Japanese Bureaucrats Reprimanded for Wikipedia Editing

sufijazz writes "Six bureaucrats in the Japanese agricultural ministry have been reprimanded for working on the job ... for Wikipedia. The six officials were publicly chastised for editing hundreds of Wikipedia entries during work hours. These included over 250 entries about robots in anime. '"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam," said a ministry official, Tsutomu Shimomura ... The ministry's internal inquiry followed recent media allegations that a growing number of Japanese public servants were contributing to the internet encyclopaedia, which anyone can edit, often to reflect their personal views. The ministry verbally reprimanded each of the six officials, and slapped a ministry-wide order to prohibit access to Wikipedia at work, while disabling access to the site from the ministry, Mr Shimomura said. '"

Comments

Re:Censorship

[ZiakII]

Did you miss this part? for Wikipedia. The six officials were publicly chastised for editing hundreds of Wikipedia entries during work hours

If they had gotten in trouble for doing it not during work hours I could see it being censorship, but they were doing it during work hours.

People have been goofing off at work for

[Tablizer]

...millions of years[1]. This is not new. If you plug up one outlet, they'll just find another.

[1] Thog, you to kill it, not fuck it. Eat first, fun later [Bonk!]

Re:People have been goofing off at work for

[speilberg0]

This is not new. If you plug up one outlet, they'll just find another.

[citation needed]

Re:Censorship

[metlin]

No, I was talking about this part -

The ministry verbally reprimanded each of the six officials, and slapped a ministry-wide order to prohibit access to Wikipedia at work, while disabling access to the site from the ministry...

Sure, some people were wasting their time doing that stuff, but it is an encyclopedia, for crying out loud. Disabling access to the site from the ministry because a handful few were obsessed about spending time on it during work? Definitely over the top.

It's like blocking Slashdot because a bunch of people were commenting obsessively. Especially when you consider the fact that it is a bloody encyclopedia, not a porn site (it may amount to the same amount of time-wasted, but still, it would be of consequence to others in the ministry who may genuinely use Wikipedia as a resource).

Now here's some news

[hellfire]

From TFA:

The ministry, however, did not object to their limited contributions on the World Trade Organisation and free trade agreements.

I was about to have a slashtantrum about this not being news. As everyone should be thinking "You can't be wasting your employers time working for anyone else like that, even if it is Wikipedia." That would have been 'nuff said.

However this above statement disturbs me. It's okay if they spend time updating WTO and free trade articles, but not anime pages? They shouldn't be updating either pages. Anime pages are one thing, and they can and should be reprimanded for that. But I shudder at the thought of governments paying employees to update Wikipedia. Why aren't the head bureaucrats getting reprimanded by someone!!! ugh.

Re:Now here's some news

[QuantumG]

Blah. They're not slaves. If the ministry is not happy with their work output, they can fire them.

I worked for an employer once that had an IT department which banned things all the time. Including Slashdot. One day I got in trouble for using ssh tunneling through HTTPS so I could have unfiltered Internet. That was the last straw.. I threatened to quit. My employer agreed to have the restrictions removed for my machine's ip address only. I was in such a foul mood by then that I demanded they remove all the restrictions, for everyone, and they refused. Next day I tended my resignation.

Thankfully, they saw reason, tore up my resignation and removed the web proxy. People in the office who had heard nothing about my annoyance were heard to remark how much faster "the internet" was now.

About a year after that event I started working remotely for the same company because my partner's work commitments had moved us interstate. I had very rare contact with my coworkers during this time, but occasionally my employer would fly me in for conferences and celebrations. I got told that IT had now banned all workstation-to-workstation communications in the office to stem the use of a scribble-board chat program. Apparently people were using the scribble-board to draw pictures of penises (as is inevitable) and one of the likes-to-think-he-is-upwardly-mobile set was worried this could lead to a sexual harassment issue.

Something else happened to spark it.. I don't remember what, but the result was that virtually the entire developer staff threatened to quit, then went on strike, as a result of this stupid scribble-board program. Management refused to budge on the issue, but by this point cheap routers and long lengths of cable had been brought from home and a makeshift "dark net" had been setup entirely for the use of this silly drawing/chat program. Some of the guys sent me pictures.

Eventually, after IT cut off the Internet access, things came to a head and management buckled under the pressure. They got to keep their stupid scribble program and the Internet remained unfiltered. But, to this day, IT support in that office is pitiful. If you want RAM or, god forbid, software installed, you do it yourself. Of course, the geeks don't care.. the people most affected by the poor IT support is the likes-to-think-he-is-upwardly-mobile set.

So which ministry is in charge of Gundam then?

[gmezero]

Eh?

Wrong Ministry

[SEWilco]

OK, so the Agriculture Ministry is not in charge of Gundam. Which Ministry is in charge of Gundam?

Re:Wrong Ministry

[renrutal]

Which Ministry is in charge of Gundam? The Great Unified National Defensive Airfoces Ministry is.

Re:Censorship

[flyingsquid]

Don't you see what is really going on here? The Japanese government is trying to stop leaks from the ministry about their top secret military research. This includes their top-secret giant robot research, and their genetic laboratory's efforts to create a race of super-soldiers with spiky blonde hair!

Re:Censorship

[nwbvt]

"It's like blocking Slashdot because a bunch of people were commenting obsessively."

Yeah, a lot of offices do that. Along with other potential time wasting web sites. Its not because of censorship, its because they want their employees doing their job instead of surfing the net. Plus it wastes network resources, which believe it or not are not free. Many employers ban employees from using their network for personal use.

And yes, surfing the Wikipedia is almost always personal use. It is not a legitimate resource that you would use while writing a proposal you intend to turn in to your boss. Yes it certainly has its uses, but that is not one of them.

Re:Why is this on the frontpage of slashdot?

[kthejoker]

"News for nerds." Not "technology-only news."

Yeah, I know: it really is that simple.

Re:They have brought Shame on themself and Family

[Tablizer]

Each of the six gentleman must commit ritual Seppuku if there is any hope to restore personal honor.

But wait until they're done correcting the "Seppuku" entry in Wikipedia to remove the death requirement.

Re:Censorship

[ta bu shi da yu]

I disagree with that assertion. I often use Wikipedia to look up terms that a client asks me about that I have never heard before, if only so that I can get someone more informed to contact them. For work use I find it invaluable.

New meme's abrewin'?

[mecenday]

I purpose "[Blank] is not in charge of Gundam," be the 10 year anniversary slashdot meme...

Slashdot, for instance, is certainly *not* in charge of Gundam.

Re:New meme's abrewin'?

[maxwell demon]

In Korea, only old people are not in charge of Gundam.
In Soviet Russia, Gundam is not in charge of YOU.

Repoat

[Bender_]

"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam," said a ministry official

I lolled.. hard!