[WikiEN-l] Truthiness- Wikipedia Video

[phoebe ayers]

On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 8:08 AM, Joseph Reagle <reagle at mit.edu> wrote:
>
>  This confusion about "truth" is tiresome [1]. It is completely possible for
>  their to be a single objective (ontological) reality and corresponding
>  *truth*, but to appreciate that we each have our own (epistemic)
>  *perspective* and *understanding* which is imperfect -- as Wales indicates.
>  I'm beginning to suspect that po-mo and conservative pundits continue this
>  misunderstanding with each other so they can feel provocative or get
>  attention. Macha says "there are many truths" and Keen states "when you
>  democratize this, truth is the casualty." Oh, for heaven's sake: shame on
>  both of them.
>
>  Keen's book was sloppy; my favorite critic of Wikipedia continues to be
>  Robert McHenry who notes "I don't question the fact that there's a great
>  deal of very good very solid information in Wikipedia, it could hardly be
>  otherwise. By sheer chance there would be there some good stuff in there.
>  My criticism is that there is some very very bad stuff, and there's no way
>  to tell the difference" (30 minute). The "sheer chance" bit is true and
>  made me laugh --

Robert McHenry is actually one of my favorite critics for just about
about anything; and as an encyclopedist himself, he's in a fairly
unique position for thoughtfully criticizing Wikipedia -- he knows
precisely how the alternative model works. I kept hoping that he would
accept an invitation to speak at a Wikimania, but to no avail so far.

-- phoebe