Talk:Bret Gilliam

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Dives per year[edit]

Hmm, 18000 dives in 52 years? 346 dives/year in one place and 15000 dives in 29 years or 517 dives a year. One is pretty much not possible and the other is really really unlikely. Bit of self aggrandizement perhaps? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Georgekwatson (talk • contribs) 02:45, 12 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Possibly. But I've seen professional dive instructors doing 2 or 3 dives a day, 5 or 6 days a week, year-round. That's 400–800 dives a year. I'm not sure that anyone would want to keep that up for 29 years, but I think it's not impossible. --RexxS (talk) 12:36, 12 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

From subject's CV[edit]

The information below was a direct copy from the article subject's own Curriculum vitae. Copy here before removal from article. --Gene Hobbs (talk) 04:52, 19 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

"Bret Gilliam has been professionally involved in the diving industry since 1971, a career now spanning over thirty-nine years. Since beginning diving in 1958, he has logged over 18,000 dives around the world. His background includes scientific expeditions, military/commercial projects, operating hyperbaric diving treatment facilities, liveaboard dive vessels and luxury yachts, retail dive store & Caribbean resort operation and ownership. He was founder and President of V.I. DIVERS LTD. in the U.S. Virgin Islands until selling that corporation in 1985. As Vice President and Director of Diving Operations for Ocean Quest International, he was responsible for the world's largest sport diving program from 1987 to 1990. Bret is licensed as a U.S.C.G. Merchant Marine Master, submersible pilot, aircraft pilot, and recompression chamber supervisor. Gilliam is author of over 800 articles and primary author, editor or contributor to 49 books on diving, maritime operations, and diving emergency medical procedures. He is a frequent lecturer at diving conferences around the U.S. and internationally. He has sponsored research projects in decompression sickness, diving computers, inert gas narcosis, multi-day repetitive diving and developed some of the first certification specialty courses in dive accident management & recompression chambers and multi-level computer diving. His company operated the first ship-based recompression chamber facility to treat sport divers. His diving operations have conducted in excess of 400,000 dives for sport divers since 1971.

Bret is a prolific writer on various subjects related to diving education, diving physiology, travel, and operational systems, he has been published in virtually every diving magazine in the U.S., Europe and Asia. His underwater photography has illustrated national advertising campaigns, science and diving educational texts, travel and glamour articles, and a diversified selection of diving articles. He was the senior editor of Scuba Times, a contributing editor/photographer to Discover Diving, Sources, Rodale's Scuba Diving, Sport Diver, Deep Tech, Aquanaut (Germany), Ocean (Germany), and Sea (Israel). He has also been a frequent writer for Undercurrent, Sub Aqua Journal, In Depth, and Aquacorps. Additionally, he has articles in press for the New England Journal of Medicine and the South Pacific Undersea Medical Society Journal. He was Senior Technical Editor for Rodale's Scuba Diving magazine from 1992–95 and again from 1999 to 2001. He founded and served as Publisher and Senior Editor of Fathoms magazine from 2001-2005 when he sold the publication to pursue a series of book projects.

He is one the country's most experienced deep divers and holds the world depth record for compressed air diving at 490 feet set in 1993. He is an instructor for NAUI, PADI, NASDS, PDIC, SDI and a Technical Diving Instructor for ANDI, TDI and IANTD. Additionally, he is ex-Chairman of the Board of Directors of NAUI, former President & CEO of UWATEC USA INC., former co-publisher of Deep Tech Journal, and recently retired as President of International Training Inc. (TDI, SDI, ERDI) when he sold the company in February 2004. Bret has twice been the recipient of NAUI's Outstanding Contribution to Diving Award, Beneath The Sea’s Diver of the Year, as well as international honors for his photography and film work. He is also included in Who's Who In Scuba Diving by Best Publishing. He was elected to membership in the internationally prestigious Explorers Club with additional honors as a "Fellow National". He is President of the consulting corporation, OCEAN TECH. He is also a member of the elite Boston Sea Rovers.

Gilliam has founded and sold four diving corporations (V.I.Divers Ltd., AMF Yacht Charters, G2 Publishing Inc. (Fathoms Magazine), and TDI/SDI) since 1971. As Vice President and CEO, he was instrumental in taking UWATEC public in a sale for 44 million dollars to JWA in 1997 and sold his publishing company (Scuba Times and Deep Tech) to Petersen/E-Map in 1999. His entrepreneurial successes in the diving industry have made him a multi-millionaire. He is 59 and lives on an island in Maine but still travels extensively internationally on dive business and expeditions. He has a custom 32-foot power yacht and just completed another 48-foot power yacht for wildlife photography projects in New England."

