Author of mathpages.com?

Chris Hillman

A small but possibly important correction:

Back in May 2006, pervect cited a page he found at the well known mathpages.com website, which often has some quite good stuff (although I certainly wouldn't agree with everything the author writes in http://www.mathpages.com/rr/rrtoc.htm, he is a thoughtful writer), and commented

Then clj4 wrote:

Not true; the author of mathpages.com is called KEVIN S. Brown, and in happier days his contact information (now very outdated) appeared in his website. Verification of the author's name can be found at websites like http://home.att.net/~numericana/fame/.

(I can just hear some freshfaced InterNet newbie asking, "why would the author of a seemingly inoffensive pedagogical website remove his name from it after more than a decade of existence?" After some thought, and speaking as the author of some seemingly inoffensive pedagogical websites of my own, I would advise members of this forum to decline to speculate about his possible motivations.)

KENNETH S. Brown, known as Ken, the distinguished topologist (well known for his textbook on buildings and other work) on the faculty at Cornell, is someone completely different.

This no doubt unintentional illustrates the dangers inherent in "digging" for the identity of "anonymized" authors of material found on the Internet. There are sometimes good reasons (e.g. investigating apparent malfeasance, but probably not mere curiosity) to try to identify a web "handle" with a real-life individual, but feel that this should probably be left to experts who have demonstrated good judgement and who are familiar with the use of the appropriate tools.

Someone suggested that I avoid cluttering up the board by resurrecting very old threads, but perhaps a moderator can "quietly" insert a link to this correction?

Chris Hillman

MeJennifer

Certainly a creative mind is behind those little essays.

ZapperZ

Do you happen to know which thread this should go into?

Zz.

Chris Hillman

Hi, ZapperZ, the thread I had in mind is the one cited in my post above ("orginally posted by clj4").

ZapperZ

Yes, but which thread is that? Or are you asking me to go hunt for it myself?



Zz.

MeJennifer

It looks like it is this one:
Link

Chris Hillman

Hi, ZapperZ,

I am still a bit of a newbie at PF, so perhaps I don't know how to cite a thread yet, but if you follow the link in my initial post up above, where I quote the mistaken claim by clj4, "He is professor Ken Brown from Cornell" (wrong, the author of mathpages.com is named Kevin Brown) you should be taken to the thread in question. At least that's what happens when I try this!

Right, that's the one I mean. Look for the post by clj4; I was suggesting that a correction be added to that thread by someone with elevated privileges at PF.

Johnsr86

Hello I was wondering if anyone here is able to find contact information for Kevin S Brown. I am not sure if he is aware of it but his website is being plagarized by this person:

http://mathlectures.net/

I initially didnt think so and just thought the thief above was stealing content from normal blogs but according to this:


http://www.aboutus.org/MathLectures.net

It states that the website has been plagarizing from Kevin Browns website..

So if anyone knows the contact email or phone number from him can you please give it here or SEND an email or message to him telling him of this so he can take appropriate action!

Cheers!!

MeJennifer

A person (under the pseudonym) Fred Olden claims ownership and is aware of it happening here.

http://groups.google.com/group/misc....hide_quotes=no

I briefly looked at mathlectures.net and I do not see any references to mathpages material, perhaps they took it out?

Johnsr86

Ah fair enough then. Thank you for the very quick reply!! Glad to know that the owner is on to the theft already!

Kind regards:)