Facts/History Page

[davidsbiscotti]

Where does one look for facts or history info?
Is it okay to reference or to quote directly from Wikipedia?
Would it be copyright infringement to do so?
We know that online info is not always public domain and is sometimes considered intellectual property, for example. I guess the difference is whether or not you profit from the use of such info.
Anyway, I'm curious to know what others have to say about this.

 

[Alun_evans]

History in itself is not (c), but an author, or historians interpretation of it in his/her own form of writing maybe. The Wikipedia is pretty much public domain, as I have found myself with large chunks of the "Indonesian Coffee" section I wrote now appearing on various coffee websites around the cyberworld. Wikipedia itself says that if you dont want your info to be used by others unaccredited, simply do not post.

A good source on coffee history is Mark Pendergast's "Uncommon Grounds". A fine book with a huge ammount of information about coffee history. There are quite a few other books on coffee from an Historical perspective. For a quite revealing read into colonial exploittion, and with an East Indies perspective, Max Havelar is a classic. Black Gold is worth a read, although I picked up over 60 factual inacuracies or errors in my read of it.

 

[davidsbiscotti]

Alun, thanks for your input. I'm sure that others in the forum will take note of the Mark Pendergast book you mentioned.
I'm finding that some history facts on the web tend to contradict each other. It's difficult to decide which ones to use.
I didn't relize before that Wikipedia was such a conglomerative effort.
Nice site by the way Alun. Brilliant photos, very interesting.
Thank you.

 

[Alun_evans]

No problem, I am glad I could help out. I agree that a lot of the information you can dig up on the web is perhaps contributed by posters using second or third hand information.

Anyway thanks for the comments on the website. It would be really nice to see some of you guys over this way sometime in the future. I am quite surprised that of all the posters contributing to this forum, none have actually visited Indonesia since I started posting back in early 2004. I do often take groups of roasters from Asia, Australia and NZ on mini origin tours- and love seeing how far off their expectations of Indonesia are to the reality they encounter (positive, not a negative!)

It is a beautiful country, rich in scenery, cultures and of course cultures. It would be nice to oneday show some of you guys around at least some small parts of this country.

 

[AlisonD]

Alun, if you're financing the trip I am available anytime :grin:. Otherwise, it will have to wait a little while but not forever, plus a little coffee research in the trip and I can dance the "write off" jig :wink: