Techno-determinism, anyone?
April 14, 2010 2:12 PM Subscribe
The Truth According to Wikipedia... A 48-minute documentary about Wikipedia, the internet, democracy and knowledge.
The recent thread about creepy things on Wikipedia made me wish there was a book or documentary about Wikipedia editors (I heart geeks), so this (although it’s only has like two scenes of Wikipedia editors) was a happy discovery. Funny, contentious, and all around good fun to listen to people who use words like truth, freedom and knowledgein a professional capacity.*
Is the internet a propagator/exploiter of counter-enlightenment sentiment? The iPad really makes me think about all that, and of my own elitist biases. In any case, this documentary provides useful context for the whole Wikipedia vs. Stephen Colbert debate.
Andrew Keen (guy who looks like Willem Dafoe) speaks most closely to my own experiences and ideas (/suspicions). Still, I’m not a Wikipedia basher -- not that it would matter in the least if I were, which does make me want to protest -- and I really feel the seductive pull of the o’Reilly/Leadbeater perspective. Heck, if the internet goes down, I don’t get paid! How will I then save up for a Kindle?
I mean, I work in a "techno-sociological" sphere (“media management”) -- so I may be a bit of an air-quote hysteric, and Keen appeals to me because he speaks in a world where these things are already happening, a more reflective point of view -- as opposed to the web 2.0 experts, who seem to speak in nothing but promises, and we really do, I think, need to be more skeptical of that kind of easy allure. So yeah, I really dig the conflict the documentary sets up between Keen and Leadbeater at the end, because I do think that is the choice we’re making, constantly and on a massive scale. Which is bound to have implications.
I wish the documentary had covered the economics of Wikipedia a little bit more (the most interesting thing in a documentary about Wikipedia editors? the volunteerism). Searching for “how does Wikipedia make money” leads to upsetting search results. Also, working on web stuff, I think on a daily basis about the medium’s exhaltation of quick creativity, the disregard for broader (didactic?) perspective, and the radically different, faster and (IMHO) lesser ways in which people raised on this media are thinking and searching and decision-making.
But at the end of the way I’m flexible (susceptible) so I want to see what other people think, because I’m not sure what the i in iPad really stands for.
*Is it just my own mellowness or are a lot of these people kinda jittery.
The recent thread about creepy things on Wikipedia made me wish there was a book or documentary about Wikipedia editors (I heart geeks), so this (although it’s only has like two scenes of Wikipedia editors) was a happy discovery. Funny, contentious, and all around good fun to listen to people who use words like truth, freedom and knowledgein a professional capacity.*
Is the internet a propagator/exploiter of counter-enlightenment sentiment? The iPad really makes me think about all that, and of my own elitist biases. In any case, this documentary provides useful context for the whole Wikipedia vs. Stephen Colbert debate.
Andrew Keen (guy who looks like Willem Dafoe) speaks most closely to my own experiences and ideas (/suspicions). Still, I’m not a Wikipedia basher -- not that it would matter in the least if I were, which does make me want to protest -- and I really feel the seductive pull of the o’Reilly/Leadbeater perspective. Heck, if the internet goes down, I don’t get paid! How will I then save up for a Kindle?
I mean, I work in a "techno-sociological" sphere (“media management”) -- so I may be a bit of an air-quote hysteric, and Keen appeals to me because he speaks in a world where these things are already happening, a more reflective point of view -- as opposed to the web 2.0 experts, who seem to speak in nothing but promises, and we really do, I think, need to be more skeptical of that kind of easy allure. So yeah, I really dig the conflict the documentary sets up between Keen and Leadbeater at the end, because I do think that is the choice we’re making, constantly and on a massive scale. Which is bound to have implications.
I wish the documentary had covered the economics of Wikipedia a little bit more (the most interesting thing in a documentary about Wikipedia editors? the volunteerism). Searching for “how does Wikipedia make money” leads to upsetting search results. Also, working on web stuff, I think on a daily basis about the medium’s exhaltation of quick creativity, the disregard for broader (didactic?) perspective, and the radically different, faster and (IMHO) lesser ways in which people raised on this media are thinking and searching and decision-making.
But at the end of the way I’m flexible (susceptible) so I want to see what other people think, because I’m not sure what the i in iPad really stands for.
*Is it just my own mellowness or are a lot of these people kinda jittery.
This post was deleted for the following reason: This reads way too much like a personal blog entry rather than a metafilter post, sorry. -- cortex
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