Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, is without a doubt accepted as one of the most amazing sources of information on the internet. This is where people turn to for any information they need. The English language version was brought out in 2001 and has experienced great popularity since then.

But over the years, Wikipedia has had its share of controversies. There have been academics who deemed suspect some entries, as it is an encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone. Many feel that just as too many cooks spoil the broth, too many contributors/editors can also confuse the information.

Wikipedia has fought many battles and the latest one is from Britain’s famous art gallery’s website, “National Portrait Gallery (NPG).” They have threatened to take legal action as they claim that images from their website have been uploaded to Wikipedia. In response to this, the online encyclopedia has accused the National Portrait Gallery of betraying its public service mission.

An image of the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I looks on amusingly from the art gallery and now also the Wikipedia pages, as the two adversaries battle for rights hundreds of years after she was painted. The fact is that 3,300 high-resolution images from the gallery have been uploaded to Wikipedia in April, by a Ph.D. student and volunteer from Seattle, Derrick Coetzee, and the gallery is not too happy with that.

The gallery founded in 1856 said it needs to recoup the 1 million pounds cost of digitalization program and threatened legal action. The gallery has ordered a well-known law firm to sue Coetzee unless the pictures are removed. Gallery officials say that although, the portraits are not in copyright, the photographs are and that they spent around £1m to create high resolution images, which therefore require a license fee. They say Wikipedia has not responded to their letters.

Wikipedia on its part is fully supportive of Coetzee and argues that the portraits are under public ownership. Deputy Director of the Wikipedia Foundation that runs the online encyclopedia, Erik Moeller said that museums and other cultural institutions should not pursue extra revenue while limiting public access to their material. He wrote in his blog post, “It is hard to see a plausible argument that excluding public domain content from a free, non-profit encyclopedia serves any public interest whatsoever.”

He also mentioned that two German photographic archives donated 350,000 copyrighted images for use on Wikipedia, and there have been other institutions in the United Kingdom and the US that have looked and understood the benefits of making their material available for the public free of charge. According to another Wikipedia volunteer, the gallery only makes around 10-15,000 pounds each year from Web licensing.

However, the gallery insists that it has been misrepresented and although it does not make much money from Web licensing, its income from reproduction of its images in magazines and books is much more, around 339,000 in the previous year.

Another point of contention is that of copyright laws in different countries. Coetzee is a US citizen where the laws pertaining to images of publicly owned art are different and the gallery opines that since the images are protected under U.K. copyright law, the law of the land rules. This raises interesting questions about how the local law affects websites that are located in other parts of the world.

This news has become a raging topic in cyberspace, leading to a conflict of words between supporters of free information and cultural institutions who wish to protect their limited revenue streams, which include the license fee for reproducing images of their artworks.

Opinions on this issue vary. While some support Wikipedia saying that people have a right to see these images as they are public property already; others insist that the likes of Wikipedia want to take advantage of the new technology and have everything for free, and if somebody takes the effort to produce the best picture possible, then they need to be protected. Since the gallery makes low to medium resolution images available free for people, many feel that it was wrong of Wikipedia to take the high resolution images.

Coetzee is the only one who has not yet commented on what is a repercussion of his deeds. It is left to be seen what route this controversy takes and if Wikipedia is stuck with the label of a thief.

Just the thought of our kids not carrying textbooks to school can be quite scary, as we have over the centuries, gotten used to associating textbooks with education. Textbooks are part of our lives and are considered indispensable – at least until now. Of course, for school-going kids, this could just be their dream coming true – NO MORE TEXTBOOKS!

Now, Arnold Schwarzenegger jokingly says, “I can use these for the (bicep) curls.” Announcing that California will initiate the process of going digital, he said, “Textbooks are outdated, in my opinion. For so many years, we’ve been trying to teach the kids exactly the same way.”

The excessive cost of textbooks is said to be a huge burden on a student who is already paying the cost of education. The average student spends hundreds of dollars on textbooks each year.

It is estimated that California spent about $350 million on textbooks alone last year. With California running out of cash with the $24 billion budget deficit, authorities figure this is one way of tackling the issue. The throwing away of textbooks might just be what the state needs to avoid bankruptcy.

