Do you think Wikipedia is a better source of information than going to the library?

Farmbrough: In some ways. The question only makes sense if you state who is looking for what, and which library is involved. For example, if you have a university library available to you, you will get more and better information on most subjects, except, perhaps, popular culture. If you only have a small-town library, you can probably find out as much or more from Wikipedia on many subjects, but it will be "chunked" differently -- it might not be easy to learn calculus, certainly not Linux or Anglo-Saxon from Wikipedia (although, there are sister wikis which address these types of needs). The Wikipedia community has a strong belief in maintaining the goal of building an encyclopedia, rather than a how-to resource, a dictionary (though there is also Wiktionary) or "an indiscriminate collection of information."

Last night, Stephen Colbert finally announced the winner of his Green Screen Challenge (which was not a contest). The competition had finally boiled down to two finalists... Bonnie R. and some random guy named George L.

Yes. Yes. George freakin' Lucas made an appearance on the show to present his green screen entry. The man whipped out the big guns from LucasFilm and created a hilarious clip... complete with Jar Jar Binks interaction! I can safely say that's the first time I've ever laughed at Jar Jar.

"I'm no fan of reality, and I'm no fan of encyclopedias," Colbert opined. "I've said it before: Who is [Encyclopaedia] Britannica to tell me George Washington had slaves? If I want to say George Washington didn't have slaves, that's my right. And now, thanks to Wikipedia, it's also a fact."

While he was speaking, Colbert was also typing away on a laptop computer, apparently editing the Wikipedia entry on George Washington to read, "In conclusion, George Washington did not own slaves."

He also apparently edited the Wiki entry on his own program, replacing a lengthy section on his reference to Oregon as both "the Canada of California" and "Washington's Mexico" with "Oregon is Idaho's Portugal" — an example, he said, of Wikiality.

"[On Wikipedia], any user can change any entry," he said. "Now 'Oregon is Idaho's Portugal' is the opinion I have always held. You can look it up."

In response to the significant interest in this event, C-SPAN also entered into a non-exclusive arrangement with Google Video in order to increase the Colbert event's free availability. We worked with Google because they agreed to post both dinner segments in their entirety with links to c-span.org.

We asked Web sites to remove the Colbert video when they posted it without our permission and we will continue to do the same with other Web sites who violate our copyright. It is important for online video providers to understand that C-SPAN-produced programming is protected by copyright in the same way that the video of any other news network is protected. Our goal in enforcing our copyright has been and continues to be to ensure that C-SPAN's reputation for unbiased coverage of the political process is maintained.

"Stephen Colbert" and "Colbert" have been the top Technorati searches all week, which is a nice real-life example of how mainstream media and the blogosphere are so different.

Stephen Colbert delivered a speech at the White House Correspondent's Dinner last weekend, in the persona of the right- wing, anti-liberal press "talking head" that he plays on his nightly television show on Comedy Central. Standing just a few feet away from President George W. Bush, Colbert skewered the current administration, the President, and the press corps. While the mainstream media properties were pointedly silent about the speech, bloggers were busy commenting about the speech, uploading video clips of the speech, and transcribing it word for word.

On YouTube.com, the leading upload site that lets users showcase homemade videos, at least a half dozen clips of Colbert's performance were posted following the dinner. The video, first broadcast by C-SPAN, quickly generated enough traffic and comments to take up a position on both the Web site's most-viewed and most-discussed videos sections.

Combined, the various clips generated more than a half million viewings before YouTube removed them Wednesday at the request of C-SPAN, which said the airing of the video violated its copyright, according to Julie Supan, YouTube spokeswoman.

Mark Smith, a reporter for The Associated Press who is president of the White House Correspondents' Association, acknowledges that he had not seen much of Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central before he booked him as the main entertainment for the association's annual black-tie dinner on Saturday night. But he says he knew enough about Mr. Colbert -- "He not only skewers politicians, he skewers those of us in the media" -- to expect that he would cause some good-natured discomfort among the 2,600 guests, many of them politicians and reporters.

What Mr. Smith did not anticipate, he said, was that Mr. Colbert's nearly 20-minute address would become one of the most hotly debated topics in the politically charged blogosphere. Mr. Colbert delivered his remarks in character as the Bill O'Reillyesque commentator he plays on "The Colbert Report," although this time his principal foil, President Bush, was just a few feet away.

"There was nothing he said where I would have leapt up to say, 'Stop,' " said Mr. Smith, who introduced Mr. Colbert and sat near him on the dais. "I thought he was very funny," Mr. Smith added, though there was hardly consensus on that point yesterday.

It's not often that someone nudges into the No. 1-2 spots of the most-blogged-about personalities...spots usually reserved for President George Bush and the fictitious teenthrob Harry Potter. But comedian Steven Colbert has done it in a big way today, capturing No. 2 spot among BlogPulse's key people list for his "truthiness-inspired" speech at the White House Correspondent Dinner Saturday night.

But, listen, let's review the rules. Here's how it works: the president makes decisions. He's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know -- fiction!

It is a testament to Mr. Colbert's lack of perspective that he could even consider making such remarks. It is also a testament to the view, that he apparently shares, that when it comes to Mr. Bush, no level of crass rudeness is inappropriate.

He owes the President and Mrs. Bush an apology.

Afterwards, President Bush got up, shook Colbert's hand and told him that he did a good job -- you just know that presidents hate these things. Clearly, Cheney just couldn't stand the idea of sitting through all those "shot a guy in the face" jokes, several of which were told by President Bush.

"It was balls-alicious," Stewart said. "Apparently he was under the impression that they'd hired him to do what he does every night on television" -- that is, make fun of conservatives, public officials, and the press in the guise of an O'Reillyesque talk show host.

"We've never been prouder of him, but HOLY ----," Stewart added.

Colbert: So edumacate me here: A blog is what? I know the kids do it, I hear it all the time with, like, iPod, I hear those two terms thrown around a lot.

Sullivan: It's almost like you have truth that you give us every night. But some of us, we just struggle every day to put whatever little bit of truth we can find on the internet and call it a blog. It's literally a web log, it's a log of your random, incessant thoughts, on the web.

Colbert: So a blog is web log? Is there an apostrophe, or do you guys not even have the strength for that? You're just gonna jam two words together?

Sullivan: Over time it just became a "blog."

Colbert: "Blog." It's a beautiful word. It's musical. So, uh, you type your thoughts and they appear on a screen instantly and that’s it. That's what you do?

Sullivan: That's what I do.

Colbert: They used to call that typing. I don't trust you guys, because anybody could do that, right?

Sullivan: You don't. The only way you can trust anybody who blogs is by following them and making sure they're not full of it all the time. The one sign of a good blogger is that he immediately corrects a mistake. And unlike the New York Times, where they can put all of their millions of mistakes in a little box in the corner every day which you never read, a blogger has to fess up, right there, just like you do every night.