently achieved slight absurdity. I think Google Analysis has hits on "Mike Godwin" peaking sometime in 2007 before I joined WMF. As for being a lightning rod for Wikipedia critics, certainly I've followed WR long enough to be
aware of how quickly that happens here.

Thank you for coming here and talking about your google analytics four years ago. Not often that poster put aside their narcissism. That is very very interesting.

Seems to me that a person who worked for a free speech organization being against beating up protester is kind of expected and not really much of an an occasion for At-A-Boys.

[mnemonic]

I thought I was always slightly absurd. It disturbs me to think that I've only recently achieved slight absurdity. I think Google Analysis has hits on "Mike Godwin" peaking sometime in 2007 before I joined WMF. As for being a lightning rod for Wikipedia critics, certainly I've followed WR long enough to be
aware of how quickly that happens here.

Thank you for coming here and talking about your google analytics four years ago. Not often that poster put aside their narcissism. That is very very interesting.

Seems to me that a person who worked for a free speech organization being against beating up protester is kind of expected and not really much of an an occasion for At-A-Boys.

Google Analytics put all of your Google hits over the last dozen years or so into one easy-to-read chart. I happened to clink on a link that someone posted on my Facebook Wall a few days ago, and it led directly to that Google Analytics chart. I don't use Google Analytics normally, but I noticed that the chart essentially flatlined right after I joined WMF and didn't spike again until a few months later.

Don't need At-A-Boys from you guys, and I would be more than slightly absurd if I expected them from you. Yes, being against beating up protestors is consistent with my long-held free-speech beliefs.

[thekohser]

Google Analytics put all of your Google hits over the last dozen years or so into one easy-to-read chart. I happened to clink on a link that someone posted on my Facebook Wall a few days ago, and it led directly to that Google Analytics chart. I don't use Google Analytics normally, but I noticed that the chart essentially flatlined right after I joined WMF and didn't spike again until a few months later.

Google Analytics is installed by site owners on particular websites. What exactly are you talking about? Which website were you tracking the "Google hits" upon? I'm curious if you're discussing some Google tool of which I'm not aware.

Are you maybe talking about Google Trends or something?

By the way, I have Google Analytics installed on my "National Wiki Edits" Examiner.com articles that I publish occasionally. Ever since I installed the app in late October 2010 (several months after I began writing for Examiner), Google has registered about 37,000 page views of my articles. My article about Godwin saying goodbye to the WMF has accounted for 1.3% of the page views. Albeit, the Analytics tool was only installed a couple of days after that article was published. Of all of the 5,000+ searches that web users have performed, which resulted in their coming to Examiner.com to check it out, only 0.37% of the searches contained the word "Godwin".

This post has been edited by thekohser:

[mnemonic]

Google Analytics put all of your Google hits over the last dozen years or so into one easy-to-read chart. I happened to clink on a link that someone posted on my Facebook Wall a few days ago, and it led directly to that Google Analytics chart. I don't use Google Analytics normally, but I noticed that the chart essentially flatlined right after I joined WMF and didn't spike again until a few months later.

Google Analytics is installed by site owners on particular websites. What exactly are you talking about? Which website were you tracking the "Google hits" upon? I'm curious if you're discussing some Google tool of which I'm not aware.

Are you maybe talking about Google Trends or something?

You're probably right that I'm misremembering the Google chart I came across as "Google Analytics". I can't remember which link it was now (which I suppose demonstrates that I don't normally follow that chart or any numbers generated by Google tools). Sorry for the mistake.

If I come across it again, I'll post the link here.