California is the first state in the United States to begin using digital textbooks instead of the “paper” variety, and the Governor feels that this will save hundreds of millions of dollars. With the average cost of a textbook being anywhere from $75 to $100 each, their digital version is going to cost much less.

The Governor feels they are not going to miss out on anything and they will only be too happy to go online for their homework and studies, leaving their heavy textbooks behind. He says, “Our kids get their information from the internet, downloaded onto their iPods, and in Twitter feeds to their cell phones…Basically. Kids are feeling as comfortable with their electronic devices as I was with my pencils and crayons. So, why are California’s school students still forced to lug around antiquated, heavy, expensive textbooks?

Although, it is too early to say what the impact of this move would be or if it can be sustained in the long run, there have been opinions being voiced by all concerned.

Most of the teachers don’t like it one bit and it’s not just job security they are worried about. The fact is that they are so used to textbooks and consider them central to the school-teacher-student educational paradigm.

On the other hand, educators are embracing it, as there are several significant advantages. They will now be able to create electronic books and course material made up of only relevant material for a given course. Some of the advantages entail children and teens not having to lug their heavy backpacks around, especially in schools where they are not provided any lockers. Another problem that can be addressed with digitalization of textbooks is that schools in the affluent areas have up-to-date textbooks, while schools in the low-income communities have outdated textbooks. And some feel that this move to digital textbooks could even up the playing field and deal with the unfairness of this type of education where poorer students get the short end of the educational stick.

But as with anything else, the quality of the course content and experience will be the major determining factors that will affect successful adoption of this digitalization. Unsatisfactory content = bad experience = reduced learning.

While digital education may seem the way to go, there are several things to factor and one of the most important things is the devices needed to study online. It could turn out to be cheaper than books – eventually but what about right now?

This will cost nothing for students with electronic resources but for kids without these resources, the cost will be much more. According to some, going the all-electronic route will entail continuous buying of electronics for low-income students, and an ideal situation would be every child in a family needing one in order to do their homework and study properly.

Where will the poor children get the computers from? What about the glare of the computers and the posture problems? Isn’t it enough that our children spend so many hours online? Will it not be detrimental to their health?

Do we have answers to all these questions?

The reason for this huge growth is the new threats and malware that keep cropping up on an almost daily basis. An anti-virus product of today may prove to be inefficient tomorrow, creating a new demand. In fact, most vendors find it difficult to keep up with the different viruses that keep surfacing.

This is very clear from the fact that in spite of the numerous anti-virus products out there, there still are so many security incidents that take place, including high-profile ones. The Identity Theft Resource Center, an organization that tracks incidents where confidential information has been compromised, recorded that these incidents have doubled in the first quarter of 2008.

It is also seen that the market that is most affected by these security issues is the small and medium business sector. The problem with these businesses is their small budgets. They cannot afford to have the resources needed to implement and manage a high-security environment, with intricate anti-virus systems in place.

Now, with the technological advances, there seems to be a hope for them, in the form of Security-as-a-Service (SaaS). SaaS is nothing more than outsourcing of security.

The new concept of offering security services similar to how software services are offered, by hosting them “in the cloud” and providing businesses a web interface for interaction with the applications, is being seen as a great security solution. Earlier, anti-virus software had to be installed on the systems inside the company and either managed from within or remotely controlled by a service provider.

Subscribers to the SaaS system can now take advantage of content provided continuously, which helps companies manage their anti-virus systems much more efficiently and easily than ever before. Companies no longer have to waste their time trying to keep track of the new anti-virus products out there or spending huge amounts of money on the latest systems.

The SaaS model delivers end-point security in a wonderful way and the focus in the future is going to be on anti-virus, prevention of data leakage, end-point encryption etc. Companies, both small businesses and large ones, that start using the SaaS security alternative will be at a huge advantage and experience the highest levels of security that their companies look for.

Detecting and preventing targeted attacks is the main danger faced by most companies. All these risk factors are alleviated with the use of SaaS. No longer do they need to worry about upgrades that take time to implement and leave a gap in the security with a high probability of getting infected, and they do not need to put in the effort to detect new malware.

