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Chinese Ban on Wikipedia Prevents Research
An anonymous reader writes "China has banned access to Wikipedia for the third time, outraging students and intellectuals." From the article: "The latest blocking of the website, the third shutdown of the site in China in the past two years, has now continued for more than 10 weeks without any explanation and without any indication whether the ban is temporary or permanent ... Others said the blocking of Wikipedia has been a major blow to their research projects and even to their prospects of passing civil-service exams. 'How can I do my thesis now?' a university student asked on another Chinese website."
I guess we wait for another Tiananmen Square to happen again. It kind of makes one wonder what exactly was accomplished in 1989 when 100,000 protesters marched in Beijing. Appearantly not much.
While the U.S. is concerned with this, maybe we should instead be concerned with that?
Either way, if you're interested in what the U.S. is concerned about, maybe you should read documents made available by the Freedom of Information Act.
What are people supposed to do if they cannot free themselves from a suppressive government? It's not worth violence to be able to read wikipedia but it's clear that non-violent protests in the past did very little.
My work here is dung.
I do enjoy using Wikipedia for day-to-day use but I would not have used it for either of my Masters Thesis' as I don't think either oral defense committee would have accepted Wiki as an authoritative source. Perhaps that is different from school to school. Still, I wonder about the student puzzling how he/she will finish a thesis. I would suggest using mostly journal articles.
http://www.busyweather.com/
then one has to question the quality of Chinese degrees.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
They may have blocked wikipedia, but they still have the uncyclopedia as a backup, so they should be good to go on their research- especially considering today's WotD;-)
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Using a satellite modem or Satmodem, you can bypass the censors.
Read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_modem
Or, maybe not.
For anyone who can read this in China...try http://www.zensur.freerk.com/
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
How did all grad students complete their theses before the Wikipedia era? As a matter of fact, grads don't refer to encyclopedias when doing research. They refer more often to the literature (books, scientific journals, conference proceedings, etc.)
There's even sites dedicated to research literature. Try CiteSeer http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/, or even Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com/.
Of coures Wikipedia can help a lot when you want to have a quick reference on subject matter, but there are also much more comprehensive avenues of research that can be used.
Wikipedia is a great source of information for research papers, specifically the Wikipedia citations. Wikipedia allows a broad overview of a subject, which is helpful in guiding the author, but overall its principle value is a collection of relevant, human-verified links, many of which lead to primary authorities on the subject matter.
I almost always head to Wikipedia before Google when doing research, for this reason. (I work in SEO, by the way)
Every government official in China editing a Wikipedia entry - talk about re-writing history! Perhaps Wikipedia should be blocking China.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
I don't know if China as we know it is more doomed by their absurd governmental policies, or by the fact that their uyounger generation's research seems to depend on the archived wisdom of random people on the street. I'll grant Wikipedia is getting better, but (a) to depend on it as a primary source of scholarship at this point is absurd and (b) even in China, especially at universities, there are other options.
Unless one's thesis is on the Wikipedia, anyone depending oslely on Wikipedia for research needs a reality slap.
Excuse me, think back to that guy, standing in the path of the line of tanks, and stopping them. Even if it accomplished nothing locally, that has to be one of THE most touching images of the last century, that has inspired thousands to get up stand up for their rights.
China's response was to block the 'other Chinese website' as well.
I don't think it's really fair for you to say something like this unless you live in China and get along fine with the suppression of websites.
Afterall, I've found very helpful things on Wikipedia. I just wrote a Hidden Markov Model using the Viterbi Algorithm and did it from scratch in Java using WordNet and this page. Am I saying I could write a paper off of Wikipedia? No, but when that's all you have to work with, it may be more important than you think.
My work here is dung.
In cases like this there are always individuals that forget what's going on around them long enough to prove themselves idiots.
It always struck me as funny how often the same people bitching about American imperialism conveniently forget their previous arguments when it comes to the internet in China.
Sorry hypocrites, you can't have it both ways. China is a sovereign state, so while you may disagree, YOU have no right sticking your nose in their business, or spreading so-called "American values".
And you can thank the left for that particular argument, because I stole it straight from an anti-war in Iraq website.
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
That isn't the approach Eisenhower took with the Soviets. His idea was that to compete globally, they must educate themselves, and that would "sow the seeds of their own destruction." (meaning the destruction of communism). It did.
