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Wikipedia and the Collective Hive Mind?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the internet-as-a-fact-fleamarket dept.

devv_null asks: "This morning on my drive to work, I was listening to the latest podcast of the Philosophers Zone. The topic of the program was 'Is a free market in ideas a good idea?'. It featured author and speaker Jaron Lanier, who in May published an article Digital Maoism. He highlighted Wikipedia as an example of the one of the worst kinds of 'collective intelligence' and using the 'wisdom of the crowd' to average facts about the world and include them in a massive, lifeless document. Being a habitual Wikipedia user, I could only disagree with his take on the web enterprise. While it shouldn't be considered the ultimate source of knowledge on the web, I think it's ideal in many cases to use as a starting point. Apparently, Lanier thinks a Google search results page is better." So, what is your take on this issue?

7 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. You only THINK you think that, 4 of 9 by ScentCone · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think it's ideal in many cases to use as a starting point.

    You may think it's a starting point, but millions of people think it's the end of their research. As we all now know, research starts at MySpace. Whoever has the most embedded music videos has the most accurate link to the most salient Wikipedia article.

    On an only slightly related note, I for the first time recently noticed that some of my web content was being crawled by a counter-plagarism search engine marketed to high school and college instructors. I'm not sure if I should be flattered or annoyed.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  2. Story Links by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wow! I just checked out this "google" thing linked to in the article. It's really good! Definitely worth checking out!!

  3. Re:NPOV is a fallacy by NosTROLLdamus · · Score: 5, Funny
    Please direct us to the paragraph where Wikipedia policy states that the truth is democratic; because last time I checked WP policy reaffirmed that it is not.

    I changed wikipedia policy to state that, but a large group of assholes kept changing it back.

  4. Re:Do I get fries with that? by An+ominous+Cow+art · · Score: 3, Funny

    > I'm confused.. is that an offer?

    Remember, there's no 'I' in "drone".

  5. Re:They both have their place ... by illuminatedwax · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think it's funny that neither are miserable failures in a certain sense.
    Bush: re-elected
    Moore: FUCKING RICH

    --
    Did you ever notice that *nix doesn't even cover Linux?
  6. Re:Wikipedia by xarium · · Score: 3, Funny

    For those who don't immediately recognise the OCD TLA, you can read about it here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCD

    :)
  7. Re:It's like the Firefox and naked women sig... by syntaxglitch · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yes, but...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google/
    It seems the tables have turned!