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Gel speakers on Wikipedia
Jun 7, 2006
On Edge.org, Jaron Lanier recently took Wikipedia (founded by Jimmy Wales Gel '05 and euroGel '06) to task because of its focus on the collective. From Edge: Digital Maoism:
[T]he problem is in the way the Wikipedia has come to be regarded and used; how it's been elevated to such importance so quickly.
I bring it up because the responses to the essay are in, including from Douglas Rushkoff :'06:, Jimmy Wales himself, and several other tech luminaries.
For example, Douglas writes...
I have a hard time fearing that the participants of Wikipedia or even the call-in voters of American Idol will be in a position to remake the social order anytime, soon... Our fledgling collective intelligences are not emerging in a vacuum, but on media platforms with very specific biases.
Jimmy Wales writes (and anyone who saw his Gel Gel '05 talk will remember him saying something similar from the stage)...
[Wikipedia does not have] any particular faith in collectives or collectivism as a mode of writing. Authoring at Wikipedia, as everywhere, is done by individuals exercising the judgment of their own minds.
