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_ The Wikimedia Foundation _ PediaPress, VDM Publishing

Posted by: HRIP7

Interesting http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/engine?do=post_view_flat;post=215272;page=1;mh=-1;list=wiki;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC on the Foundation list.

What with about 150,000 Wikipedia books out by the http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_adv_b/?search-alias=stripbooks&unfiltered=1&field-keywords=&field-author=Frederic+P.+Miller,+Agnes+F.+Vandome,+and+John+McBrewster&field-title=&field-isbn=&field-publisher=&node=&field-p_n_condition-type=&field-feature_browse-bin=&field-binding_browse-bin=&field-subject=&field-language=&field-dateop=&field-datemod=&field-dateyear=&sort=relevancerank&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=36&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=9 and http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_adv_b/?search-alias=stripbooks&unfiltered=1&field-keywords=&field-author=Lambert+M.+Surhone,+Miriam+T.+Timpledon,+and+Susan+F.+Marseken&field-title=&field-isbn=&field-publisher=&node=&field-p_n_condition-type=&field-feature_browse-bin=&field-binding_browse-bin=&field-subject=&field-language=&field-dateop=&field-datemod=&field-dateyear=&sort=relevancerank&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=36&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=9 imprints of VDM Publishing (nudging towards 10% of the 2 million book titles that amazon offers), http://pediapress.com/ keeping 90% of the proceeds they make off the Wikipedia book feature in the left sidebar, the issue of who makes money off Wikipedians' work (while the Foundation asks the public for donations) will no doubt gain in importance over the coming years.

Isn't it funny that all these companies are German? I wonder who in Wikimedia Germany has a finger in those pies.

This issue has a greater potential for killing Wikipedia than poor administration, porn scandals and BLP disasters taken together. The moment "teh community" realises they work their butts off to make some fat cat fatter, the air will go out of the balloon.

Posted by: thekohser

So, should every good Wikipedia Reviewer go now and buy two or three Alphascript books? Can you assure me that this will bring down the Wikimedia Foundation?

Posted by: Emperor

QUOTE(HRIP7 @ Sun 14th November 2010, 1:45am) *

This issue has a greater potential for killing Wikipedia than poor administration, porn scandals and BLP disasters taken together. The moment "teh community" realises they work their butts off to make some fat cat fatter, the air will go out of the balloon.


Wikipedia has actually been pretty open about this. Everyone knows that the content there can be used for almost any purpose, even commercial.

You might have some more luck if you show how the license terms have not been honored, i.e. the authors were not acknowledged properly.

Posted by: lilburne

QUOTE(Emperor @ Sun 14th November 2010, 3:08pm) *

QUOTE(HRIP7 @ Sun 14th November 2010, 1:45am) *

This issue has a greater potential for killing Wikipedia than poor administration, porn scandals and BLP disasters taken together. The moment "teh community" realises they work their butts off to make some fat cat fatter, the air will go out of the balloon.


Wikipedia has actually been pretty open about this. Everyone knows that the content there can be used for almost any purpose, even commercial.

You might have some more luck if you show how the license terms have not been honored, i.e. the authors were not acknowledged properly.


As a German company will they be printing the Pr0n and the neo-nazi stuff?

Posted by: BelovedFox

QUOTE(HRIP7 @ Sun 14th November 2010, 6:45am) *

Interesting http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/engine?do=post_view_flat;post=215272;page=1;mh=-1;list=wiki;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC on the Foundation list.

What with about 150,000 Wikipedia books out by the http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_adv_b/?search-alias=stripbooks&unfiltered=1&field-keywords=&field-author=Frederic+P.+Miller,+Agnes+F.+Vandome,+and+John+McBrewster&field-title=&field-isbn=&field-publisher=&node=&field-p_n_condition-type=&field-feature_browse-bin=&field-binding_browse-bin=&field-subject=&field-language=&field-dateop=&field-datemod=&field-dateyear=&sort=relevancerank&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=36&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=9 and http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_adv_b/?search-alias=stripbooks&unfiltered=1&field-keywords=&field-author=Lambert+M.+Surhone,+Miriam+T.+Timpledon,+and+Susan+F.+Marseken&field-title=&field-isbn=&field-publisher=&node=&field-p_n_condition-type=&field-feature_browse-bin=&field-binding_browse-bin=&field-subject=&field-language=&field-dateop=&field-datemod=&field-dateyear=&sort=relevancerank&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=36&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=9 imprints of VDM Publishing (nudging towards 10% of the 2 million book titles that amazon offers), http://pediapress.com/ keeping 90% of the proceeds they make off the Wikipedia book feature in the left sidebar, the issue of who makes money off Wikipedians' work (while the Foundation asks the public for donations) will no doubt gain in importance over the coming years.

