Wired Editor Cribs From Wikipedia in New Book

Of course he shouldn't rely on Wikipedia. He should just make stuff up or use his personal prejudices like most journalists.

I've written for Wikipedia, and I can tell you the information it presents is unreliable. Any idiot with a computer and I'net access can edit anything. Furthermore, the project is hopelessly skewed toward a white, under-40 demographic; in short, it's racist. Don't let anyone fool you that this online encyclopedia is a reliable source of information. A cursory look at the articles, edit histories and discussion pages related to black/Third World subject mater of virtually any kind will reveal a streak of racism and eurocentrism that is ugly, pervasive, deep. Wikipedia? It's a noble idea. In the end, however, It's not worth the paper it's not printed on.

go to any wikipedia information page and you can click edit and change it to whatever you like - SO not reliable.

AS I POSTED ON EMERGING WRITERS NETWORK YESTERDAY:

Many of you by now have probably heard that Chris Anderson, Editor at WIRED, admitted to plagiarizing - a fancy word for stealing - vast amounts of text from Wikipedia - no less - which was then inserted as text into his book: Free: The Future of a Radical Price. My response? ENOUGH!! This sort of fraud has happened one too many times. How can a writer do this? How can someone simply lift another source of material and claim it as their own work product? What sort of man does these things? Anderson's excuses are not worth the time to repeat here. They are at best weak and at worst psychotic. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/chris-anderson-apologizes-for-plagiarizing-wikipedia/?scp=1&sq=chris%20anderson&st=cse Are we not as artists, educators, parents and writers, editors and readers, better than this? Are we supposed to simply turn a blind eye - again - and ignore this as yet another example of the way of the world today? Have we fallen so low and lazy as to treat this incident as nothing but entertainment to talk about and then forget?
If Anderson is not fired, if we as a united group of writers and readers are not outraged enough to stand up and demand Anderson be held accountable for his actions which insult the very fabric of our industry then shame on us for allowing this latest incident to pass as simply something to be chatted about for a day. The problem is bigger than Anderson. This is not the first time such a crime – yes crime – and fraud has happened, and if we are apathetic and complacent, it will not be the last. Anderson quite simply must go. If he is not held accountable, we are all lost.

Steve Gillis

When you don't know anything about a topic, Wikipedia is a great place to go for fast, basic information. It's a starting point. But, for verifiable and citable information, you must go to more valid sources. I see Wikipedia cited and plagiarized in college papers all the time, and it's just not acceptable. Anderson should have known better, and so should his editors.

Someone objects to plagiarizing as being a fancy word for stealing. Is Embzelling is also a fancy word is it simply more concise?

Kill, murder, manslaughter all describe a death but all have separate and distinct meanings. Anyone who rejects the language as it exists is not a good user of it.

Steve Gillis said it all, albeit at length. Chris Anderson should be fired and his book withdrawn. Instead, he will likely end up on Oprah. His publishers are, as we speak, probably tripling their initial print order. I often ask my cat why in the name of creation we landed on this particular planet, since she is supposed to be in charge of intergalactic travel. But, listen up, she actually likes it here. She gets to sleep sixteen hours a day, watch mindless crap on TV, and look over my shoulder while I peruse planetary goings on in Star magazine. So, lighten up everybody. After all, if eighty five percent of the nation takes the BIble literally (another white male dominated reference source), why in God's name should we be worrying about the veracity of Wikipedia? Et cetera.

I am absolutely outraged at this Anderson character. Not only did he use an unreliable sources to give food for thought, but he also tried to claim it as his own. If we could use his blood instead of ink, I would write a never-ending book and see how far it goes. Plagiarism is what he fed us, and these are my ill-fed thoughts.

Wiki is considered more rumor than fact isnt it. What kind of author would use it as a source.

Rumor or fact or whatever, looks like what Joe Biden was proven to have done. He has plagiarized a speech from a popular British labor leader. Also took lines from John F. Kennedy speeches and borrowed lines from various individuals, and that includes his law school thesis.

I always say that only the first guy who picked up a branch/club and hit it against a hollow log was the first musician the rest have plagarized his music, from Bach to aerosmith. Reusing information is nothing new. He should have checked his source. I think it was Ben Franklin who said " For lack of a nail a horse shoe was lost and so hense the battle" ....." take care of the details or they will take care of you." I said that. Tim

Of course you can't trust Wikipedia. There's two articles there that I have direct & indusputable knowledge of, and at least 2-5 times a month, I'm correcting errors that some 'editor' has made.

So What!?

I'm a pro writer, and I may use Wikipedia as a starting point to research words or events I'm not familiar with, but then I use other, well-respected sources to confirm. Wikipedia is never acceptable as a source! I remember my college debate coach (pre-Internet) wouldn't even let us use Time or Newsweek as sources, forcing us to go to the original academic journals and studies instead to get our info.

My husband's an artist, and I regularly check his Wikipedia profile to remove errors others have posted. I have no idea where they even get some of that stuff! The last time I saw it, it gave him credit for working with people he hasn't worked with and said he was in a film that he's never even heard of! I called him one day from work to let him know about all of the additional projects he's apparently working on, and the master class he's teaching - all completely bogus! I told him I had no idea how he ever even had time to spend with me with all of that other stuff going on!

Can you imagine taking the blame for one of the gross errors in Wikipedia? LOL - at least he should have covered his butt by giving credit to Wik for what he'd written. My 5th grader had a paper on the solar system over winter break. She went to Wik "because they have all the stuff I need". She, at 10 years old, found two errors - and she's an average student, not one the "smart" ones. I suggested she start over but use the NASA site.