My $0.02: Documents created using MS Office/Word on Mac are compatible with Windows without any special effort. Apple’s own productivity suite iWork on Mac supports a one-click Export to Word option. No brainer.

More people in Sri Lanka use Mac than you’d imagine. But what relevance does it hold when you’re publishing online?

Having said all that, the author’s response pertaining to plagiarism and continuous denial/evasion is rather unfortunate.

Plagiarism is never relative. You either did it, or you didn’t.

These so called ‘morale guidelines’ were surprisingly non-evident in the past when the author deliberately published photos and personal details such as home addresses and personal contact numbers of another blogger who desired to be anonymous!

Of course, I fully expect the author to totally deny any such actions, and claim he in fact was the true victim of a masterfully executed online persecution campaign!

I know it, you know it, everyone knows it.

Please stop deluding yourself.

Sooner or later you were going to self destruct, you just did! You just lost any sort of equity, respect or credibility you had. No one likes a plagiarizer.

Thats all.

Er.. Where do I start? OK, the case in point, plagiarism or not is a relative matter. Grounviews and I aren’t experts on this area. But given the context; I don’t think it amounts to blatant plagiarism. I had said this was entirely a technical error, I mean I don’t have anything to prove it other than my own words, but its what it is. I don’t think I am that stupid to have plagiarized on a well read, respected and if I may add self-righteous site. There were subtle ways to do that if I really wanted to. No need an outright copy paste job. That sucks to me as much as it does to you.

As for Groundviews sources, it is possible same content was syndicated in many sites. Citing as many sources shouldn’t necessarily mean they are all different content. The content was same; I got one from one site, and groundviews from another, maybe another person from another.. Its how the web works. Content gets syndicated in so many weird ways. This is also due phising sites. As such I’d stick to my claims on my sources. But yes, it is possible for them to be on other sites as well, as Groundviews had pointed out. But that shouldn’t mean i’ve taken from there and i should’ve mentioned them as well..

I maintained a blog that was reasonably well read, but created a stir by exposing a person who was a pain in the neck, then someone alerted my Dad and I guess that was the end of it. As of today, I don’t maintain a blog, but I felt I needed to get this message across. Lets face it, Srilankan sites suck. I felt strongly about it, and needed an avenue. Hence the article in question on Groundviews. I didn’t want to hide behind an anonymous blog either, so I thought I’d use Groundviews, and for all the right reasons. That was my only intention. But i seemed to have messed it up now.

Despite my explanation someone at the helm of affairs at Groundviews is hell bent on proving me a plagiarist. Why? I wouldn’t know… and I am not one either. I had explained the context; furthermore I had also unconditionally apologized if anyone thought it necessary. I think it is silly to go on editing (actually cutting) only to prove one point, that someone plagiarized. Really? Why not you scrutinize every single post on Groundviews? Chances are you will have some more fodder to prove your self righteousness (Pun intended).

I guess I am going to completely stop browsing Srilankan sites on the net.. Too much trouble, and its not worth it.. Gosh little did I know I’d end up this way..

I am not whining and acting innocent. Certainly not. I am only making my stance clear.. Groundviews has the option to delete completely, or edit as it sees fit, or even dedicate a few more new posts and tweets explaining how I plagiarized and how their intelligence worked to catch me red handed… I lack sensationalism these days, and I’d enjoy the fun.. Its been a while since i last got some attention

Here I officially end. No offence meant to anyone… Just one point, unintentional error, but sorry, and I mean it.

Oh yeah… I have my own self imposed morale guidelines when I sit with my keyboard, and I can assure you they aren’t that different from Grounviews guidelines : )

Best of luck everyone.

Thanks

Nibras

Plagiarism is not a relative term.

“pla·gia·rism n
1. copying what somebody else has written or taking somebody’s else’s idea and trying to pass it off as original.
2. something copied from somebody else’s work, or somebody else’s idea that somebody presents as his or her own”
Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Interestingly I have accompanied and represented many students at University Education Council meetings defending them for plagiarism and copyright infringement in coursework.

Majority of these students are international students and not native English language speakers. So many use this in defence. This becomes a nightmare, especially in subjects like law where you have to quote previous judgments.

Finally the English Department head’s involvement at a policy meeting was sought.