SaaS is being looked at as a complete end-point, web, email and network protection solution, leveraging the power of cloud computing, that saves time, effort and cost for companies; both small and big. It blocks all hacker attacks, viruses, spyware, and also identifies thieves from the servers. Anti-virus could be a thing of the past very soon.

I can sense the disbelief writ large on your face and I admit nothing like that is happening.

But we are almost there….

There is this revolutionary new software that has the capacity to understand questions and return specific, tailored answers in a way that was never done before. This software is promising to shake up the Internet.

Is this new software better than the search engine giant, Google? Well, some do go to the extent of saying that the new system may just put Google and the other search engines in the shade.

Harvard University has taken the first step towards what many consider the Internet’s Holy Grail – a global information store that can understand languages and responds to them just as a person does.

Computer experts are excited at the prospect of the new search engine being evolutionary. They are sure that Wolfram Alpha, as it is called, has the potential of becoming as popular as Google but serving a different purpose.

Wolfram Alpha is not only programmed to give the correct and straight answer to a question but will also bring back a ‘neat’ page of related information. For example, if the question is, “How high is Mount Everest?” apart from the answer, it will also show the geographical location, other mountains, nearby towns etc. with the relevant charts and graphs. If you ask it to compare the height of two mountains, it will do that most accurately.

Wolfram’s inventor, Stephen Wolfram from the United States reveals that all the information is assessed by experts first. Wolfram’s team manually enters, and in certain cases automatically pulls in, masses of factual data in different fields, as well as models and algorithms for performing computations with this data. It allows anyone to construct their own computations just by asking questions. This eradicates any doubts or concerns on the accuracy of the information provided, which is the case with other sites like Wikipedia and the like. This software is based on Stephen’s Mathematika software and works by collecting the knowledge on the internet as well as some private databases.

One glaring difference between Google and Wolfram Alpha is that it demands citation when using any of the material from its results, whereas Google lets users do with the information “as they please.”

The long term plan of Wolfram is to serve as a knowledge engine, by providing a single reliable source for all systematic knowledge, where people can find definitive answers of maximum clarity to their factual queries.

People saying that it will shadow Google may not make much sense as it is incomparable to Google. Not that it is any better or worse, but what it offers is completely different. Google searches through web pages and brings back documents that may contain the answers, while Wolfram Alpha is a monstrous database of knowledge, which uses “clever algorithms and heuristics” to compute answers to a wide-range of questions by tapping into its enormous data collection.

Just try and understand the enormity of what Wolfram Alpha does. It computes the answers. It does not simply contain huge amounts of questions and answers entered manually, not does it search for answers in its database of facts. It actually understands what the person is asking and computes answers to specific questions. This makes it much smarter than Google and totally different too.

It works more like an enormous and accurate fact sheet, with the ability to give facts, like whether the Eiffel tower is taller than Petronas towers. You can even check out the nutritional content, including calories of any amount of any food. Mortgage payments can be calculated, equations and formulas can be solved, measurements can be converted, comparisons made and a whole lot of other intelligent and important stuff. Data such as weather and financial are streamed in dynamically, while other data is updated as it becomes available.

Wolfram Alpha is more of a go-to search tool for particular types of knowledge finding and will not be a place to find documents or articles. It belongs more in the toolkits of teachers and students. Although, currently, its strongest areas are where knowledge is more readily quantitative, experts at Wolfram note that they are working through all the content areas that are covered by handbooks, reference libraries and others.

One of the most beautiful features is that result pages can be downloaded onto your desktop as Live Mathematika pages or PDFs. Secondly, all the source information (Web-based and print) checked for that topic is included in link form at the bottom of the page. This allows further research if needed and for determining the accuracy of the results.

Wolfram Alpha could be huge and it remains to be seen if this electronic brain is the “answer” to the future. It would be interesting to see how smart Wolfram Alpha actually is or how much smarter it can get. Will it make mistakes? Since it is in the initial phase, what forms of knowledge will it handle in the future? These questions remain to be answered. But one thing that is sure is that you would still need Google to shop for a new house, find content on the Web or look up a romantic getaway for two. Wolfram does not understand love! But it does understand way better than any other search engine, the importance of factual data.

