Error: I'm afraid this is the first I've heard of a "writeback" flavoured Blosxom. Try dropping the "/+writeback" bit from the end of the URL.
Turn It In!
My Survey of Japanese Film class requires that we submit all of our papers through a service called Turn it in! This service apparently distills your paper down to the delicious chewy center, and compares that deliciousness with the flavor of papers that have been submitted before, noting any similarities and flagging you felonious as the case may be. I don't have any major gripes with this in theory, excepting the fact that my tuition is likely paying for this service. What troubles me are passages like the following from the Services Faq:
Can Turnitin be used for instructor or institutional archiving needs?Yes, we do archive all papers submitted to our database by registered users. Extended use of our service builds a comprehensive archive of papers and ensures that students will never recycle papers from previous classes.
So, basically, they're keeping my papers forever...and since when is it a crime to utilize past research in a new context? My real beef, though, is this sneaking suspicion that they'll use my papers in conjunction with their search algorithm to assess future papers. Which means that I'm paying for a service, though in very small part, with my tuition, to heavily scrutinize my papers via automation, distilling my paper into data for future analysis of other kids' papers. My academic work, then, is being given away for free to help feed a commercial venture for which I have no input, information, or control, and from which I will see no kind of monetary return.
Fucked. Up.
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