U.S. Rep. David Davis' Playhouse: His House office using federal tax dollars to vandalize Wikipedia political bios

Ethically Updating Wikipedia

[excerpt]
"The article is about how, in some cases, a marketer can work with Wikipedia in an ethical manner while still emphasizing an online presence. The tips are great and obviously well thought out but I found the most fascinating to be Durova's examples of how underestimating Wikipedia can be a dangerous business. In her examples she notes how the transparent nature of Wikipedia has caught anonymous users on government-based IP addresses editing political Wikipedia profiles to delete unflattering content.

For example, Durova cites how the Wikipedia listing of Tennessee state politicians Matthew Hill and David Davis was edited to remove the information that they had both accepted contributions from pharmaceutical companies. According to Durova, the IP address used to make the edits came from a congressional computer. [170.142.7.3; 143.231.249.141 ] The best part of Wikipedia is that, much to the chagrin of the illicit editor, each of these edits are publicly available - transparent indeed! "

ARIN WHOIS Database Search
Search ARIN WHOIS for: 143.231.249.141

OrgName: Information Systems, U.S. House of Representatives
OrgID: ISUHR
Address: 2nd and D St SW
City: Washington
StateProv: DC
PostalCode: 20515
Country: US

NetRange: 143.231.0.0 - 143.231.255.255
CIDR: 143.231.0.0/16
NetName: HOUSE2
NetHandle: NET-143-231-0-0-1
Parent: NET-143-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Assignment
NameServer: MERCURY.HOUSE.GOV
NameServer: CHYRON.HOUSE.GOV
Comment:
RegDate: 1990-10-17
Updated: 2005-05-25

RTechHandle: JA1117-ARIN
RTechName: Adams, Joseph
RTechPhone: +1-202-226-6194
RTechEmail: joe.adams@mail.house.gov

OrgTechHandle: JA1117-ARIN
OrgTechName: Adams, Joseph
OrgTechPhone: +1-202-226-6194
OrgTechEmail: joe.adams@mail.house.gov

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2007-07-24 19:10
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ARIN WHOIS Database Search
Search ARIN WHOIS for: 170.142.7.3

OrgName: State of Tennessee
OrgID: TENN
Address: Department of Finance and Administration
Address: Office for Information Resources
Address: 598 James Robertson Pkwy, 3rd Floor
City: Nashville
StateProv: TN
PostalCode: 37243
Country: US

NetRange: 170.141.0.0 - 170.143.255.255
CIDR: 170.141.0.0/16, 170.142.0.0/15
NetName: TNNET
NetHandle: NET-170-141-0-0-1
Parent: NET-170-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: DNS3.STATE.TN.US
NameServer: DNS4.STATE.TN.US
Comment:
RegDate: 1994-04-29
Updated: 2002-09-06

RTechHandle: IM-ORG-ARIN
RTechName: IP Manager
RTechPhone: +1-615-741-9361
RTechEmail: ip.mgr@state.tn.us