I really dislike this guy

Not only is this Julian Assange an anti-American leftist deliberately seeking to harm our country to the maximum extent possible; not only does he have a malevolent face I instinctively dislike and want to punch; not only does he have a name that makes him sound like a pretentious villain; but, on top of all that, he stole the first two syllables of the name Wikipedia for his “Wiki-leaks.” What kind of person would do something like that? A louse.

* * *

By the way, Assange is not an American. Nor is he French Canadian. As I see at Wikipedia, he’s an an Australian. And see another photo of his unpleasant face at Wikipedia. I’ve never seen such an unpleasant looking Australian. That’s because his real country is not Australia. It’s Leftism.

- end of initial entry -

November 30

Jacob M. writes:

You’re probably going to get multiple emails on this, but the term Wiki did not originate with Wikipedia. As you can see from the Wikipedia article on wikis, the word is a Hawaiian word for “fast,” and as an internet term was coined by a programmer named Ward Cunningham who developed the concept. A wiki is just a website that is editable by a collaborative community; that’s why Jimmy Wales used the term when he created Wikipedia. There are lots of wikis on the internet for all sorts of specialized topics, most of which have “wiki” in the name. So, though I agree that this Julian Assange is an evil person, this is one error we can’t blame on him.

On second thought, now that I actually look at the Wikileaks website, I see that it’s not actually a wiki; it’s just a regular website maintained and edited by its proprietor. So Assange is at least misappropriating the term “wiki.”

LA replies:

Thanks for this information, which was new to me. So, when Jimmy Wales named Wikipedia, he was using an already established term, “wiki,” and applying it to an encyclopedia, hence Wikipedia.

Kilroy M. writes:

“I really dislike this guy”

… so do I.

But I don’t think that the use of the word “Wiki” is a form of intellectual property theft. As far as I can gather, it has now become a commonly used term to denote a form of technological innovation, namely, an online database that can be amended by anyone. Otherwise the guy wouldn’t be running from a rape & molestation charge in Sweden. He’d be hiding in a remote dust hole with no extradition to any country in which IP rights are recognised.

As for ugly Australians, have you not seen the likes of our current Prime Minister, known in some quarters as Red Julia (and in others by a somewhat less charitable designation)? How about our most embarrassing and destructive export to the world: Germain Greer. Sir, when it comes to ugly, nobody has anything on us!

Evan H. writes:

It seems Jimmy Wales isn’t a fan either:

“I wish they wouldn’t use the name, they are not a Wiki,” he said at a business conference in Kuala Lumpur, according to AFP. By definition, a “wiki” is a user-generated database of information. In addition to the encyclopedic Wikipedia, there are wiki’s dedicated to an array of subjects, such as web programming languages, wine and Star Trek. WikiLeaks is not that kind of website and has nothing to do with the popular informational site he helped create, Wales argues. “A big way they got famous in the first place was by using the word Wiki, which was unfortunate in my view,” he said.

LA replies:

I’m glad Wales said this. It makes me think better of him, that he stood up for his creation, instead of saying, “Whatever…”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 30, 2010 12:08 AM | Send