My thoughts about last night’s Jason Scott lecture on the problems with Wikipedia and the wiki-hacker movement to save it from its founder’s ego are like pesky flies buzzing around my head – I having trouble focusing on killing one because they are all a pain. I think I need to create different posts for each issue.
I see Wikipedia as just another source of information that can be used, but one must be careful - maybe even more careful than with other sources because of its open structure. Its allure is that it is so easy, free, and presents itself in an attractive fashion. It has visuals, easy to access links to related material, and what could be more attractive to Americans than a democratic forum where only the best information wins the day. The issues, if I understood Jason, are that Wiki… presents itself as democratic, without a point of view, and a free forum. When, perhaps, it is really a benevolent dictatorship or oligarchy, with multiple points of view that one is not able to nail down and filter, and is not free so much as the illusion of freedom. My previous allusion to Animal Farm was to connect to the idea of a sham reality – a society that is sold into believing what it is not. It’s the same place but with new owners. When I view a source such at the Catholic Encyclopedia, which I use mainly because it is free and comprehensive, I know its point of view and can judge if this point of view is influencing the information I am reading. You can’t do that with Wikipedia – you never know the point of view and can’t believe it if you are told it exists since everyone is hiding behind multiple personalities.
I continue with the idea I lifted from the Wikipedia posts and that is one must treat the information as one would a messy filing cabinet filled by many owners. There are gems, but you must work to get them.
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