[Mediawiki-l] Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales speaking in SF this FRIDAY, Apr. 14

Rich Morin rdm at cfcl.com
Tue Apr 11 00:39:39 UTC 2006


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

-r

----- Forwarded message from Stewart Brand <sb at gbn.org> -----

 Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 12:12:58 -0700
 To: salt at list.longnow.org
 From: Stewart Brand <sb at 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 at 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 at 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 -----
-- 
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm            Rich Morin
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume     rdm at cfcl.com
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/weblog     +1 650-873-7841

Technical editing and writing, programming, and web development



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