Paul Allen bankrolls Wikidata: Project to help Wikipedia editors more easily enter information

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It sure has been a busy couple of weeks for Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. From squashing rumors about the sale of the Portland Trail Blazers to donating $300 million to brain science to live Tweeting James Cameron’s historic submarine voyage to the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean, it has been a full slate of… Read More…

And so it begins: Wikipedia turns off the lights and Google blacks out logo in SOPA protest

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Sorry students, journalists, Internet researchers and just about everyone else looking for a tidbit of information related to, well, just about anything: Wikipedia is now officially dark. “For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history,” according to a message on the site. “Right now, the U.S…. Read More…

Can this song help kill SOPA? ‘The Day the LOLcats Died’

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The campaign to kill the Stop Online Piracy Act has lots of support from some of the Internet’s biggest names, including Wikipedia, Cheezburger and other big sites that plan to blackout their pages Wednesday in protest of the bills. Now the initiative has its own video and song, as well. The team at YouTube comedy channel LaughPong, has put… Read More…

A day without Wikipedia? Um, try these Encarta CD-ROMs

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Yes, kids, there was a time when Wikipedia didn’t exist, and it looks like we’re going to be transported back to it on Wednesday, courtesy a 24-hour blackout of the English version of the site. That is what’s now expected as part of the broader protest over controversial online antipiracy bills currently being considered by… Read More…