“We have learned a lot over the years as we’ve released versions of Windows to the market. We spent a lot of time listening to customer and partner feedback,” said Microsoft.

Microsoft announced five versions of Windows 7 that it is all set to launch in the United States, as well as a sixth version, meant only for emerging markets.

Versions

• Windows 7 Starter (netbook-friendly)
• Windows 7 Home Premium (looks like a typical consumer grade offering)
• Windows 7 Professional (a host of networking add-ons)
• Windows 7 Enterprise (the corporate grade with bulk volume licensing)
• Windows 7 Ultimate (seems to be like Enterprise except that it is for single-users)
• Windows 7 Home Basic (sixth version-to be sold only in emerging markets)

Consumers do not really have to get confused with all these versions, the retail sales will only be for Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional and this what they need to essentially choose between.

Windows 7 Ultimate Edition will be offered as an upgrade, which means people will have to pay for the Home Premium or Professional and then pay for the upgrade too.

While the Starter Edition is for those with basic computing requirements, the Home Premium version offers richer multimedia capabilities and visual enhancements.

Upgrades

According to Microsoft, existing Vista users can do an in-place upgrade to Windows 7 by buying and installing the disc. All the hardware and software that worked with Vista is said to work with Windows 7. The data and programs can remain intact. Once one of Windows 7 base versions (Home Premium, Professional or Starter version) are installed, upgrading to other versions can be done using Windows Anytime Upgrade (WAU). Of course to unlock a new version of the operating system, users will have to pay up. Existing Windows XP users can also move to Windows 7 but only after doing a clean installation, which involves backing up data, installing Windows 7 and re-installing all the data as well as the programs. This means unlike the shift from XP to Vista, the shift from Vista to Windows 7 is going to be a lot easier.

On being asked as to how Microsoft is going to convince companies to upgrade to Windows 7 after that Vista fiasco; CEO Steve Ballmer quipped, “If you deploy a four or five-year old operating system today, most people will ask their boss why the heck they don’t have the stuff they have at home.”

Netbook Market

One of the major changes incorporated by Microsoft effects the netbook market. It claims to have designed Windows 7 OS in such a way that it runs on any small notebook PC that fulfills the hardware requirements.

Improvements

The taskbar is completely changed. Now there are big icons in place of text descriptions on the buttons. The icons can be rearranged and they stay that way even when an application is restarted. When the mouse is placed over an icon, a set of window thumbnails show up and clicking on one of them switches windows. A right click on the icons shows a new feature called the “jump lists.” These lists give quick access to application features, with the most recently-used files in the jump list.

Organizing windows has become quicker and dragging a window to the top of the screen automatically maximizes it, dragging it off restores it, dragging it to the left or right resizes the window. This makes it extremely convenient to work with two windows simultaneously. Peeking at other windows and at the desktop is made easier too.

The system tray in Windows 7 has undergone a sea change too. There is no longer the problem of the tray filling with needless icons. Now, the control of the tray is in the users hands and by default, all new icons are hidden and displayed only if enabled.

Media Codecs

All Windows 7 machines will also play DVDs without any software requirements. It supports most popularly used formats, such as Xvid, DivX and H.264. Support for a number of media codecs has been added. To play many other multimedia formats that cannot be played, users can now download the specifically designed Windows 7 Codec pack. Nothing has yet been said about Blue-ray support as of now.

Although, Microsoft has not talked much about Windows 7, Bill Gates in a speech in Japan revealed that it would be “lower, power, take less memory, be more efficient, and have lots more connections up to the mobile phone. If you have two personal computers, your files automatically are synchronized between them, so you won’t have a lot of work to move the data back and forth.” The company is said to have invested a lot in their engineering efforts around reliability, performance and compatibility in Windows 7.

Beta Version

There is a lot of speculation on how this actually works. The first beta version was released in Jan 2009. There have been reviews galore by geeks that downloaded and are playing with it. Most reviews say that it feels more like a better version of Vista rather than a new OS. The boot-up is faster and installation of software quicker than Vista. Since it builds on the same UI, the hardware demands are as steep as Vista’s. However, the graphics are said to be far better and network reliability on wireless N connections is improved. Most reviewers agree that there are no bad surprises.

