5 ms·

Would you pay $62 for a Wikipedia article?

30 points by phr 17y ago

zandorg 17y ago
The great thing is they brand it "Content from Wikipedia" so you know to avoid it. Some books (eg, Googled by Ken Auletta) require interviews with over 50 people - something away and beyond ripping off web content.
lurkinggrue 17y ago
Books > Children's Books > Characters & Series > Barney: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pepsi-Carbonated-Pharmacy-Oldfield-Talmadge/dp/6130452772/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268333884&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pepsi-Carbonated-Pharmacy-Oldfield-T...
phr 17y ago
Received a recommendation for this book this morning, because I had bought Peter Norvig's PAIP and other books on Lisp.
nnash 17y ago
I thought one of the key points of wikipedia was that it didn't limit access to information by charging for it.
- njharman 17y ago
  You are correct. Amazon(book publisher in question) != Wikipedia
  - semmons 17y ago
    Amazon is not the publisher, Betascript Publishing is. Looking at their site, it seems that what they do is gather articles and bind them together (with or without permission, I don't know). Here is the text from their About page: Annually, millions of works are written worldwide in the research industry. Enterprises and scientists would be especially interested in these ideas; nevertheless, up to today, most of this work is shelved as a result of high costs. Betascript Publishing specializes in the publication of such works and uses commitment and the latest technology in order to make the invaluable work of such researchers available worldwide, quickly and efficiently.
morphir 17y ago
Save your money for Land of Lisp by Conrad Barski, coming out this month. http://www.amazon.com/Land-LISP-Learn-Program-Game/dp/1593272006/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268328493&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Land-LISP-Learn-Program-Game/dp/159327...
- hvs 17y ago
  It might be. I've been on the pre-order list for that book since last October and it was supposed to be shipped in November 2009. I wouldn't necessarily count on it being released this month. Hopefully it'll be worth the wait..
Psyonic 17y ago
I wonder what all is in there. Definitely not just the stack article, because that is nowhere near 144 pages.
- kaddar 17y ago
  It would actually be kind of cool if it followed the link graph for the article a couple articles deep, so you could get a customized book of concepts clustered around a main topic.
  - alan_p 17y ago
    I think the book would definitely become a lot more interesting that way. Chapter 1: Stacks Chapter 2: Reverse Polish Notation Chapter 3: Australia Chapter 4: Penal transportation Chapter 5: Slavery Chapter 6: Prostitution Chapter 7: Pornography (and I wasn't even trying)
    - kaddar 17y ago
      Stack (data structure) Computer science Internet Pornography Bam! Regardless, the assumption that pornography would be in every book assumes that you don't cluster the data to topics with strong clique behavior and normalize the data to remove overly-linked (aka obvious) topics.
  - tbgvi 17y ago
    That's an interesting idea. I saw that thing earlier today where someone built a Wikipedia Trends. Anyone know of other interesting uses of Wikipedia?
  - jcl 17y ago
    I wouldn't be surprised if that is exactly what this book is doing. The full book title is: "Stack (data structure): Abstract Data Type, Data Structure, Friedrich L. Bauer, Charles Leonard Hamblin High-level Programming Language, Lisp". Go to the Wikipedia Stack article, and just read the article's links in order: computer science, LIFO, abstract data type, data structure, Friedrich L. Bauer, Charles Leonard Hamblin, high level languages, array, linked-list, overrun, Lisp, etc. It looks like they are doing very little editing -- maybe an automated pruning algorithm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_%28data_structure%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_%28data_structure%29
samwillis 17y ago
What's really worrying is if you search for the "Editors" of the book there are over 17,000 book by them: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Lambert+M.+Surhone,+Miriam+T.+Timpledon,+and+Susan+F.+Marseken&x=0&y=0 http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3D... They must have made an automated system that creates these books and sells them on Amazon using print on demand.
- ableal 17y ago
  Curious. I thought of getting numbers to check rate of growth, if any. With the default 'Relevance' sorting, it's 17,761 (as of 18:44 WET, today). With any other sorting, it's 13,962.
  - ableal 17y ago
    Aaaaaand ... 23 days later (April 04 01:16:55 WEST) Relevance: 21,590 Results Others: 17,807 An increase of nearly 4k in a tad over 3 weeks, about 170 per day. By date, they seem to land in batches - Mar 19, Mar 14 ...
    - ableal 16y ago
      Another 11 days (Apr 15 12:22:48 WEST 2010) Relevance: 21,589 Results Others: 15,039 Curious, seems halted, with the second number down nearly 2800
      - ableal 16y ago
        Seems Amazon put a stop to it (Fri May 7 10:34:58 WEST 2010) Relevance: 21,589 Others: 154 Huh, 154 ? Checking small print at bottom of results: This search may have been filtered to remove less relevant results. Click here to include these items in your results OK, clicking now lists 21,589, but nearly all of them say: Currently unavailable
lsb 17y ago
If you do, then you can give it away free, because their book is under the Creative Commons Attribution/ShareAlike license, being a modification of Wikipedia.
- nroach 17y ago
  The real question in my mind is whether the book provides attribution to Wikipedia as the source. If not, and if the book's contents are literal copies of the wikipedia article, then Wikipedia may be able to have the book(s) taken down because the attribution clause was violated (and thus the license). I've not looked into the Amazon listing enough to know whether that's the case or not.
  - dutchflyboy 17y ago
    Did you actually use the link? In the description there is: "High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles!" (emphasis not mine). That'll probably count as an attribution.
  - Gormo 17y ago
    The cover art for each of these books shows a "content from Wikipedia" badge, so it looks like they are probably conforming to the licenses. It's a little odd that they'd state it so clearly on the cover, though, since it seems as though they're trying to exploit a knowledge gap in their target market.
Legion 17y ago
I've never been tempted to type "LOL WUT" until now. I have been willing to pay for printed copies of freely-available digital material. I bought Dive Into Python 3. I even bought a pair of Lulu-printed copies of Why's Poignant Guide to Ruby. Repackaged Wikipedia articles, however, is pushing it a liiitle too far. Especially given the price. Especially given how unclear the listing is about what's even in there (as Psyonic said, the stack article doesn't fill 144 pages).
stse 17y ago
I don't see any problem with this, it clearly states that the articles are from Wikipedia. As long as they don't change the license they can more or less rework and distribute it however they like. There are also others doing similar things. http://www.wissenmedia.de/wissenmediaverlag/verlagsprogramm/verlagsprogramm/titelinformationen/buch/320/16.html http://www.wissenmedia.de/wissenmediaverlag/verlagsprogramm/... http://pediapress.com/ http://pediapress.com/
ZeroGravitas 17y ago
For $99 dollars you can have the whole thing (3 million articles) in a 2" square device: http://thewikireader.com/ http://thewikireader.com/

