[WikiEN-l] NY Times Magazine on Wikipedia

[Jossi Fresco]

Article's ending note ...

"Wikipedia may not exactly be a font of truth, but it does go against  
the current of what has happened to the notion of truth. The easy  
global dissemination of, well, everything has generated a D.I.Y.  
culture of proud subjectivity, a culture that has spread even to  
relatively traditional forms like television — as in the ascent of  
advocates like Lou Dobbs or Bill O’Reilly, whose appeal lies  
precisely in their subjectivity even as they name-check “neutrality”  
to cover all sorts of journalistic sins. But the Wikipedians, most of  
them born in the information age, have tasked themselves with weeding  
that subjectivity not just out of one another’s discourse but also  
out of their own. They may not be able to do any actual reporting  
from their bedrooms or dorm rooms or hotel rooms, but they can police  
bias, and they do it with a passion that’s no less impressive for its  
occasional excess of piety. Who taught them this? It’s a mystery; but  
they are teaching it to one another."

... Nice.

-- Jossi