Isn't it funny that all these companies are German? I wonder who in Wikimedia Germany has a finger in those pies.

This issue has a greater potential for killing Wikipedia than poor administration, porn scandals and BLP disasters taken together. The moment "teh community" realises they work their butts off to make some fat cat fatter, the air will go out of the balloon.


Given that these are essentially computer-generated books with obviously poor production values, I seriously doubt they are making anyone seriously rich.

Posted by: EricBarbour

As SlimVirgin asked:

QUOTE
Wikipedians who have been paid for writing articles (including policy-compliant ones) have been
blocked or ostracized. They've not been offered sidebar access by the Foundation.

Can the Foundation please explain how Brainbot/Pediapress was chosen?

I, too, would like to hear the answer to those little questions........

Posted by: Milton Roe

QUOTE(EricBarbour @ Sun 14th November 2010, 2:40pm) *

As SlimVirgin asked:
QUOTE
Wikipedians who have been paid for writing articles (including policy-compliant ones) have been
blocked or ostracized. They've not been offered sidebar access by the Foundation.

Can the Foundation please explain how Brainbot/Pediapress was chosen?

I, too, would like to hear the answer to those little questions........

ohmy.gif Slim is vaguely alluding to the mistreatment of the Unkohser One Who Must Not Be Named. wtf.gif

If she actually names Kohs, and pushes his case, my head may explode.

Image

Posted by: HRIP7

QUOTE(BelovedFox @ Sun 14th November 2010, 9:14pm) *

QUOTE(HRIP7 @ Sun 14th November 2010, 6:45am) *

Interesting http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/engine?do=post_view_flat;post=215272;page=1;mh=-1;list=wiki;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC on the Foundation list.

What with about 150,000 Wikipedia books out by the http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_adv_b/?search-alias=stripbooks&unfiltered=1&field-keywords=&field-author=Frederic+P.+Miller,+Agnes+F.+Vandome,+and+John+McBrewster&field-title=&field-isbn=&field-publisher=&node=&field-p_n_condition-type=&field-feature_browse-bin=&field-binding_browse-bin=&field-subject=&field-language=&field-dateop=&field-datemod=&field-dateyear=&sort=relevancerank&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=36&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=9 and http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_adv_b/?search-alias=stripbooks&unfiltered=1&field-keywords=&field-author=Lambert+M.+Surhone,+Miriam+T.+Timpledon,+and+Susan+F.+Marseken&field-title=&field-isbn=&field-publisher=&node=&field-p_n_condition-type=&field-feature_browse-bin=&field-binding_browse-bin=&field-subject=&field-language=&field-dateop=&field-datemod=&field-dateyear=&sort=relevancerank&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=36&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=9 imprints of VDM Publishing (nudging towards 10% of the 2 million book titles that amazon offers), http://pediapress.com/ keeping 90% of the proceeds they make off the Wikipedia book feature in the left sidebar, the issue of who makes money off Wikipedians' work (while the Foundation asks the public for donations) will no doubt gain in importance over the coming years.

Isn't it funny that all these companies are German? I wonder who in Wikimedia Germany has a finger in those pies.

This issue has a greater potential for killing Wikipedia than poor administration, porn scandals and BLP disasters taken together. The moment "teh community" realises they work their butts off to make some fat cat fatter, the air will go out of the balloon.


Given that these are essentially computer-generated books with obviously poor production values, I seriously doubt they are making anyone seriously rich.

Oh, I don't know. If you leaf through the http://pediapress.com/books/show/the-european-union-a-brief-outline-to-thi/ one, for example, it looks like it might be kind of useful.

http://pediapress.com/books/.

Of course, there is also the vanity market for Wikipedians. tongue.gif Written a few FAs? Hey, you can have a book of them. In colour and all.

Posted by: NuclearWarfare

QUOTE(HRIP7 @ Mon 15th November 2010, 1:53am) *
Oh, I don't know. If you leaf through the http://pediapress.com/books/show/the-european-union-a-brief-outline-to-thi/ one, for example, it looks like it might be kind of useful.

http://pediapress.com/books/.