If you wish to know why Microsoft named it Windows 7, you can open the command prompt and check in Vista SP1, by entering the command VER. The version number that is displayed is 6.0.6007. It is obvious what the first digit in Windows 7 is!

Google used to allow gaming operators to place paid ads previously, but banned them as of 2007; if it can actually be called a ban. There is a reason for saying this. If someone typed “online gambling” it yielded no results because of the ban; however, a small typo, such as “gmabling” instead of gambling, and it is surprising to see the huge number of ads show up royally in the paid Google ads section.

Any small misspelling saw the gambling ads being displayed all through the ban period and as expected almost all the gaming operators took advantage of this open secret. If you look at the sponsored links section of Google, you will find more than 25 pages of such ads, which shows that wily marketers who are always on the prowl to find ways to get in, have managed to find this loophole long back – perhaps just as soon as the ban was implemented. These smart operators may not use the word “gambling” or related words in their ads; but they certainly leave nothing to the imagination. They make sure the message gets across in one way or the other. Example: “Take Advantage Of 100% Bonus On Your First Deposit.”

Now once again, Google has made it possible for them to walk in majestically through the front door of Google adwords, rather than sneaking in through the backdoor. Google has made an announcement to this effect and advised gaming operators to create a new account that is meant solely for gambling-related campaigns, even if they are already marketing other products or services through Google adwords. They are also asked to make several legal declarations.

The only rule that needs to be complied with is that they can only be targeted to England, Scotland and Wales, and failing to comply with this will lead to the termination of their account. Even affiliates will have to comply with these rules. So, if you happen to be an affiliate for a casino, you will do well to take care with this.

This policy is already up at Google. It reads, ““Google AdWords allows online gambling advertisements to target Great Britain (England, Scotland, or Wales) as long as the advertiser is registered with the Gambling Commission and provides a valid operating license number. Advertisers based outside the UK and within the European Economic Area who wish to target online gambling ads to England, Scotland, or Wales must be licensed to advertise online gambling in their respective country.”

Experts believe that this could very well be a recessionary move from Google and wonder if the economic downturn is hitting Google where it hurts the most. In the pocket!! The doubts of Google’s financial situation will be clarified when Google releases its next quarter results.

They feel that if things are not perfect with Google, then Adwords may be opening up some more areas, since gambling is not the only area where adword ads have been banned. There are several, such as escort services and anabolic steroids among many others. But then, the misspelling loophole applies to all “banned” advertisements. If you do a little research on the typo ads that are showing up on Google, you would see that most of the banned sectors have already started typing clumsily.

This is being looked at as a highly beneficial move for Google as well as the gaming operators, whose excitement is loud and clear, as it is almost like a legal license for them to start printing money.

If you have seen serious gamers, you would notice they do not just play their games, gaming is a passion with them. They do everything possible to win their games, including using cheat codes. Now there are better and more powerful tools known as game controllers, which is the name given to a tool that lets the player control the game better and are proving to be invaluable. These tools have been created for fanatical gamers who would do anything to get closer to gaming glory.

Hook, Line and Sinker: The best part about games is that one can do everything they are not good at in real life, like fishing. Angling has its share of staunch devotees in the gaming world. Gaming accessory manufacturers have created controllers that look and function exactly like fishing rods. Sega’s version for the Dream Cast is multi-functional and can be used not just as a fishing rod but also for playing tennis games. This tool uses the latest technology and all the player has to do is wave the controller around and press the necessary buttons to get the rod moving on the screen.

Caged Fight: For intense gamers who find just moving their fingers for playing a game not exciting enough, the Dream Machine created by Robert James-Herbert is truly a dream come true. This is a computer game control simulation system that comprises of a steel cage with small points. Players have to stand inside the cage and use their bodies to control the action on the screen. For example, if the player tilts, the vehicle on the screen tilts. It is compatible with every platform. This is one of the most amazing tools a gamer can possess. The only drawback is the price, which is slightly on the higher side at $1,700. But it is certainly worth it for players who look for a real-life gaming experience.

