wales

Scientists briefly revive extinct frog from dead cells

The Rheobatrachus silus frog has been extinct since 1983. This unusual Australian creature was known for swallowing its eggs and then releasing the young from its mouth. That's way too awesome to just let the animal be resigned to the biological history books.

Australian researchers have spent five years conducting experiments using somatic-cell nuclear transfer, a technique for creating a cloned embryo. Appropriately enough, it's called the Lazarus Project. The scientists took donor eggs from a related frog and replaced the nuclei with dead nuclei from the extinct frog. Some of the eggs then began to grow.… Read more

Wikimedia Foundation launches travel site 'Wikivoyage'

Want to know more about the German spa city called Baden Baden, or "Bathing Bathing?" Or how to get to Khajuraho -- an Indian town known for its ancient erotic rock carvings? All this and more will be in the Wikimedia Foundation's new travel site, called Wikivoyage.

A bare-bones version of the site has already been up and running since September, but the official launch of the filled-out site is tentatively scheduled for January 15, according to Skift.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales appeared on The Colbert Report yesterday and confirmed that the site would be launching "… Read more

Corruption in Wikiland? Paid PR scandal erupts at Wikipedia

Concerned Wikipedians raised the alarm Monday that two trusted men -- one a trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation UK, the other a respected Wikipedian In Residence -- are allegedly editing Wikipedia pages and facilitating front-page placement for their pay-for-play, publicity-seeking clients.

Jimmy Wales is not pleased.

It began this week when an interesting discussion started on the DYK ("Did You Know") discussion page.

Roger Bamkin, trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation UK, whose LinkedIn page describes him as a high-return-earning PR consultant, appeared to be using Wikipedia's main page "Did You Know" feature and the resources … Read more

U.K. Home Office won't block O'Dwyer extradition in copyright case

The U.K. Home Office has confirmed that Home Secretary Theresa May will not block the extradition of British student Richard O'Dwyer to the U.S., despite calls for her to intervene.

The 24-year-old is to be extradited to the United States to face copyright infringement charges related to a Web site he founded.

The site, which U.S. prosecutors claim generated up to $230,000 in advertising revenue, did not at any point host copyrighted material. Instead, it linked to other sites that hosted television shows and movies -- including content uploaded to YouTube.

While the U.K. … Read more

Jimmy Wales launches campaign to stop O'Dwyer's extradition

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has launched an online petition to stop the extradition of a 24-year-old British student to the U.S. for alleged criminal copyright violations.

The U.S. Department of Justice has been attempting to extradite Richard O'Dwyer to face criminal copyright charges for allegedly linking to copies of copyrighted films through TVShack.net, a crowd-sourced site that has been seized by the Department of Homeland Security. O'Dwyer faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

In an article penned for The Guardian, Wales called O'Dwyer the "human face" a global battle … Read more

World's first 'Wikipedia town' covered in QR codes

The Internet continues to escape from its virtual confines. Clothing hangers hook into Facebook. Twitter comes printed on toilet paper. And now, Wikipedia has its own town.

Monmouth in South Wales has a population of less than 9,000, but plenty of tourists come to see the local castle and walk the historic streets. Those tourists will be able to plug into Wikipedia articles about the town through special QR code plaques placed in strategic locations.… Read more

SOPA-proponent Dodd under attack by Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales

Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America and former U.S. Senator, made a few comments recently that have made him extremely unpopular in the Web world.

According to VentureBeat, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales called for the MPAA to fire Dodd, saying that Dodd's statements undermine the MPAA and make the organization seem corrupt.

During last week's major online protest against SOPA and PIPA--the two antipiracy bills pending in the Senate and Congress--Dodd told Fox News, "Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching … Read more

Wikipedia considering joining SOPA blackout protest

Count Wikipedia among the growing number of sites that are likely to take action against SOPA.

As anger towards the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act grows, more and more people and organizations are joining the fight against the bipartisan Congressional legislation. (See CNET's FAQ on SOPA.)

Earlier this week, the news site Reddit announced it would shut down for 12 hours on January 18 in a bid to make its displeasure known about SOPA and its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act. And now, there are strong signs that Wikipedia may express its community's protest sentiment, although it'… Read more

Wikipedia losing contributors, to streamline editing

Wikipedia is trying to simplify its editing procedures in response to declining numbers of contributors, founder Jimmy Wales said on the sidelines of an annual meeting today.

The user-generated online encyclopedia has been unable to attract new volunteer contributors after others stop helping out.

"We are not replenishing our ranks," the Associated Press quoted Wales as saying at the meeting in Haifa, Israel. "It is not a crisis, but I consider it to be important."

In March, the Web site had about 90,000 active contributors, and it's trying to recruit another 5,000 by June 2012, AP reported. It has more than 15 million registered users and 1,000 administrators, according to Wikipedia stats, and Google's DoubleClick Ad Planner indicates that it is one of the most popular sites on the Web.

Some contributors leave because Wikipedia has been around for 10 years and there is less demand for new articles. Others move on for personal reasons. Wales told the AP that the typical contributor is "a 26-year-old geeky male" who may move on to other pursuits and leave the site. Flame wars over edits also drive volunteers away. … Read more

At 10, highlighting Wikipedia's past and future

With just 20 simple words and two entries, it began: "Hello, world." And "Humor me. Go there and add a little article. It will take all of five or ten minutes."

Written by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales on January 15, 2001, those four sentences ushered in one of the most widely used and important reference projects in history, let alone on the Internet: Wikipedia.

Tomorrow, Wikipedia turns 10 years old. It's hard to imagine that a tiny, user-created project founded by two unknowns behind the online expert-written encyclopedia Nupedia could have grown into a … Read more