I came across this interesting article in MIT’s Technology Review. Simson Garfinkel takes an in-depth look into Wikipedia’s inner workings and the people and policies that make it hum, noting the good (breadth and depth of information) with the bad (lack of verifiability and the fact that many people rely on Wikipedia as truth). Given that RichmondWiki.org is built on the same software (MediaWiki) and principles as Wikipedia, it is worth a mention here.
Perhaps my favorite quote is from digital revolutionary Jaron Lanier, who refers to Wikipedia as:
“digital Maoism”–the closest humanity has come to a functioning mob rule.
My hope for RichmondWiki is to build and maintain a useful community resource, without all of the revolutionary struggle against authority, killing, and oppression. We’ll leave that to the Wikipedians.
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