Episode 204: Noam Cohen

🕑 1 hour 15 minutes Noam Cohen is a journalist and writer who has written extensively about Wikipedia since 2007 for publications including The New York Times and Wired. He is the author of the 2017 book The Know-It-Alls: The Rise of Silicon Valley as a Political Powerhouse and Social Wrecking Ball, which was just released in paperback form with a new introduction by the author. You can also see this interview in video form, on YouTube. Links for some of the topics discussed: The Know-It-Alls website Noam Cohen's Wikipedia user page "Wikipedia:Noam Cohen" page (includes links to Noam's articles about Wikipedia)

🕑 1 hour 11 minutes Paul Vodrazka is a shift leader in the CNC (computer numerical control) department at the Winnipeg-based company Custom Castings. He manages the internal wikis for Custom Castings, and is also the author of the MediaWiki extension Layers. Links for some of the topics discussed: Custom Castings "Computer numerical control" Wikipedia article Layers MediaWiki extension Layers code on GitHub "Claude (language model)" Wikipedia article "Lindy effect" Wikipedia article

🕑 23 minutes It's another BTB Digest! Hear clips from five recent episodes. Cormac Parle notes the challenges in structured data in Wikimedia Commons, Vera de Kok reminisces about her early years as a Wikimedia photographer; Stephen Harrison cautions against dismissing AI encyclopedias; Brian Wolff summarizes the philosophy of JavaScript gadgets, Shlomit Lir points out the tension between equity and neutrality, and more!

🕑 58 minutes Steve Shattuck is a retired research assistant who created and runs the wiki AntWiki. Links for some of the topics discussed: AntWiki Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) AntWeb "Bamboo Specialist" category on AntWiki Australian Ants: Their Biology and Identification (1999 book by Steve Shattuck)

🕑 1 hour 14 minutes It's the (belated) 25th anniversary of the founding of Wikipedia - and the 200th episode! For this special episode, we have the return of Liam Wyatt (username Wittylama), a longtime Wikipedia volunteer and commentator, the first-ever Wikipedian-in-residence, and now a Senior Technical Partnerships Manager at the Wikimedia Foundation, to talk about Wikipedia's past, present and future. Links for some of the topics discussed: Wikipedia Weekly podcast archive at Internet Archive Wikipedia 25 virtual birthday party (video) "Wikimedia Enterprise Financial Report: Fiscal Year 2024 – 2025" (November 2025 Diff blog post) "Announcing New Wikimedia Enterprise Partners for Wikipedia's 25th Birthday" (January 2026 blog post) "Nominating Wikipedia for UNESCO Memory of the World: The never before told story" (November 2025 GLAM-Wiki talk by Liam) "Dealing with AI web crawlers at the WMF" (May 2025 presentation by Giuseppe Lavagetto) "Wikipedia at 25: A Wake-Up Call" (January 2026 essay by Christophe Henner)

🕑 1 hour 11 minutes Shlomit Lir is a writer, editor, and researcher at the University of Haifa, specializing in the politics of knowledge. Since 2024, she has been a public critic of Wikipedia, especially relating to its coverage of Israel. Links for some of the topics discussed: "The Bias Against Israel on Wikipedia" (2024 report for the World Jewish Congress) 2025 X post by Shlomit about then-candidate for the WMF Board of Trustees Ravan al-Taie "Smear Campaign Against Ravan, Wikimedia Foundation BoT Candidate" (response post by several Wikimedians) Larry Sanger's "Nine Theses on Wikipedia" "How Wikipedia's Pro-Hamas Editors Hijacked the Israel-Palestine Narrative" (2024 Pirate Wires article by Ashley Rindsberg) "Manipulated History" (2025 document for the World Jewish Congress)

🕑 1 hour 35 minutes Brian Wolff is a longtime MediaWiki and Wikimedia developer. He returns to the podcast for (maybe) one last in-person discussion before his move to Calgary, Alberta. We talk about political goings-on at the Wikimedia Foundation, developments in the software world, and random thoughts on classic sci-fi. Links for some of the topics discussed: "Wikimedia Foundation appoints Bernadette Meehan as Chief Executive Officer" (Wikimedia Foundation press release, December 2025) "Cárcel a dos hombres por 'paseo millonario' a vicecónsul de E.U." (March 2006 article in El Tiempo about Bernadette's brief kidnapping) Commons Play Listener Victoria Doronina email about WMF board of trustees candidate removals, October 2025 Temporary accounts for unregistered editors project "Encyclopedia Galactica" Wikipedia article "Stranger in a Strange Land" Wikipedia article

🕑 58 minutes It's the holiday special! Special guests, a musical performance (all from the MediaWiki world), and a tale of a life-changing encounter.

🕑 1 hour 37 minutes Stephen Harrison is a tech lawyer and journalist who has been writing about Wikipedia since 2018, including for Slate and The New York Times. He joins us to talk about all the Wikimedia-related events of the crazy month of October 2025, including the release of Jimmy Wales' book, Larry Sanger's "nine theses", some near-violence in New York City, and the launch of the site Grokipedia. Links for some of the topics discussed: Nine Theses on Wikipedia by Larry Sanger "October Surprise: The 2025 Wikimedia Elections Fall into a Transparency Trap" (The Wikipedian blog post) WikiConference North America "Why Editing Wikipedia Is Becoming More Dangerous" (Slate article by Stephen Harrison, October 2025) Grokipedia Yaron's LinkedIn post about Grokipedia The Seven Rules of Trust by Jimmy Wales "Wikipedia co-founder slams 'Gaza genocide' page over 'egregious' anti-Israel claims" (New York Post article, November 2025) Jimmy Wales interview on Jung & Naiv podcast, November 2025

🕑 28 minutes Clips from five recent episodes! Dan Andreescu considers a new "Datawiki" project, Wojciech Pędzich makes use of the Wikipedia sound logo, Thomas Chin retells a piece of Wikimedia development lore, SJ Klein contemplates the use of "Abstractese", Matt Latourelle explains Ballotpedia's neutrality, and more!