“Student Warning! Do Your Homework Early” – Wikipedia To Go Dark Tomorrow
Wikipedia
Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales.
Its the sixth-most visited Web site in the world. But tomorrow, Wikipedia will globally black out the English version of its site.
And the co-founder of the free, online encyclopedia, Jimmy Wales, is looking out for procrastinating students.
On Twitter, Wales said, “Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday.”
Wikipedia is protesting proposed federal anti-piracy bills – the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate.
If passed, Wikipedia officials say the laws would endanger free speech and bring new tools to censor international websites.
There are more than 3.8 million English articles on Wikipedia. But from 5AM GMT tomorrow through 5AM GMT Thursday, visitors will see a note encouraging them to contact Congress in protest.
“This is going to be wow,” Wales said on Twitter. “I hope Wikipedia will melt phone systems in Washington on Wednesday.”
Should students use Wikipedia for help with homework? What about college students? You can hear some of the arguments for and against citing Wikipedia in a college paper here.