Future Shock: There are a couple of choices that take gaming a step ahead by actually allowing the player to “feel”. With the Mindwire Shock System, players will connect electrodes to their bodies and can actually feel the shocks and other feelings, depending on the performance. When using the Falcon, the player can feel the recoil from the gun. It is very important to note that these tools are meant for the strong at heart and not to be used by the weak hearted.

Gun Control: Konami has come out with a thrilling tool for first person shooters, which means games where the player is sitting behind a gun shooting at the bad people. To alleviate the boredom out of sitting there just pressing the gamepad, Konami has introduced Laser Scope, which is a controller that fits around the player’s head and has a microphone. The player can shout “fire” into it and the amazing thing about this is the small patch over the eye that gives a much better aim.

Chainsaw Massacre: Imagine using chainsaws to rip those game figures apart. It does sound gross and monstrous, but for gamers, this can be an adrenalin pumping experience. One of the best controllers that brings this feeling as close to reality as possible is NubyTech’s resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Controller. It produces a hair-raising rumble that sounds like a real chainsaw.

Think Tank: This one is in the idea stage currently and has not taken shape yet. However, the idea itself is so wonderful and futuristic that it needs a mention, and it is certain to have gamers waiting for its release. Emotiv System has come up with an idea of creating a wireless headset equipped with sensors that detect the thoughts of a gamer and the game is played based on those thoughts. How much better can it get?

Think of Force Dynamics’ 30: This is a massive game controlling system that comes complete with an LCD projection screen, motion sensors, audio system and weighs 700 pounds. The cost is a huge $35,000. This may not be for everybody, but looking at the price tag, cannot help but wonder what sort of a gaming experience it will be.

These powerful gaming tools can change the way games are played. Innovation is the name of the game. Gaming accessory manufacturers compete with each other and everyday something new hits the market. Gamers are certainly not complaining.

Facebook seems to land itself into trouble again and again, with lawsuits being filed against it from all corners.

The fight with 02138 ended in a fiasco with the ruling going against Facebook. Let us go back and see what happened. It all began with an article in 02318, an independent magazine geared towards Harvard alumni.

Mark Zuckerberg, as you would know, is the CEO of Facebook, which he founded in 2004. The controversy began when 02138 magazine published an article named “Poking Facebook,” giving a detailed profile of Facebook’s early days, which was the pet project of Mark Zuckerberg, who was then an undergraduate. The author, Luke O’Brien, who was also a Harvard alumnus, dug up old court documents, letters and web site content that painted a cold picture of Zuckerberg as arrogant and an individual with no qualms and willing to do anything to achieve his goals. The documents that were revealed to the public included a huge amount of personal information about Zuckerberg along with his parents’ address, his girlfriend’s address and his Social Security Number.

Even Zuckerberg’s personal journal was not spared. An excerpt from the journal that showed him in bad light was, “I almost want to put some of these faces next to pictures of farm animals and have people vote on which is more attractive,” wrote Zuckerberg, talking about some of the students’ pictures from Harvard. These comments showed him as harsh.

This article understandably got Facebook fuming and legal notices were served to 02138 asking for the documents to be pulled emergently. Facebook also wanted the documents related to a legal battle against it over the origin of the company to be removed immediately. Most of these documents were said to be obtained by a reporter from a clerk at the District Court.

The article’s main focus was a lawsuit against Facebook by ConnectU. The connection with ConnectU began when Facebook was young in 2004, when the founders of ConnectU, another social networking site sued Mark Zuckerberg, a fellow Harvard student, of stealing ideas from their social networking site. Mark Zuckerberg was said to have stolen these ideas while working with ConnectU in 2003.

Facebook fought back and the PR head Brandee Barket sent an email saying, “We filed the motions to let the court know that its orders were being violated. One reason the court ordered certain documents’ protection was to prevent exactly what has happened: misusing documents and taking documents out of context to sling mud. We want to be clear on what these motions are about. These are not about an article the magazine has written, these are about documents that were protected by a court that have been misused.”

