Thought you all would find this amusing - Jeremey Wagstaff, WSJ tech columnist, had a great piece about the Wikipedia as a new cliche...
http://loosewire.typepad.com/blog/2005/09/the_new_cliche_.html
The New Cliche: "It's the Wikipedia of..."
You know something has arrived when it's used to describe a phenomenon. Or what people hope will be a phenomenon. Here's a sampling:
* Laptops This from Nicholas Negroponte, describing his $100 laptop for the developing world (via Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth): "It's the Wikipedia equivalent (of hardware)," he said, describing the spirit of the laptop initiative.
* Gasbuddy Poster at ezboard: "It's the Wikipedia of Gas pumps. I use it whenever I need gas. I can't believe I forgot about it until now."
* New York Times — This from a Xanga blogger: "It's the Wikipedia of newspapers: great resource with plenty of interesting but useless content. For goodness' sake, it's a newspaper, not Cosmo Girl."
* The UK Good Food/Good Pub guide, described on Wikipedia chat as "It's the wikipedia of food guides"
* Urban Dictionary — described by this blogger as "the Wikipedia of the streets beyach!"
* Sushi World Guide — "it seems the community is still growing. It is the 'Wikipedia of Sushi'.
* Pure Energy Systems – " We will be the Wikipedia of alternate energy technology."
* Wondir — hailed on the unofficial google blog as "the Wikipedia of answer sites"
* Dermatlas — described here as "the Wikipedia of dermatology atlases"
* Math World — described here as "the wikipedia of math"
* GuitarWiki — described by a visitor as possibly becoming "the Wikipedia of the guitar world"
What is a dermatology atlas?
Dermatology, I understand. Atlas, I understand. But what is a dermatology atlas? A book of maps of the skin?
Mark
On 04/10/05, Andrew Lih andrew.lih@gmail.com wrote:
Thought you all would find this amusing - Jeremey Wagstaff, WSJ tech columnist, had a great piece about the Wikipedia as a new cliche...
http://loosewire.typepad.com/blog/2005/09/the_new_cliche_.html
The New Cliche: "It's the Wikipedia of..."
You know something has arrived when it's used to describe a phenomenon. Or what people hope will be a phenomenon. Here's a sampling:
* Laptops This from Nicholas Negroponte, describing his $100laptop for the developing world (via Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth): "It's the Wikipedia equivalent (of hardware)," he said, describing the spirit of the laptop initiative.
* Gasbuddy Poster at ezboard: "It's the Wikipedia of Gas pumps. Iuse it whenever I need gas. I can't believe I forgot about it until now."
* New York Times — This from a Xanga blogger: "It's the Wikipediaof newspapers: great resource with plenty of interesting but useless content. For goodness' sake, it's a newspaper, not Cosmo Girl."
* The UK Good Food/Good Pub guide, described on Wikipedia chat as"It's the wikipedia of food guides"
* Urban Dictionary — described by this blogger as "the Wikipediaof the streets beyach!"
* Sushi World Guide — "it seems the community is still growing. Itis the 'Wikipedia of Sushi'.
* Pure Energy Systems – " We will be the Wikipedia of alternateenergy technology."
* Wondir — hailed on the unofficial google blog as "the Wikipediaof answer sites"
* Dermatlas — described here as "the Wikipedia of dermatology atlases" * Math World — described here as "the wikipedia of math" * GuitarWiki — described by a visitor as possibly becoming "theWikipedia of the guitar world"
Wikipedia-l mailing list Wikipedia-l@Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l
-- SI HOC LEGERE SCIS NIMIVM ERVDITIONIS HABES QVANTVM MATERIAE MATERIETVR MARMOTA MONAX SI MARMOTA MONAX MATERIAM POSSIT MATERIARI ESTNE VOLVMEN IN TOGA AN SOLVM TIBI LIBET ME VIDERE
So Wikipedia enter the english dictionary as a common noun o.O
On 10/4/05, Mark Williamson node.ue@gmail.com wrote:
What is a dermatology atlas?
Dermatology, I understand. Atlas, I understand. But what is a dermatology atlas? A book of maps of the skin?
Mark
On 04/10/05, Andrew Lih andrew.lih@gmail.com wrote:
Thought you all would find this amusing - Jeremey Wagstaff, WSJ tech columnist, had a great piece about the Wikipedia as a new cliche...
http://loosewire.typepad.com/blog/2005/09/the_new_cliche_.html
The New Cliche: "It's the Wikipedia of..."
You know something has arrived when it's used to describe a phenomenon. Or what people hope will be a phenomenon. Here's a sampling:
- Laptops This from Nicholas Negroponte, describing his $100
laptop for the developing world (via Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth): "It's the Wikipedia equivalent (of hardware)," he said, describing the spirit of the laptop initiative.
- Gasbuddy Poster at ezboard: "It's the Wikipedia of Gas pumps. I
use it whenever I need gas. I can't believe I forgot about it until now."
- New York Times — This from a Xanga blogger: "It's the Wikipedia
of newspapers: great resource with plenty of interesting but useless content. For goodness' sake, it's a newspaper, not Cosmo Girl."
- The UK Good Food/Good Pub guide, described on Wikipedia chat as
"It's the wikipedia of food guides"
- Urban Dictionary — described by this blogger as "the Wikipedia
of the streets beyach!"
- Sushi World Guide — "it seems the community is still growing. It
is the 'Wikipedia of Sushi'.
- Pure Energy Systems – " We will be the Wikipedia of alternate
energy technology."
- Wondir — hailed on the unofficial google blog as "the Wikipedia
of answer sites"
Dermatlas — described here as "the Wikipedia of dermatology atlases"
Math World — described here as "the wikipedia of math"
GuitarWiki — described by a visitor as possibly becoming "the
Wikipedia of the guitar world"
Wikipedia-l mailing list Wikipedia-l@Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l
-- SI HOC LEGERE SCIS NIMIVM ERVDITIONIS HABES QVANTVM MATERIAE MATERIETVR MARMOTA MONAX SI MARMOTA MONAX MATERIAM POSSIT MATERIARI ESTNE VOLVMEN IN TOGA AN SOLVM TIBI LIBET ME VIDERE
Wikipedia-l mailing list Wikipedia-l@Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l
On 05/10/05, Han Dao wikipediankiba@gmail.com wrote:
So Wikipedia enter the english dictionary as a common noun o.O
Well, not a common noun as such - that would be if people actually talked about it being "a wikipedia of" (which they do, occasionally, usually when they just mean "wiki"). These are using Wikipedia as a reference point for analogies, in the same way as "the Rolls Royce of", or the more nuanced "the Titanic of"; the comparison is still to the real Wikipedia/Rolls Royce/Titanic, not some generic concept.
Which is lucky, because if it really did become uncontrollably generic "we" couldn't claim it as a trademark any longer, which would suck. Whereas this, as the article implies, is something of a compliment.
-- Rowan Collins BSc [IMSoP]
Mark Williamson wrote:
What is a dermatology atlas?
Dermatology, I understand. Atlas, I understand. But what is a dermatology atlas? A book of maps of the skin?
The term "atlas" is commonly used in medicine to refer to a picture book within the particular specialty. Thus an atlas of dermatology would have pictures of different skin conditions to assist doctors in diagnosing conditions that they may not often see.
Ec
wikipedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org