Wikipedia is Not Satanic!

I am currently an active (albeit part time) member of the faculty of two universities and one college. All three of these institutions of higher learning (and all universities and colleges, I assume) have a policies against students using Wikipedia as an approved research source for assignments or scholarly papers of any kind. As an employee of these institutions of higher learning, I understand the policies and fully comply with them, even though I do not agree with them. And here's why I don't. 

As a training, business management and IT (Information Technology) professional outside the university setting, however, I have found Wikipedia to be at least as well, and sometimes better, verified and supported than "mainstream" sources in the area(s) of these professions. 

While I absolutely agree that one needs to be careful to verify the information found in Wikipedia, the exact same thing is true about EVERY source, even such mainstream paragons of research virtue as this course's text book, the Encyclopedia Britannica and virtually ANY mainstream media outlet.  At least Wikipedia makes it clear when material in an article is NOT confirmed, verified or fully / properly supported. They flag those articles with a notice to that effect and ask for help from readers verifying and/or correcting the material.

To my knowledge, none of the mainstream outlets does this. 

If you look at the number of cases in recent years where such paragons of mainstream research virtue have published fiction as fact ("faction"); where other people's work is published  as their own; where unverified statements and works of "faction" from one media outlet is propagated around the world by other media outlets who don't bother to check even their most basic facts. Virtually every mainstream media outlet has had more than one of these type incidents in recent years, including The New York Times, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, NBC, and  FoxNews.

Do a Google search on "plagiarism scandals in _________" (fill in virtually any profession, publication or broadcast channel) and you may be surprised at exactly how poorly vetted these "trusted" sources really are.  

Visit http://gawker.com/5721413/plagiarism-scandal-reveals-espn-people-actually-write-down-that-stuff-they-say to see a few of the current scandals.

Read the article on "Plagiarism in medical / scientific literature" found at http://journals.lww.com/cardiovascularpharm/Fulltext/2010/12000/Plagiarism_in_the_Medical_Scientific_Literature.17.aspx.

Additionally, the fact that virtually anyone can offer articles for publication (not every article submitted is automatically published) means that it is easier for new ideas to be published and offered for professional peer review than in the "established" professional journals where financial gain and internal politics often play a larger part in what gets published than "truth" and "fact". In most articles on professional topics, the fact that there are so many practitioners reading the article and the fact that practitioners in the field have an opportunity to comment on and challenge the article, actually works to make Wikipedia a better-vetted source than any other I'm aware of.

Having said all this, of course, and in compliance with University / College policy, I, of course inform all my students in all my courses that Wikipedia is not an acceptable source to use for their assignments...but I can't stop them from using it in the real world.

There. I met my "toe-the-party-line" professional obligations.

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This BLOG is based on an answer I wrote to a student's question on 01/08/2011. I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Cats and dogs and kids and peace and quiet

I originally posted the following on the emigrant.ie's discussion boards in response to a question about cats, dogs and the grander meaning of life. I just found it and thought some of you might enjoy reading it. The original posting can be found at the link associated with this posting.

We currently have (along with assorted kids, fish and "wild" animals roaming the property) 4 cats and a dog. Three of the cats are older (10 to 14 years old) who have not gotten along with each other in all the years we've had them (since kittenhood for all of them). The 4th cat is the latest stray...about 3 - 4 months old and quickly learning not to bother the other cats.

The dog was a "drop-off" we took in as a puppy back in March. She's part of the family and has come to an uneasy truce with at least one of the cats. She is constantly trying to "play" with the kitten, but her size, noise and exuberance seem to scare the kitten (who's a bit skittish, as strays often are) away.

Since my wife and I are also all too often "all-too-pragmatic" people, we set certain rules that limit interaction between the species within our family's pet population - carefully watching the interactions to ensure no one ends up dead, mangled or too emotionally scarred for life.

On the other hand, since we have heard stories of cats and dogs living together in harmony and, since we are also eternal optimists in this area, from time to time we attempt to "forcibly integrate" the family pets - putting them into (heavily controlled) situations where they are forced to interact with each other. It is rarely successful from an integration standpoint, but it is (almost) always entertaining.

If you've read this far, you're probably beginning to wonder what all this has to do with answering Wildside's initial question.

The simple truth is - I don't know.

I was actually hoping that the act of documenting these experiences would bring some earth-shattering, universal truth to light for me...and that by relating these truths in this message, I would become the "hero of the thread" (a position which actually exists when I'm "in my happy place").

Unfortunately, all this has done for me is to highlight the fact that I have no answer to any of this and that the only thing I know to do is to keep slogging through each day - trying to contain the violence in each situation and celebrating the small victories (like the fact that at least one of our cats can now sit in the same room as the dog without constantly trying to scratch her nose).

Ouch, my head hurts now!

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

We are Americans...let's start acting like it..

In case you haven't heard, Osama Bin Laden, public enemy number one, has been killed by a US Navy Seal Team who raided his hiding place in Pakistan.

Understandably, there has been much rejoicing over and numerous celebrations of his death.

Unfortunately, too many of these celebrations and too much of this rejoicing is more evidence of blood lust than justifiable gratitude and thankfulness that an enemy has been vanquished.

I think this is a very good time to stop and reflect on what this momentous event, and our reactions to it, say about us . While some relief and thankfulness is right and proper, the wild public celebration of death and destruction needs to stop.

We are Americans. We hold ourselves to a higher standard. We are better than that.

We see value in every human life. We don't rejoice in death and killing. We do not revel in slaughter and gore. We are not barbarians clothing ourselves in the bodies and washing ourselves in the blood of our enemies.

We don't gloat over the vanquished. We quietly extend our hand to help a vanquished enemy become a friend and mourn the loss of life on both sides that every war inevitably brings. We heal the wounds, we rebuild the cities and we help repair the damage once the fight is over.

We are Americans. We forgive.

We are publicly grateful for our forefathers who gave their lives to gain and keep the freedoms we have. And we are quietly proud and thankful that our nation still produces men and women with the fortitude and will to keep and protect these freedoms for us and the courage to extend them to others. And we are sorrowful that we still live in a world where it is sometimes necessary for those good men and women to sacrifice their lives in that pursuit.

We are Americans. Let's start acting like it.

Pray for America.

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.