Would you spend $100 on that?

I would be interested to know how many people have actually bought something off of PediaPress, as opposed to just making a Book.

Posted by: thekohser

QUOTE(Milton Roe @ Sun 14th November 2010, 4:51pm) *

ohmy.gif Slim is vaguely alluding to the mistreatment of the Unkohser One Who Must Not Be Named. wtf.gif

If she actually names Kohs, and pushes his case, my head may explode.


If Slim keeps going on http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2010-November/062407.html, we may one day see a sidebar link for "Ask Wikipedia Review to create this article" whenever you land on a red-link page.

Posted by: Jon Awbrey

QUOTE(thekohser @ Sun 14th November 2010, 10:40pm) *

QUOTE(Milton Roe @ Sun 14th November 2010, 4:51pm) *

ohmy.gif Slim is vaguely alluding to the mistreatment of the Unkohser One Who Must Not Be Named. wtf.gif

If she actually names Kohs, and pushes his case, my head may explode.


If Slim keeps going on http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2010-November/062407.html, we may one day see a sidebar link for “Ask Wikipedia Review to create this article” whenever you land on a red-link page.


No doubt they'll sent out a RFP and take competitive bids.

Jon tongue.gif

Posted by: HRIP7

QUOTE(NuclearWarfare @ Mon 15th November 2010, 3:13am) *

QUOTE(HRIP7 @ Mon 15th November 2010, 1:53am) *
Oh, I don't know. If you leaf through the http://pediapress.com/books/show/the-european-union-a-brief-outline-to-thi/ one, for example, it looks like it might be kind of useful.

http://pediapress.com/books/.

Would you spend $100 on that?

I would be interested to know how many people have actually bought something off of PediaPress, as opposed to just making a Book.

No, I wouldn't. Erik Möller http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2010-November/062445.html PediaPress sell about 8,000 books per annum. Assuming an average price of $50, that would make $400,000, and (at most) $40,000 for the Foundation, which I guess is small change.

The pdf feature is used to create 85,000 PDF files per day.

Posted by: WikiWatch

They're being sold on eBay for http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=Lambert+M.+Surhone&_trkparms=65%253A12%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1%257C72%253A4583&rt=nc&_sticky=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_sop=16&_sc=1. Sucks to be the unwary person that buys it. They have a no returns accepted policy.

Anyone found out who is Lambert M. Surhone? Possibly a pseudonym?

Posted by: thekohser

QUOTE(WikiWatch @ Thu 9th December 2010, 7:44am) *

They're being sold on eBay for http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=Lambert+M.+Surhone&_trkparms=65%253A12%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1%257C72%253A4583&rt=nc&_sticky=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_sop=16&_sc=1. Sucks to be the unwary person that buys it. They have a no returns accepted policy.

Anyone found out who is Lambert M. Surhone? Possibly a pseudonym?


The eBay seller isn't getting very good marks http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=the_nile_au&iid=160495305264&de=off&items=25&which=negative&interval=30&_trkparms=negative_30.

Posted by: carbuncle

Another publisher of repackaged WP material is http://www.fastcompany.com/1708481/wikileaks-cables-sneak-on-sale-at-amazon-uk-for-kindle surrounding Wikileaks. I suspect that the attention may cause Amazon to tighten things up, particularly after the http://articles.cnn.com/2010-11-11/us/pedophile.guide_1_drew-herdener-amazon-com-pedophiles?_s=PM:US with "The Pedophile's Guide To Love and Pleasure".

Posted by: Emperor

I'm resurrecting this thread.

Does anyone else have a firm opinion about PediaPress? Are they legit? Would you install the extension in your own encyclopedia-like MediaWiki?

Posted by: Text

QUOTE
I'm resurrecting this thread.




QUOTE
Does anyone else have a firm opinion about PediaPress?


Printed books from wiki content? Looks bad. What if "Nadezhda consorted with animals" is in a page?

QUOTE
Are they legit?


Not more legit than the Wikimedia Foundation. Take the cash and run away.

QUOTE
Would you install the extension in your own encyclopedia-like MediaWiki?


yecch.gif

Posted by: Fusion

QUOTE(Emperor @ Mon 9th April 2012, 2:22pm) *

Would you install the extension in your own encyclopedia-like MediaWiki?

Only if I had a wiki with some decent articles on it that people might actually want. I myself have no such.