She also said, “Mark Zuckerberg and many others built Facebook through their own ingenuity and hard work, and they are focused on building it further. It is unfortunate but not surprising that others falsely claim credit for it after its enormous success.”

The Executive Editor of 02138 replied, “We believe that we have a legal right to post them online and that you have a legal right to read them. Meantime, spread the word that a company which plans to collect and sell personal information about 50 million people doesn’t want one magazine to do the same about Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg.”

Unfortunately, in spite of Facebook’s attempts at claiming that the magazine has no right to reveal personal documents, the court favored 02138.

As far as ConnectU goes, on June 25, 2008, the lawsuit was settled and Facebook, as part of the settlement had to agree to give an unknown amount of cash to ConnectU as well as some stock in Facebook. In return Facebook would receive all the ConnectU stock owned by the founders.

ConnectU then made an appeal saying Facebook is misrepresenting its value. Facebook’s value was put at $15 billion when Microsoft took $240 million stake in Facebook last year, but Facebook claimed that the valuation was only pertaining to the Microsoft deal and that the actual valuation is $3-4 billion. ConnectU did not want to part with its stock until that issue was cleared, because that will affect the amount of money they received. In spite of the appeal, In August 2008, the U.S. District Court ordered ConnectU to stick to the original settlement and transfer its stock to Facebook.

That should put to rest this lawsuit, but controversy is Facebook’s favorite companion, and there is another one waiting in the wings. Facebook sued StudiVZ on July 18, 2008, with an allegation that StudiVZ copied everything from its look to services. StudiVZ denies the claims and awaits judgment.

Initially, Wikipedia was just an extension of Nupedia but when Nupedia’s advisory board rejected the idea of a public edited encyclopedia, Wikipedia overtook Nupedia with the quality of content and the number of visitors. In two years time, Nupedia was abandoned and all the content from there incorporated into Wikipedia.

The most unique concept of Wikipedia is that anyone, even under the cover of anonymity can make changes to the content by clicking on the “edit” button, making it a good source of information as it is continually updated with the latest developments. This uniqueness is also what causes the controversies. Many people, including several educational institutions do not take into consideration any references from Wikipedia, as they believe that allowing people to edit the content, makes it an un-authoritative source of information with a huge possibility of vandalized content.

A scientific publication has reported to have done a comparative study of Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia, and the result was that, while Britannica suffered from fact omission, Wikipedia is reported to contain inaccurate information.

Wikipedia, over the years, had to face a lot of flak, including defamation cases because of people claiming that things written about them were untrue. The recent defamation claim was by literary agent Barbara Bauer, who sued Wikipedia because of statements that were written about her that said, “dumbest of the twenty worst” agents and also saying that she had “no documented sales at all.” However, this case was dismissed because according to federal law, Wikipedia Foundation is immune to liability for statements written by the users as it is considered to be free speech content generated by users.

Can anyone write anything they want and get away with it? Since when do people have the right to defame others? Does this mean that sites like Wikipedia and other online communities can continue to use user-generated content without fear of lawsuits? These are the questions being asked by some people.

Although, a page in Wikipedia clearly states that all entries submitted should be neutral, this is not always followed and content that is biased does take its place in this encyclopedia in spite of there being editors.

The discussion at hand is whether it is possible to make this work, more so with political topics that are controversial. An entry for U.S. President, George Bush came to light, where the content was about the time when George Bush entered the Texas Air National Guard.

The sentence in Wikipedia is, “In May 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War, he entered the Texas Air National Guard. He trained in the guard for two years, where he was among the last to learn to fly the F-102, a place not used in Vietnam and due to be retired.”

The question that was asked is whether it is really necessary to mention that he was one of the last.

A comparison was drawn with the Encarta encyclopedia’s version of the same, which said, “He did his basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and entered a pilot-training program at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Georgia. He received favorable reports from his superiors, attained the rank of second lieutenant, and was certified to fly the F-102 jet fighter during training missions in the South and along the Gulf Coast.”

The difference with Encarta is that, people can edit the content but with editor approval.

Wikipedia ultimately reacted to this controversy by not allowing people to edit that page, with the statement, “As a result of recent vandalism, or to stop banned editors from editing, editing of this page by new or unregistered users is temporarily disabled.”

