Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales will be speaking in SF this FRIDAY, Apr. 14
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----- Forwarded message from Stewart Brand <sb(a)gbn.org> -----
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 12:12:58 -0700
To: salt(a)list.longnow.org
From: Stewart Brand <sb(a)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(a)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(a)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(a)cfcl.com
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/weblog +1 650-873-7841
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