OPINION

Wikians R Us and Some Folks Don't Like that Very Much

By Terry Calhoun

Earlier this week, Matt Drudge featured an odd news item about mysterious threats between Florida witches; threats communicated in notes wrapped around rocks and written in ancient Theban script. Of course, maybe the first thing everyone who read the story thought (I did.) was, why not use Wiccan powers to threaten each other? I mean, a note wrapped around a rock thrown through a window - how Muggle-ish.

I've known some Wiccans and I know, of course, that they do not do those kinds of things, but I grew up before it was socially acceptable to be anything other than what everyone else seemed to be, and I've apparently got my built-in preconceptions, just like others. But it was an unfortunate item to appear in any popular media at the same time as the biggest press that the Wikipedia has ever gotten - and pretty negative press at that.

I have no doubt that the huge number of Americans who still think that Saddam Hussein was the evil mind behind 9/11 will make the connection: Wicca/Wiki, and for a long time to come have bad attitudes toward a great tool.

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New Resource for Expert Rich Media Content

Sonic Foundry wants to share the wealth. They've just launched Mediasite.com, a searchable Web site that aggregates publicly available expert presentations from higher education, government, and corporate sectors. The idea is to link individuals to a growing database of expert rich media content. Debuting with more than 7,000 titles, the collection is based on, but not limited to, presentations that were recorded using Sonic Foundry's Mediasite recording technology. Find out more

DEALS, CONTRACTS, AWARDS

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