Microsoft to pay blogger for Wikipedia 'corrections'?

How open is Open XML entry?

Microsoft has reportedly agreed to pay a blogger and standards guru to make changes to Wikipedia articles.

The Redmond software giant had agreed to pay blogger Rick Jelliffe for time spent altering purported inaccuracies in an article on Microsoft’s document standard Open XML. No money has yet changed hands, however.

Australia-based Jelliffe is described as a “long-time standards activist” by his current employer Topologi, a company which makes products and tools to help with XML deployment.

On his blog, Jelliffe stated he intended to do some “mythbusting” and did not intend to “add any pro-Microsoft FUD” to Wikipedia.

He wrote: “I was a little surprised to receive email a couple of days ago from Microsoft saying they wanted to contract someone independent but friendly (me) for a couple of days to provide more balance on Wikipedia concerning ODF/OOXML. I am hardly the poster boy of Microsoft partisanship! Apparently they are frustrated at the amount of spin from some ODF stakeholders on Wikipedia and blogs.”

Jelliffe said he intended to accept the offer to clear up inaccuracies – and claimed he had already seen some.

Full story: silicon.com