[WikiIT-l] Gesuti e wikipedia

[Sabine Cretella]

Mi serve questo articolo  in inglese per una discussione - quindi ho 
fatto una traduzione approssimativa - non ho purtroppo il tempo di farla 
per bene e farla anche revisionare - quindi se a qualcuno può servire 
eccola:

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The Catholic civilisation against the relativism of Wikipedia which is 
being built with spontaneous contributions

                          

The Jesuits don't like the encyclopaedia on the Web. Their accuse: "An 
elaboration of the community of knowledge that makes remember the school 
of don Milani, but it is very exposed to the double threat of 
untrustworthyness and vandalism". Don Lorenzo Milani was not able to 
imagine this, but his school of Barbiana in a certain way anticipated 
the "digital revolution" which was initiated by Internet. This is the 
opinion of father Antonio Spararo, a sage concerning the Wiki-projects, 
in particular related to the encyclopaedia online Wikipedia which is 
going to be published on the next edition of the influential periodical 
of the Jesuits "La Civiltà Cattolica" (The Catholic Civilisation).


The connexion between the experiment of don Milani and the products of 
the telematic culture consists in the elaboration of knowledge by the 
community. Wikipedia, underlines Spadaro, is an open project to which 
every user of the web can add deliberately contents maintaining the 
anonymity, also modifying existing texts: out there some kind of living 
organism is being created which is in continuously and fast growing, it 
configures itself like the result of a collective intelligence. On a 
much wider scale it is a similar way to the "collaborative writing" that 
created the Catechism of Barbiana. Anyway there is still a fundamental 
difference on which the critics Spardaro's related to Wikipedia are 
based: in the online encyclopaedia (like in the dictionary, the 
anthology of quotations and in other collections of materials signed 
with the prefix Wiki) "there's no real guarantee of validity and 
accuracy of the created contents".

 

Anyway, really its "nature of a completely decentralised project is a 
democratic basis" which is a cause for serious problems in the universe 
(a word that comes from Hawaian and means "fast"), some of which are the 
vulnerability to vandalism of who delights himself to insert wrong 
informatio, propagandistic material or even scurrile expressions on the 
Internet. And if these incorrect behaviours can find an antidote in the 
"level of motivation of the community", that's the reason why generally 
the more affectionated users speedily correct the deliberate changes, 
the Jesuit father adds that anyway the utopia of open knowledge is 
widely spread "a dream of the enlightment period to describe the world", 
it has the risk to be converted to na new form of the "Babel tower" that 
has this Achilles' heel not only in the untrustworthiness but also in 
the relativism". From this results the inescapable necessity to "select 
critically" the enormous quantity of data that is being offered on the Web.

 

These are considerations that do not astonish a savant of the new media 
like Franco Carlini: "The Catholic Civilisation in its critics only 
confirms who are the big adversaries of the culture of the Church: the 
Enlightment, since it considers rationality to be superior to believe, 
and the relativism that destroys the idea of a unchangeable solid truth.

 

Wiki to the contrary is knowledge coming from the base level, mobile 
provisoriality; what for The Catholic Civility is a defect for many 
instead is a virtue and an act of modestity".

 

Anyway Carlini appreciates the genuine interest the periodical used to 
approach the Wiki-phenomenon: "the Jesuits show another time that they 
observe the changing world and cultures. Their critics are partly 
represented by the Wiki-world itself, that indeed already took up the 
appropriate countermeasures. For example the English page for abort of 
the encyclopaedia Wikipedia cannot be edited anymore as the followers of 
the pro-life movement continued to substitute the word "abortion" with 
"homicide".

 

This is a "from scratch translation" of the article found in "Il 
Corriere della Sera" dated 17/7/2005


*************

Qualcuno di voi forse si ricorda che l'anno scorso ho avuto contatti con 
Radio Vaticana - quest'anno ho cercato di creare un altro contatto - con 
il vaticano stesso - non sono però sicura se pubblicare il tutto qui in 
lista o meno. Ne devo parlare con un paio di persone prima.

Per il momento ancora grazie :-)

Se qualcuno poi ha anche l'articolo nella rivista "La Civiltà Cattolica" 
+ contatti a padre Antonio Spararo sarebbe ottimo - in ogni caso 
cercherò di trovarli anch'io online.

Ciao, Sabine

		
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