Wrongplanet.net (Visit site )

Wrong Planet is an online community for individuals with Autism and Asperger syndrome. The site was started in 2004 by Dan Grover and Alex Plank and includes a chatroom, a large forum, a dating section, and articles describing how to deal with daily issues. The footer of the website states that the autism organization is run by the limited liability company Yellow Sneaker Media, LLC. The site says that it has gained more than 20,000 registered members since its creation; of those, about 4,500 have made more than 10 posts to the forum. After a post to Slashdot describing an interview with Bram Cohen, Wrong Planet grew; the success of the Cohen interview spurred the site to produce a series of interviews with other figures in the autism community such as author Temple Grandin, Jerry Newport, and movie producer Joey Travolta. The site conducted an interview with America's Next Top Model contestant Heather Kuzmich who frequently talked about her Asperger's during Cycle 9 of the show. Wrong Planet has been referenced by the mainstream U.S. media. In 2005, a 19-year-old member of the site, William Freund, shot two people and himself in Aliso Viejo, California. Freund posted on other internet forums including Something Awful. In 2007, a man who was accused of murdering his dermatologist apparently posted on the site while eluding the police. Wrong Planet was covered in a Dateline NBC report on the incident. In 2008, Wrong Planet began getting involved in autistic self advocacy with the goal of furthering the rights of autistic individuals living in the United States. Representatives from the organization testified at the NIMH's Interagency Autism Coordinating committee. Owner Alex Plank also began taking speaking engagements for various Autism conferences. For instance, Plank will speak with Jerry Newport and Stephen Shore at the Open Center for Autism's 2nd annual conference in New York. Wrong Planet was covered in MIT's Media Lab course 'Techno-Identity' in 2006 and is on the syllabus of UCLA's 'Autism and Asperger Syndrome in the Media: Through the eyes of individuals with Autism' (Education 88S). Wrong Planet comes up in the special education curriculum of many universities in the United States. A page is dedicated to Wrong Planet and its founder in a textbook used by various Universities such as the University of Virginia and George Mason University for introduction to special education courses. ... (expand) (contract)