Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales will be speaking in SF this FRIDAY, Apr. 14

-r

----- Forwarded message from Stewart Brand sb@gbn.org -----

Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 12:12:58 -0700 To: salt@list.longnow.org From: Stewart Brand sb@gbn.org Subject: [SALT] Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales this FRIDAY, Apr. 14 (for forwarding)

Vision is one of the strongest forms of long-term thinking.

Like any project, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia deploys month-to-month tactics in the service of year-to-year strategy. Both must serve an unusually ambitious decade-to-decade vision, stated by founder JIMMY WALES: "Wikipedia is first and foremost an effort to create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language."

The English language edition of Wikipedia, which started in January 2001, reached its millionth article last month. A year ago it was half that. There are 123 other language editions active, with German (350,000 articles), French, Polish, and Japanese leading the way. The editing process is radically "open source"--- anyone can edit any article. Article authors and amenders get no pay and no public credit. Against reason, the process works spectacularly. Wikipedia has become the primary online research source. It currently costs $320,000 a quarter to produce.

For the talk on Friday, Wales is expanding on his usual Wikipedia-only presentation to address the larger and longer picture that Wikipedia's success hints at:

"Vision: Wikipedia and the Future of Free Culture," Jimmy Wales, Cowell Theater, Fort Mason, San Francisco, 7pm, Friday, April 14. The lecture starts promptly at 7:30pm. Admission is free ($10 donation welcome as always, not required).

NOTE ON SECURING A SEAT: This talk may be very popular, with the possibility of an overflow audience. You can ensure yourself a seat by making a reservation, which costs $5 a person. Reserve through Long Now's home page (http://www.longnow.org) or phone 415-561-6582. Reservations will stop being taken at 4:30 pm April 14. Apart from reserved seats, which must be occupied by 7:20 pm at the event or be released, seating is first-come-first-served, and admission is free.

(This reservation service is offered in an attempt to avoid previous problems with exceptionally popular talks. Jared Diamond and Brian Eno, for example, had far more people at the door than could fit inside, and many went away frustrated. Anticipating that problem at a joint talk by Freeman, Esther, and George Dyson, Long Now offered the ability to make reservations by phone. People then filled the house with what turned out to be illusory reservations. My email about that discouraged other people from showing up, and we wound up with half a house. So this time there's a financial incentive to make only sincere reservations. The Cowell Theater seats 400, with room for another 40 in the lobby watching on live TV. My email to this list on Friday will reflect your prospects of getting in by just showing up. Reserved seats not filled will by released at 7:20pm, ten minutes before showtime.)

This is one of a monthly series of Seminars About Long-term Thinking organized by The Long Now Foundation, usually on second Fridays, usually at Fort Mason. If you would like to be notified by email of forthcoming talks, please contact Simone Davalos--- simone@longnow.org, 415-561-6582.

You are welcome to forward this note to anyone you think might be interested.

--Stewart Brand

PS. Much of Kevin Kelly's March talk, "The Next 100 Years of Science: Long-term Trends in the Scientific Method," is now available in text form, with his great slides, at Edge.org: http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge179.html .

--

Stewart Brand -- sb@gbn.org The Long Now Foundation - http://www.longnow.org Seminars: http://www.longnow.org/projects/seminars/calendar.php Seminar downloads: http://www.longnow.org/shop/free-downloads/seminars/

----- End forwarded message -----