Everyone agreed on following the fundamentals of English grammar and the rules for use of quotations as the first principle in judging those accused of plagiarism.

Despite my Che Guevara sensitivities, I reluctantly agreed. Having learnt English mainly through the speaking of the language and reading books my grammar and spelling is much wanting? But not to at least italicising or including within quotation marks what you obtain from other sources is no excuse.

The distinction here is that this was a pure cut and paste outright crib. Why bring yourself to disrepute for something as silly boggles my mind.

Btw Nibras, citing doesn’t allow you to copy verbatim unless you specifically highlight it using quotation marks or italics followed immediately with a footnote sourcing the original content. Tips for your next writing endeavour.

This is a general comment, I rarely see GV authors use references in their articles. It’s something you should encourage. Especially when it comes to numerical data. Such as casualty figures, and historical dates, occurrences. You should also make references mandatory for quotations and official statements.

Hi,

Firstly, thanks for pointing this out. Appreciate it. Sanjana had sent a mail and I responded to him a while ago.

As for plagiarism, its how one looks at it, and Plagiarism is a relative term.

I had mentioned, “Compiled from” and included sources in my original Mac version, since many people in SL don’t use Mac, i thought I’d send that in Windows format. In the process however I made some changes. I hadn’t included same, nor did I run a spell check. Truth be told, I edited the original version I had.

That being said, this was honestly unintentional, rather a genuine mistake that I accept. I value and respect my own self-imposed guidelines let alone Groundviews guidelines. Yes, I too hate plagiarism ☺

As you can see some relevant pieces, examples and info were taken, I compiled this with some of my own input that cannot be questioned I believe. But I admit the mistake in not including sources in the version sent to Sanjana though I had them in my Mac version. What was sent to sanjana was a Windows version with HTML included.

Just to be clear, the sources I should have cited were,

http://www.godinchief.com/entry/why-do-indian-media-companies-suck-internet/

http://www.digitaltonto.com/2009/how-great-media-companies-fail-on-the-internet/

http://indianstartupgyaan.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/why-the-great-indian-media-companies-will-fail-on-the-internet/#comment-101

I respect groundviews, and its efforts, which is the reason i contribute to the site. I think I’ve made myself clear, should you still wish to take down my post please do so. Upto you. I’d respect that.

I however intend contributing to Groundviews in the future too, and rest assured if content and examples taken from other sites they will be given due credits for. I should check my copy many times before sending… Learnt my lesson here

Anyways, my unconditional and sincere apology to all concerned. Although unintentional and purely a technical error on my part, I understand the scenario and apologize should this cause any inconvenience to anyone.

Hope this clarifies.

Thanks for bringing this up to me. Appreciate it.

Best of luck.

Nibras

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. After your comment, checking up on the rest of the article revealed plagiarised content taken off from at least three sources,

http://www.npost.com/2009/11/09/why-the-great-indian-media-companies-will-fail-on-the-internetÂ…/
http://www.digitaltonto.com/2009/how-great-media-companies-fail-on-the-internet/
http://indianstartupgyaan.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/why-the-great-indian-media-companies-will-fail-on-the-internet/#comment-101

The author has been asked to respond.

In the US, the ubiquity of the Internet has forced news, media and entertainment companies to become early adopters of social technologies and experiment with all the five underlying drivers of

Consumer generated content (CNN iReport)
Conversations (NPR Community)
Collaboration (Al Jazeera War on Gaza)
Community (NYT Times People)
Collective intelligence (CNN News Pulse)

Thank you for your thoughtful and articulate review of the SriLankan media and its interest (or lack of interest) in citizen journalism.

We are avid supporters of citizen journalism around the world and have just finished publishing a 200+ page book, “Handbook for Citizen Journalists.” We also provide on-line training for citizen journalists to our members.

If you are interested we would be willing to send you a free copy of “Handbook for Citizen Journalists” as a pdf. We would be very interested in your view of the book and how we may help each other in the advancement of citizen journalism around the world.

Dr. Ron Ross, Catalyst-in-Chief

Please see the ground reality first. i.e, low pc and broadband access, credit card fearpsychosis, lack of talent, money, instruments coupled with cyber tracking and censorship and many more hurdles. In this context your arguments don’t hold true. They are just ideals of a lankan westerner.