No Wikipedia available Wednesday!

[Natalka]

As a protest against US proposed anti-piracy leglislation, English language Wikipedia is not going to be available for 24 hours Wednesday, Jan. 18.

Info available here - the first is the official information, others are news stories

http://blog.wikimedia.org/

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/loc...ub=CalgaryHome
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wik...1#.TxWm7oGFOSo
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ontent=2304688

From the co-founder of Wikepedia -

[Patty Smyth]

Bahahaha, if students are relying on Wiki for their info for homework I pity them.

Accuracy issues anyone?

[glowworm2k]

Bahahaha, if students are relying on Wiki for their info for homework I pity them.

Accuracy issues anyone?

LOL, I've worked as a teaching assistant for a few years at a university. If wikipedia appears in anybody's bibliographies, I would automatically deduct marks from the assignment (normally 5% for finding wikipedia citations) just because they should know better. If they actually took erroneous information and used it as being "fact", then I'd deduct more! It's amazing - and sad - and upsetting - how many times I had to do that

[DH666]

That's OK, I know everything anyway.

[johndealtracker]

Seriously, I like it

[xox2010]

Bahahaha, if students are relying on Wiki for their info for homework I pity them.

Accuracy issues anyone?

I actually have used wikipedia - by looking up the subject I'm researching and using the links they used to do research. (the good links, of course!)

[glowworm2k]

I actually have used wikipedia - by looking up the subject I'm researching and using the links they used to do research. (the good links, of course!)

I don't see anything wrong with that. I have used wikipedia to get a general understanding of what something is before moving on to other sources which I then cite. I think that's what it is best used for. My beef only comes when folks think it's okay to cite wikipedia as a reliable source (on par with peer reviewed documents in their bibliographies)!

[xox2010]

I don't see anything wrong with that. I have used wikipedia to get a general understanding of what something is before moving on to other sources which I then cite. I think that's what it is best used for. My beef only comes when folks think it's okay to cite wikipedia as a reliable source (on par with peer reviewed documents in their bibliographies)!

Exactly If you're (as in a student, not you) using wikipedia itself as a source... well... you might as well just hand in a blank paper IMO.

[Darth Penguin]

There's some pretty dire C&P history essay sites out there. There's a couple which seem to have got their history information from The Tudors tv show...

Cheezburger and REDDIT are also offline on Weds

The user-generated news site Reddit and the blog Boing Boing have also said they will take part in the "blackout".
The sites' webmasters are opposed to the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa) being debated by Congress.
However, Twitter has declined to take part in the shutdown.

[Natalka]

OMG, no lolcats! OY!

[Natalka]

Wow, when I went to a game site I play on almost every day, I got a bit of a shocker because instead of the sign-in page, it was all black, with a little message saying this is what it would look like if that legislation went through - but then there was a place to click on to continue to the game.

Hm.... it made me really think.

[madchives]

while i can see the wiki blackout seems funny - it's not just them:

http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/technology-1/cheat-sheet-sopa-and-the-battle-for-content-on-the-internet-1.html

'Wikipedia's protest will be joined by other major online outlets, including Reddit, Boing Boing, Mozilla, WordPress and TwitPic, while Google is planning to express its opposition to SOPA through its homepage.'

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/sopas-most-frightening-flaw-is-the-future-it-predicts/article2285015/page1/

'Bob Parsons likes to go to Zimbabwe and shoot elephants.
The CEO of GoDaddy, a company that lets customers register Web site domain names, is apparently deeply concerned with the plight of Zimbabwean subsistence farmers, who he says are plagued by marauding elephant gangs that destroy crops and trample fields.'

one of the globe and mail comments:
10:41 AM on December 28, 2011

CBeal Edmonton
Just to break it down a little further for anyone that may still be confused by this bill.

Under SOPA, if someone were to have a link in a tweet to a website that has copyright infringing material (not to the material itself), the US AG would have the power to shutdown all of Twitter. Same with Facebook.

Youtube? Gone. Under SOPA, Youtube would not be able to function with user uploaded content.

No matter what your stance is on piracy, SOPA needs to be opposed. There are intelligent ways to deal with piracy, but this is not one of them.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/01/17/f-sopa-canada.html

'Geist outlined some of the ways the proposed laws could affect Canadians in a Jan. 17 blog post:
In the eyes of U.S. law, websites with domain names ending in .com, .net and .org are treated as American domestic domain names, regardless of where their owners are based, he wrote.
SOPA ignores the fact that IP addresses are assigned by regional, not national, entities. The American Registry for Internet Numbers allocates IP addresses for Canada (both for individual customers and governments) and 20 Caribbean nations, as well as the U.S. However, under SOPA, the IP addresses it allocates would be considered "domestic," i.e. U.S., IP addresses.
SOPA effectively grants the U.S. jurisdiction over some foreign websites, said Geist.'

waaaay too much reading, i know - but i am not a fan of censorship,
ask d-roc (can't find a no comment smiley )
hoping these billls do not pass as they read.
(((((and no i do not miss the striper poll and the day care link )))))

for those of us in ontario - tvo has a .org addy

[Darth Penguin]

todays xkcd comic

[glowworm2k]

while i can see the wiki blackout seems funny - it's not just them:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/01/17/f-sopa-canada.html

'Geist outlined some of the ways the proposed laws could affect Canadians in a Jan. 17 blog post:
In the eyes of U.S. law, websites with domain names ending in .com, .net and .org are treated as American domestic domain names, regardless of where their owners are based, he wrote.
SOPA ignores the fact that IP addresses are assigned by regional, not national, entities. The American Registry for Internet Numbers allocates IP addresses for Canada (both for individual customers and governments) and 20 Caribbean nations, as well as the U.S. However, under SOPA, the IP addresses it allocates would be considered "domestic," i.e. U.S., IP addresses.
SOPA effectively grants the U.S. jurisdiction over some foreign websites, said Geist.'

waaaay too much reading, i know - but i am not a fan of censorship,
ask d-roc (can't find a no comment smiley )
hoping these billls do not pass as they read.
(((((and no i do not miss the striper poll and the day care link )))))

for those of us in ontario - tvo has a .org addy

Although I joke about wikipedia, I'm also very concerned about the larger SOPA issue. It really bothers me how the US apparently likes to reach outside its jurisdiction and do what it pleases, regardless of how that affects others. (I also worry that something similar will be tried here and that people won't really understand the ramifications of it all until our rights have been fully and thoroughly trampled

[mastersaver]

+1 stop SOPA!!! its great what Wikipedia is doing I think it will raise awareness alot.