On 27/06/07, Brock Weller brock.weller@gmail.com wrote:
I'd take some objection to this, my father's in the "who's who of professionals" publication (or was, im not sure if he still is, but he has the early 90's edition that first had him). He's somewhat known among managers and such, helped with the roll out of TQM in the government back in the day. Some other minor things, a couple low level "presidential" commissions to ease bureaucracy in some small division in some second tier department, but nothing approaching real notability. People who are marginally notable in a specific field can get in those books, but it doesnt mean that they are generally marginally notable. Who's who is almost on the verge of being a vanity press.
There is a substantial difference between "Who's Who", the original general publication, and "Who's Who ---", the genre of publications. The original takes "notability" (with a few odd caveats) as its basic threshold of entry; the various "Who's Who in X" are not nearly as discriminating, and will often take anyone willing to pay.
Yes, it's confusing, but there you go. I believe this all has its roots in a *really complex* transatlantic trademark dispute...