Another strong bias about Wikipedia is said to be where atheism is concerned. People say that it failed to show that American atheists give much less to charity when compared to theists. Other articles in Wikipedia try to associate atheism with the progress of science; whereas, it is argued that it is Christianity that is the cause for the development of modern science. A section of people also associate this bias to a co-founder of Wikipedia being an atheist.

Another example that is given is that of Wikipedia censoring “the Wikipedia Review” which is a huge forum that is critical of Wikipedia. This forum was also listed under the spam blacklist in Wikipedia earlier.

Amongst all these controversies and biases, there are many who feel that finding a middle ground and attaining a neutral point of view, for either Wikipedia or other encyclopedias may not be possible when there is no restriction on the editing of content. Even removal of the so-called bias may not be possible, because what is bias for one may not be for others.

They are our kids, who grow up fast enough to teach us things.

Computers are an integral part of a teenager’s life as internet existed when they were born. They live and breathe chatting, emailing and surfing the net.

Their opportunities online are the same as other age groups; in fact, they have more of an advantage due to all their friends being online and because of their capability of creating huge networks of friends in no time.

If you want to get your teenager started off with earning some money during their vacations or if you are a teenager looking to earn some pocket cash, there are many ways money can be made online. Let us take a look at a few:

Game Testing

The amount of time teenagers spend playing games online, they can earn from this passion. There are game companies that are willing to pay them for testing new games and giving feedback on the games.

Product Testing

There are many websites that sell products related to kids and teenagers. These websites take the help of teens to use their product and let them know if they liked it. This is the way these companies make sure the product is good for their target market. Teens enjoy doing this because they are allowed to keep the product in return for the favor.

Online Sales

Teenagers can join affiliate programs that sell products for the young market, such as CDs, concert tickets, clothes, movies etc. These are the things that youngsters usually shop for online. They can also sell stuff on Ebay and make money.

Using MySpace

This is a social networking site that is a great medium for promoting products and services that teenagers are interested in. Teens can add their friends and get others to join, and build a large network of friends. Once they have a lot of friends, they can then join a good CPA network and find a program to promote, like testing products or games or anything else for that matter.

The idea is to find programs that will be liked by their friends. The links to the program will have to be posted to earn commissions from making sales or when the ads are clicked.

Teenagers will have to take care not to give out their personal information when using MySpace, as there are many unscrupulous elements looking to gather this information.

Surveys

Many survey companies would like to get teenagers’ opinions and they also pay them to refer their friends to their surveys. Teenagers get the money they are looking for and the survey companies get the opinions they need.

Creating Blogs or Websites

A blog or a website can be created by literally anyone and if people find it interesting and useful, there will be hundreds of visitors. Teenagers can create a blog or a website on a topic that will be enjoyed by other teenagers and the topic can be anything from sports to games to clothes. Once there are a lot of visitors, then monetizing them becomes very easy. There can be affiliate products related to the niche, adsense or even earn money by featuring other businesses on the website or blog. A little search engine optimization using social networking sites and it is all set to take off.

Writing

We see a lot of teenagers taking up writing during their vacations. Teenagers can actually earn good money with writing, even if they only spend a few hours a day. Many webmasters like to engage the services of youngsters to get their job done, as they charge far less than the more experienced writers. If the website is targeting teenagers, their writing style will also be liked by their young visitors.

Essay writing is something that can be taken up. They can choose a hot topic, write an essay on it and submit it to sites that pay for such essays.

Other Businesses

There are other things that teenagers can take up in the area where they live. They can find people looking to get lawn mowing, baby sitting, dog grooming etc. Alternately, they can create a websites and advertise their services.

Paid to Read Emails

There are several companies that pay for reading emails. The money they pay may not be much but the work that needs to be done is also very simple. The advertisements that are displayed need to be clicked on. The pay can be anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars per page and will be good pocket money for teenagers.

These are just a few of the many opportunities for teenagers to make money online, either part time or full time. They can work from the safety of their home and parents no longer have to worry about their teenager working late at some far off office.