Activity
The International Biographical Centre creates "awards" and offers them widely. In the mid-2000s, awards cost the recipient between US$375 and $495 each, but as of 2010 the cost can be as high as $395 for a Commemorative Medal or US$440 for a laminated certificate.It is not part of Cambridge University at all.
Like the American Biographical Institute, the IBC states that "entry into our books is based on merit alone and we never charge for inclusion." Individuals who pay for inclusion receive a larger entry and are offered specially crafted awards. Further, merit selection is less rigorous with the IBC sending "invitations" to selected sources who nominate others or are nominated by a third party. It is also possible to nominate a person, an organization, or oneself on their website for later inclusion.
American Biographical Institution (Inc.) gives awards like Man of The Year, Scientific Award of the Excellence to many people in a year and the person may be same at a time. Every award can be purchased from them.
In 2007, referring to the International Biographical Centre, the American Bibliographical Institute and Marquis Who's Who, Jan Margosian, consumer information coordinator for the Oregon Department of Justice, warned consumers to be wary and called the companies "pretty tacky", adding "I don't know why they would put you in there if they weren't hoping to get you to buy the book.. "You truly have to look at how they are marketing and what the spin is. It's something you might want to watch out for."
The Department of Commerce of the Government of Western Australia classified the Centre's offers as a scam and said:
- The material promoting the International Biographical Centre creates a false impression about the credentials of the organisation. It also wrongly implies that the receiver of the letter has been picked through a special research process considering their work and qualifications.
It quoted blog users who describe the publications as a "Who’s Who of gullible people".
Read more about this topic: International Biographical Centre
Famous quotes containing the word activity:
“History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.... It is not “history” which uses men as a means of achieving—as if it were an individual person—its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“... the will always wills to do something and thus implicitly holds in contempt sheer thinking, whose whole activity depends on “doing nothing.””
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)