Book citations and other problems[edit]

The normal way of citing authors is to use the order given by reliable sources. There are two publications where an IP has now edit-warred to change the order to promote Gilliam to the first author:

  • Mount, Tom; Gilliam, Bret C (1993). Mixed Gas Diving: The Ultimate Challenge for Technical Diving. Watersport Publishing, Inc. ISBN 0-922769-41-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Neal, Jan; Gilliam, Bret C (1994). Nitrox, A User Friendly Guide to Enriched Air Mixtures. Technical Diving International.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Here are the sources confirming those citations:

I'm not going to bother to continue the edit-war as it's not a big deal, but I am concerned that this IP is spending a lot of time introducing unsourced "puffery" into the article to cast Gilliam in a more favourable light. The IP geolocates to the region where Gilliam has his business and is clearly related to him. There is now a substantial amount of unsourced material in this BLP. I've tagged it as having these multiple issues, and I intend to remove the unsourced material in the future, but I thought I'd give a chance for others to comment first. --RexxS (talk) 17:40, 13 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I am the actual Bret Gilliam and have only just learned of the concerns about information that was added to the Wikipedia section that is devoted to my career. I really am computer illiterate and do not understand how Wikipedia works. When the first information was put up about me, I wasn't even aware of it. Later I was contacted by a gentleman named Gene Hobbs who offered to interview me and incorporate other information from my professional CV. I cooperated with him and he did a good job. Recently, a law firm contacted me as a result of researching me on the internet and found me by using the Wikipedia information that took them to a link from Undercurrent, an on-line magazine that I contribute to. It was a useful experience since it brought me a new legal client. Following that, another attorney tracked me down via Wikipedia again and later suggested that I facilitate adding more information from my career CV that would be helpful in expanding the information. Since I do not know how to actually do such edits, I asked an IT professional who routinely did work in my office to see if he could make edits. He recently did so to add details on publishing, film projects, special projects, etc. And he did this while in my office so it originated from one of my computers while I was on the road on legal appearances. I was notified yesterday that a "notice" had now been added that questions some to the information and its sourcing. I deeply regret this and did not know that it had been done improperly. All of the information is 100% correct and comes from the same CV and Legal Case List material that I am required to file in state and federal courts when being admitted as an expert witness. If you could explain to me what you need to "reference" or provide "links" to, I can hire someone to get this down in a manner suitable for Wikipedia. None of this was any sort of intentional subterfuge... it was my own ignorance of how the system works and my own lack of computer skills to get done properly. The IT professional that was in my office thought he was acting correctly but also had never done any Wikipedia edits prior. Basically, I feel like a third-grader with my lack of understanding about how the system works and I apologize for any unintended inappropriate edits. But they are all 100% accurate. I routinely use Wikipedia myself as part of researching subject matter in my own legal work. I would sincerely appreciate it if you could remove the "warning" for now and give me exact advice and directions on how to get a qualified computer person to make whatever changes or references available and added to the material. I'm not even certain if I am using the proper method of getting this message to whomever is in charge at Wikipedia. I can be reached directly via email at: bretgilliam@gmail.com
Thanks for your cooperation and understanding. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.173.81.246 (talk) 17:18, 14 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Brett, thanks for taking the time to explain so frankly what has happened. First of all, I have to tell you that there is nobody in charge at Wikipedia (or perhaps everybody is in charge - which ends up as the same thing!). Gene is a particular wiki-friend of mine and we appreciate all the work he did in collecting information, particularly from yourself.
I'm glad that you've been able to get someone to expand your article, but the way Wikipedia is supposed to work is that somebody reads reliable, published sources about a subject; then they summarise them in their own words, naming the sources they used (what we call 'references'). There's no harm done, but the bit we're missing is the sources that the writer used. If you could get someone to spell out on this page where a reader could find those sources (what we call 'verifiability'), then I'd be more than happy to make sure that your article has the proper references added to it.
I've removed the notices (except for the one requesting more reliable sources for the moment, because more readers may be interested in helping) as I'm sure you're doing your best to sort out the concerns. If you ever need help - especially with our scuba articles on Wikipedia - please feel free to drop me a note on my talk page: User talk:RexxS. Looking forward to hearing from you - and safe diving! --RexxS (talk) 18:34, 14 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

RexxS

Many thanks for your reply and cooperation. I am leaving on Friday evening for two legal appearances that have me away until Wednesday March 28th. When I return I will get a list of proper references and sources for all recent edits and provide them via this "talk" page. I would then need you to put them into the appropriate places as I am fairly certain that I would screw it up. And I don't want to take another chance on a supposed IT professional to do it for me and make mistakes. So I will be absent for a bit but will get on it upon my return.

Bret Gilliam — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.173.81.246 (talk) 20:20, 14 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Bret, let me say one thing as somebody almost as computer illiterate as you. :D It looks daunting, but it's easy to learn, if you pay attention to what other editors are doing. And we can always use the help! ;p Even things like patrolling new pages, which is about as easy as it gets. Let me recommend you get an account. And let me add, if you have questions, you can message me, too.
I'd also say, you really shouldn't post private info like this: it's not going to stay private... TREKphiler any time you're ready, Uhura 23:02, 15 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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