On 14 March 2010 13:48, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 13 March 2010 23:31, Michael Peel email@mikepeel.net wrote:
... is apparently happening later this month, with participation from a number of people from the UK: http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/cpov/program/amsterdam-program/ Does anyone know anything about this?
I read the first description and my brain went "Danger! Danger! Pomo bollocks publication-credit-generator critical mass!" The others weren't any better. If actual Wikipedians weren't involved I'd think considerably less of it ... Can anyone translate the jargon-riddled descriptions into something that wouldn't make any sane human want to cut off all academic funding forever?
- d.
Rough translation?
First read:
http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/decon.html
It doesn't directly cover the topic in question but will give you some idea as the game being played.
Still onto the actual articles "Rethinking Wikipedia: Power, Knowledge and the Technologies of the Self"
Broadly speaking this one appears to translate as looking at Wikipedia as interactions between wikipedians rather than as an encyclopedia. Note the mention of Michel Foucault for bonus points.
Wikipedia between Emancipation and Self-Regulation
I don't know what the "recent controversy among German Wikipedians" but it appears that the author has picked up on the fact that how wikipedia's decision making processes nominally work doesn't match how they actually work and feels the need to witter on about this. You will note that the author is taking a somewhat risqué approach of citing the Brazilian Boaventura de Sousa Santos rather than someone french. Perhaps Portuguese has been gaining in status of late.
The Critique of Law in Free Online Projects
Picked up that Wikipedians do have some biases and has tried to fit it into the same framework that has been used by certain section of the left on everything since about 1900. While the author has failed to cite anyone they make up for that by getting their Phd from a french university.
The Knowledge Bar
I think what is going on here is that the author is working from the position that what people know shapes what opinions they can have have. Think Orwell's new speak. The author probably loses points for not only citing Germans but one of which you've probably heard of (Immanuel Kant). They make up for this by actually being french.
Wikipedia and Encyclopedic Anxiety
The author tries to argue that people's worries about Wikipedia are related to their concerns about how the world is changing. Fairly straightforward and the author cites no one french but then they are American so what do you expect.
nil points
Authoritative Annotations, Encyclopedia Universalis Mundaneum, Wikipedia and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Basically the author wants to talk about a project of Paul Otlet's and may mention wikipedia in passing.
An Encyclopedia for the Times: Thoughts on Wikipedia from a Historical Perspective
What can Wikipedians learn from the past. The author has made the fatal mistake of writing what they are going to talk about in clear language. They are also british so it's not like they had much of a chance to begin with though.
Gustave Flaubert Laughs at Wikipedia
A mix of criticism from a dead Frenchman (throws in the question of how aware we are of it) and some stuff about the future of databases. On the basis that he doesn't appear to have any qualifications in computer science I doubt there will be much of interest.
Wikipedia Art: Citation as Performative Act
We know these guys. They still have nothing of interest.
Social Media, Cultural Scaffolds, and Molecular Hegemonies. Musings on Anarchic Media, WIKIs, and De-territorialized Art
"Musings" says it all. The author appears to want to talk about how different wikis have different communities and how the commuities build power structures. Then they throw in 4chan in case Encyclopedia dramtica didn't make them appear edgy enough. Apparently the author thinks it is 2008 or something.
Wiki Loves Art
The description appears to be straightforward. What Wikipedia loves art is/was and what some of the tensions are.
New Trends in the Evolution of Wikipedia
Basicaly an attempt to review where the available research says Wikipedia is now.
Bot Politics: The Domination, Subversion, and Negotiation of Code in Wikipedia
Basically arguing that how bots are written is driven by what the community will put up with as much as it is driven by what is possible.
Famous Forkings and Other Objects of Wikipedia Analysis.
I have no idea what this is about.
Clustering the Contributors to a Wikipedia Page
Errr ot entirely sure what this is about. It appears that the author is saying that due to the size of wikipedia it's hard to study and the ways of getting around this problem introduce bias in the kind of results received. The author appears to have realised that they have failed to cite anyone french and has decided to make up ground by being completely incomprehensible.
Negotiating the Neutral Point of View: Politics and the Moral Economy of Wikipedia
The author appears to have noticed NPOV is complicated and negation over contentious articles follows and even more complicated set of written and unwritten rules. The author suffers from being British and citing a Brit but tries to get around this by using the term Moral Economy. Quite how this is meant to apply to a gift economy I'm not sure.
Kosovo War in Wikipedia, Tracing the Conflict and Consensus in the Wikipedia Talk –pages
Again the author appears to have noticed NPOV is complicated and negation over contentious articles follows and even more complicated set of written and unwritten rules. The twist is that sometimes NPOV is not the only deciding factor. The author then jumps to the idea that NPOV needs to be challenged in controversial situations for no readily apparent reasons.
The German WikiWars and the Limits of Objectivism
Author appears to have discovered that jimbo was an Ayn Rand and run with the idea. They have then overgeneralised a single conflict on de.pedia
Wikipedia and the Authority of Knowledge
How people argued about the authority of dead tree sources back in the day.
Wikimedia Governance: The Role of the Wikimedia Foundation and the Form and Geopolitics of its Internationalization
Looking at the role of the WMF in terms of how wikipedia organises itself and how it operates internationally
Knowledge Satyagraha: Towards a People’s Knowledge Movement
Author looks to promote the idea of "Knowledge Satyagraha" mentions of wikipedia appear to be passing at most. No I have no idea what "Knowledge Satyagraha" is.
When Knowledges Meet: Database Design and the Performance of Knowledge
I think the author wants to witter on about how databases impact how people think. However they then talk about authoring tools which are not really part of a database. Given that it contains the words "perform their knowledge" and "cognitive justice" I'm not sure the effort required to work out what the author is really going on about would be worthwhile.
Wikipedia's Impact on the Global Power-Knowledge Hierarchies
Wikipedia may mess things up. What those things are and how it will do so appears unclear.
All in all there are a handful of talks that may be of interest:
Wikipedia and the Authority of Knowledge New Trends in the Evolution of Wikipedia Wiki Loves Art
The rest is low grade CV padding.