[WikiEN-l] Disinfopedia now open for business

[Sheldon Rampton]

Hi all...for those of you who haven't heard yet, my "Disinfopedia" is 
now publicly launched and completely out of my control. ;)

The Disinfopedia is inspired by Wikipedia, and I borrowed heavily 
from its Help files. However, it will have different content and a 
somewhat different editorial policy. Instead of a "neutral point of 
view," our standard is "fairness and accuracy." This may seem like a 
semantic quibble, but an "encyclopedia of propaganda" by definition 
entails controversy, and I wanted to leave more leeway for 
contributions that might seem too POV for Wikipedia.

The following is an announcement that we sent out to the PR Watch 
mailing list a couple of days ago:

>Dear Weekly Spin subscriber,
>
>As the United States lurches awkwardly into war, we want to invite
>you to participate in a new project launched by the same people who
>brought you the Weekly Spin and PR Watch. We are calling it a
>"Disinfopedia" -- an online, collaboratively-written "encyclopedia of
>propaganda." It lets anyone, INCLUDING YOU, contribute or edit any
>article at any time.
>
>To try it yourself, please visit the following URL:
>
>http://www.disinfopedia.org
>
>The Disinfopedia runs on the same software as Wikipedia
>(www.wikipedia.org), a successful project to produce a "complete and
>accurate open content encyclopedia." It operates under the "GNU open
>document license," which is similar to the "open source" license used
>to develop free software such as the Linux computer operating system.
>This model of human collaborative research operates according to
>surprisingly simple principles that resemble the system of "peer
>review" used in scientific research. On Disinfopedia, everyone is a
>peer reviewer. Anyone can submit an article, and anyone can edit any
>article. You might worry that this would lead to anarchy and mere
>gibberish. Actually, though, this approach has worked quite well in
>practice. In only two years of operation, Wikipedia has already
>developed more than 100,000 articles, many of which are comparable in
>detail and accuracy to the Encyclopedia Britannica. This approach
>works for the same reason that open source software keeps improving:
>For every person who makes a malicious or erroneous contribution,
>numerous others correct errors and make improvements.
>
>With war on the horizon, developing a public resource on propaganda
>has never been more important. We have drafted an essay about
>Iraq-related propaganda, titled "Weapons of mass deception," which
>you can read (and revise) at the following URL:
>
>http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Weapons_of_mass_deceptio
>n
>
>Beyond the immediate goal of developing a resource on propaganda, we
>hope that the Disinfopedia can serve as an example that will help in
>developing alternatives to conventional, mass-media journalism.
>Traditional media lend themselves readily to a "propaganda" style of
>communication, in which a small number of individuals produce
>messages designed for broadcasting to millions of passive recipients.
>The Internet has contributed to breaking down this artificial
>dichotomy between "broadcaster" and "audience." The Disinfopedia is
>an experiment that we hope will go further still, by demonstrating
>that "the masses" can do just as good a job of analyzing and
>understanding their information environment as professional
>journalists.
>
>In order for this to succeed, of course, we need people like you
>(yes, YOU) to add your eyeballs and your intelligence to this
>project. We hope you will take a look at the Disinfopedia. Cast your
>vote for a more democratic world by contributing early, and
>contributing often!
>
>Laura Miller, Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber
>Editors of PR Watch (www.prwatch.org)
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>The Weekly Spin is compiled by staff and volunteers at PR Watch.
>To subscribe or unsubcribe, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/subscribe_sotd.html
>
>Daily updates and news from past weeks can be found at the
>Spin of the Day" section of the PR Watch website:
>http://www.prwatch.org/spin/index.html
>
>Archives of our quarterly publication, PR Watch, are at:
>http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues
>
>Our new project, the Disinfopedia, is at:
>http://www.disinfopedia.org
>
>PR Watch, Spin of the Day, the Weekly Spin, and
>Disinfopedia are projects of the Center for Media &
>Democracy, a nonprofit organization that offers
>investigative reporting on the public relations
>industry. We help the public recognize manipulative and
>misleading PR practices by exposing the activities of
>secretive, little-known propaganda-for-hire firms that
>work to control political debates and public opinion.
>Please send any questions or suggestions about our
>publications to:
>editor at prwatch.org
>
>Contributions to the Center for Media & Democracy
>are tax-deductible. Send checks to:
>    CMD
>    520 University Ave. #310
>    Madison, WI 53703
>
>To donate now online, visit:
>https://www.egrants.org/donate/index.cfm?ID=2344-0|1118-0

-- 
--------------------------------
|  Sheldon Rampton
|  Editor, PR Watch (www.prwatch.org)
|  Author of books including:
|     Friends In Deed: The Story of US-Nicaragua Sister Cities
|     Toxic Sludge Is Good For You
|     Mad Cow USA
|     Trust Us, We're Experts
--------------------------------