30 points by phr 17y ago

The great thing is they brand it "Content from Wikipedia" so you know to avoid it. Some books (eg, Googled by Ken Auletta) require interviews with over 50 people - something away and beyond ripping off web content.

lurkinggrue 17y ago

Books > Children's Books > Characters & Series > Barney: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pepsi-Carbonated-Pharmacy-Oldfield-Talmadge/dp/6130452772/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268333884&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pepsi-Carbonated-Pharmacy-Oldfield-T...

phr 17y ago

Received a recommendation for this book this morning, because I had bought Peter Norvig's PAIP and other books on Lisp.

nnash 17y ago

I thought one of the key points of wikipedia was that it didn't limit access to information by charging for it.

njharman 17y ago
You are correct. Amazon(book publisher in question) != Wikipedia
- semmons 17y ago
  Amazon is not the publisher, Betascript Publishing is. Looking at their site, it seems that what they do is gather articles and bind them together (with or without permission, I don't know). Here is the text from their About page: Annually, millions of works are written worldwide in the research industry. Enterprises and scientists would be especially interested in these ideas; nevertheless, up to today, most of this work is shelved as a result of high costs. Betascript Publishing specializes in the publication of such works and uses commitment and the latest technology in order to make the invaluable work of such researchers available worldwide, quickly and efficiently.

morphir 17y ago

Save your money for Land of Lisp by Conrad Barski, coming out this month. http://www.amazon.com/Land-LISP-Learn-Program-Game/dp/1593272006/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268328493&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Land-LISP-Learn-Program-Game/dp/159327...

hvs 17y ago
It might be. I've been on the pre-order list for that book since last October and it was supposed to be shipped in November 2009. I wouldn't necessarily count on it being released this month. Hopefully it'll be worth the wait..