It is interesting to know this and see all the Chinese students enrolled in our American universities. I think it is just a matter of time--"holding the line" as Eisenhower called it.
-- yawn. --
I don't think it's really fair for you to say something like this unless you live in China and get along fine with the suppression of websites.
Do you live in the US?
Can you legally visit child porn sites (or if certain people have their way, ANY porn sites in the near future)?
Oh, but that breaks the law, you no doubt protest... Well, guess who writes the law? The government. And China has one of those as well, to write their laws.
But perhaps you'd prefer a more "fair" comparison? Okay...
Can you go download Grokster? Visit I2Hub? LokiTorrent? Run the original Napster client (successfully)?
All societies have taboos, and all societies believe that those taboos protect either all of society or the target of the taboo. Sometimes that holds true, and sometimes it does not.
In the US, we believe in practically ANYTHING justified by "for the kids". We believe corporate profit and domestic security trump personal freedoms. We believe we have quite a lot of rights that the courts regularly laugh out of court.
China believes certain religious, political, and economic philosophies constitute a grave danger to their society. And actually, they have that correct, in that at least on the political and economic front, those banned ideas will eventually destroy their existing government. But if you replace "democracy" with "theocracy", "Falun Gong" with "Radical Islam", and "capitalism" with "socialism", can Americans really claim themselves as so much more enlightened?
Can you legally visit child porn sites (or if certain people have their way, ANY porn sites in the near future)?
No, I can not.
Is it legal for the government to place filters in place so that I can not find them?
No, it is not.
Is it legal for the government to take down those site, and arrest the owners?
Yes, it is.
Can you go download Grokster? Visit I2Hub? LokiTorrent? Run the original Napster client (successfully)?
Yes, from p2p networks, quite legally too.
Probably not any more (unless I2hub is decentralized).
Do not know what lokitorrent is. I suppose it is down.
No, it is down.
Is any of it due to government cencorship?
No.
Please be careful distinguishing government intervention and bulk censorship (as opposed to personal responsibility) with perfectly sane laws quite endorsed by the society.
Is it legal to commit murder? No
Is it legal to threaten with murder? No
Is it legal to think about murder? Yes
Cencorship begins only when that last question has to be answered with a "no".
badness 10000
This parallel kills your whole argument.
Falun Gong has not killed anyone and, as far as I know, does not promote killing people who do follow Falun Gong. On the other hand, Radical Islam has killed people and continuously promotes killing the "infidels" who do not believe in Radical Islam.
Apples... oranges...
You need to install an RTFM interface.
UMass student admits "Little Red Book" Hoax:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=510754
In addition to forgetting, you also evidently didn't do any due diligence on the linked material.
Reinvent the wheel only at either a lower cost, greater effectiveness, or your own personal enrichment and satisfaction.
Is any of it due to government cencorship?
.
No.
Of course it is. The government censors child pornography. You can't view it, you can't dispplay it, you can't trade it. What else would you call this besides censorship?
Please be careful distinguishing government intervention and bulk censorship (as opposed to personal responsibility)
So if it isn't done "bulk," it isn't censorship? What about broadcast TV, isn't that censored? Don't the networks have to pass their material by censors before they can put it on the air? Should we change their job title because you are uncomfortable with the fact that the US government employs censorship to some degree? You might argue that the networks hire their own censors, but what rules do you think the censors go by... the FCC, right?
with perfectly sane laws quite endorsed by the society
From what I understand, "bulk" censorship is quite endorsed by the majority of the Chinese population. Just as censorship of child pornography is quite endorsed by the majority of the US population.
Is it legal to commit murder? No
Is it legal to threaten with murder? No
Is it legal to think about murder? Yes
Cencorship begins only when that last question has to be answered with a "no".
Hardly. Even the Chinese are allowed to think about the things that are censored. They might be oppressed, but they don't quite have thought police yet.
-matthew
"THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
You must be new here.
The reason it was modded Overrated was because Overrated and Underrated mods don't show up in Metamoderation.
The government censors child pornography. You can't view it, you can't dispplay it, you can't trade it. What else would you call this besides censorship?
Child pornography (as a product) requires commiting heinous crimes to produce it.
Even if you were just a "consumer" of it and didn't produce it yourself, you'd still be supporting those who are commiting sexual crimes against children.
It's a very different situation than, say, banning a violent/sexually explicit game.
Cheers
Stor
"Yeah well there's a lot of stuff that should be, but isn't"