The Loop
Aggregation is plagiarism
I couldn’t help but aggregate (though not plagiarize) this link Jim Dalrymple aggregated to a post by a Mr. Joe Wilcox about how aggregation is, well, plagiarism.
It’s true, now that you’ve read this you don’t need to read the original to know what it’s about. However, my guess is you’ll miss out on the personal reasons and nuanced perspective Mr. Wilcox offers if you don’t go and read his post.
I certainly agree with his position, not an uncommon one, that word-for-word copies or close paraphrases are plagiarism plain and simple. But I would term that behavior, well, plagiarism. Aggregation, done right, will collect interesting material to which the collector wants to point his own readers, adding context or perspective or opinion lacking in the original.
John Gruber’s Daring Fireball is a great example of that: it’s comprised almost entirely of links to the work of others, often including quotes from the linked-to article. But it’s as far from plagiarism as you can get. People read Gruber’s site specifically for his opinion on the news of the day. Most of his readers probably find the newsy bits elsewhere, be it on Twitter or another news site. But Gruber’s take adds value, and that’s why they’re there.
I like to think that’s what I’m doing here, but I suppose only readers like you can decide that.
Easily fake a tweet from anyone's account
Easily fake a tweet from anyone’s account
I wonder whether Twitter can eliminate the potential for this stuff, because Shawn King of The Loop is right: it definitely raises concerns for journalists, not to mention anyone whose account lends credence to the crazy things you might say with this hack.
The 128 GB iPad is official...
…but I’m not interested.
Peter Cohen of The Loop shared this earlier today, but I wonder why he didn’t offer any of his own thoughts on it. Here’s why I’m not interested:
Part of the iPad’s appeal to me is that it isn’t another crufty “filing cabinet.” I rather like that it is exactly what it appears to be: a big, beautiful window into the cloud. Everything I need is in Dropbox or Rdio or Google or Evernote, and when I make something, whether or not I’m connected to the internet, there’s always a way to save it for later synchronization. I also find that limited space makes me more discerning when it comes to installing apps, or choosing what music will sync to the device.
I understand some people lust after the one-terabyte tablet. I will never be one of those people.