Psyonic 17y ago

I wonder what all is in there. Definitely not just the stack article, because that is nowhere near 144 pages.

kaddar 17y ago
It would actually be kind of cool if it followed the link graph for the article a couple articles deep, so you could get a customized book of concepts clustered around a main topic.
- alan_p 17y ago
  I think the book would definitely become a lot more interesting that way. Chapter 1: Stacks Chapter 2: Reverse Polish Notation Chapter 3: Australia Chapter 4: Penal transportation Chapter 5: Slavery Chapter 6: Prostitution Chapter 7: Pornography (and I wasn't even trying)
  - kaddar 17y ago
    Stack (data structure) Computer science Internet Pornography Bam! Regardless, the assumption that pornography would be in every book assumes that you don't cluster the data to topics with strong clique behavior and normalize the data to remove overly-linked (aka obvious) topics.
- tbgvi 17y ago
  That's an interesting idea. I saw that thing earlier today where someone built a Wikipedia Trends. Anyone know of other interesting uses of Wikipedia?
- jcl 17y ago
  I wouldn't be surprised if that is exactly what this book is doing. The full book title is: "Stack (data structure): Abstract Data Type, Data Structure, Friedrich L. Bauer, Charles Leonard Hamblin High-level Programming Language, Lisp". Go to the Wikipedia Stack article, and just read the article's links in order: computer science, LIFO, abstract data type, data structure, Friedrich L. Bauer, Charles Leonard Hamblin, high level languages, array, linked-list, overrun, Lisp, etc. It looks like they are doing very little editing -- maybe an automated pruning algorithm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_%28data_structure%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_%28data_structure%29

samwillis 17y ago

What's really worrying is if you search for the "Editors" of the book there are over 17,000 book by them: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Lambert+M.+Surhone,+Miriam+T.+Timpledon,+and+Susan+F.+Marseken&x=0&y=0 http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3D... They must have made an automated system that creates these books and sells them on Amazon using print on demand.

ableal 17y ago
Curious. I thought of getting numbers to check rate of growth, if any. With the default 'Relevance' sorting, it's 17,761 (as of 18:44 WET, today). With any other sorting, it's 13,962.
- ableal 17y ago
  Aaaaaand ... 23 days later (April 04 01:16:55 WEST) Relevance: 21,590 Results Others: 17,807 An increase of nearly 4k in a tad over 3 weeks, about 170 per day. By date, they seem to land in batches - Mar 19, Mar 14 ...
  - ableal 16y ago
    Another 11 days (Apr 15 12:22:48 WEST 2010) Relevance: 21,589 Results Others: 15,039 Curious, seems halted, with the second number down nearly 2800
    - ableal 16y ago
      Seems Amazon put a stop to it (Fri May 7 10:34:58 WEST 2010) Relevance: 21,589 Others: 154 Huh, 154 ? Checking small print at bottom of results: This search may have been filtered to remove less relevant results. Click here to include these items in your results OK, clicking now lists 21,589, but nearly all of them say: Currently unavailable

lsb 17y ago

If you do, then you can give it away free, because their book is under the Creative Commons Attribution/ShareAlike license, being a modification of Wikipedia.

nroach 17y ago
The real question in my mind is whether the book provides attribution to Wikipedia as the source. If not, and if the book's contents are literal copies of the wikipedia article, then Wikipedia may be able to have the book(s) taken down because the attribution clause was violated (and thus the license). I've not looked into the Amazon listing enough to know whether that's the case or not.
- dutchflyboy 17y ago
  Did you actually use the link? In the description there is: "High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles!" (emphasis not mine). That'll probably count as an attribution.
- Gormo 17y ago
  The cover art for each of these books shows a "content from Wikipedia" badge, so it looks like they are probably conforming to the licenses. It's a little odd that they'd state it so clearly on the cover, though, since it seems as though they're trying to exploit a knowledge gap in their target market.

Legion 17y ago

I've never been tempted to type "LOL WUT" until now. I have been willing to pay for printed copies of freely-available digital material. I bought Dive Into Python 3. I even bought a pair of Lulu-printed copies of Why's Poignant Guide to Ruby. Repackaged Wikipedia articles, however, is pushing it a liiitle too far. Especially given the price. Especially given how unclear the listing is about what's even in there (as Psyonic said, the stack article doesn't fill 144 pages).

stse 17y ago

I don't see any problem with this, it clearly states that the articles are from Wikipedia. As long as they don't change the license they can more or less rework and distribute it however they like. There are also others doing similar things. http://www.wissenmedia.de/wissenmediaverlag/verlagsprogramm/verlagsprogramm/titelinformationen/buch/320/16.html http://www.wissenmedia.de/wissenmediaverlag/verlagsprogramm/... http://pediapress.com/ http://pediapress.com/

ZeroGravitas 17y ago

For $99 dollars you can have the whole thing (3 million articles) in a 2" square device: http://thewikireader.com/ http://thewikireader.com/