Jimmy Wales To Become UK Government Adviser

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Jimmy Wales To Become UK Government Adviser

Posted by Unknown on Monday March 12, 2012 @04:08PM from the revision-wars-coming-to-a-government-near-you dept.

judgecorp writes "Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is to become a U.K. government adviser on open government. The unpaid post, announced at SXSW, will see him contributing ideas on issues including the single government portal open.gov.uk, among other things. Wales has been an outspoken critic of some government intiatives in the U.S., including the SOPA act on copyright — whose British counterpart, the DEA, is already law."

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Fucking wow. by Nursie · 2012-03-12 16:19 · Score: 5, Insightful

Seriously.
This is about the most sensible government related news (especially from teh UK) I've heard in about a decade.
Some people may or may nhot have objections to Mr Wales personal politics and drives (I can't think of any right now, myself). Some people object to anything. But having a guy with a deep dedication to freedom of information in a place where he can at least get a point of view across to government, even if it's then ignored, is a huge step forwards.
1. Re:Fucking wow. by Fluffeh · 2012-03-12 16:50 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  even if it's then ignored, is a huge step forwards.
  That depends on the purpose of putting him into that role. If the purpose is to get input from someone who is actually trying to make things better, then it is a good thing. If the purpose is merely to appease the masses by putting in someone and then not listening to a thing they say - just to have the appearance of trying to make things better, then it is worse than not putting him into that role at all.
  Sorry for the half empty tone here, it's been a frustrating day for me.
  
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2. Re:Fucking wow. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-12 17:39 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  even if it's then ignored, is a huge step forwards
  I totally agree. We should send letters of thanks to the UK government .. might I suggest:
  "Dear PM,
  We, the peoples of teh internets, would like to offer our thx for your efforts to allow Jimmy Wales (our spiritual leader) to not be heard.
  We're not at all naive, and understand that this is a mere token jesture to placate the non blue-bloods, but nonetheless feel that this is a great step forward.
  Sincerely"
  How's that?
3. Re:Fucking wow. by Darinbob · 2012-03-12 17:53 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  What's he going to do, shout down some good idea from someone just because they haven't posted enough and aren't well known? Following rules are more important to Wikipedia than actually getting the facts in. Actually, I guess that makes wikipedia and normal governments pretty similar...
4. Re:Fucking wow. by hcs_$reboot · 2012-03-12 18:32 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  This is about the most sensible government related news I've heard in about a decade
  This is so true. While I doubt about it, that would be even greater if it could have a bit of influence over the other European countries. E.g. France, a country that currently takes the exact opposite direction.
  
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5. Re:Fucking wow. by SimonTheSoundMan · 2012-03-12 19:33 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Humm, best thing since Gordon Brown's cabinet of "all the talents" maybe. That had plenty of notable advisers.
  Also remember most of the House of Lords is made of people like Jimbo (not personality but success).
6. Re:Fucking wow. by SlashV · 2012-03-12 21:49 · Score: 2
  
  The government may have listened to the Godfather.. Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.
7. Re:Fucking wow. by lxs · 2012-03-12 23:50 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Remember the fate of David Nutt? Goverment advisors are not supposed to actually give advice of have an opinion of their own.
8. Re:Fucking wow. by l-ascorbic · 2012-03-13 00:37 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  The UK govt has been surprisingly good about listening to advice from tech advisors. open.gov.uk itself is the result of advice from some guy called Tim Berners-Lee. The new gov.uk site is also a great sign of the government finally starting to get it.
9. Re:Fucking wow. by Eskarel · 2012-03-13 03:23 · Score: 2
  
  Well there is a sort of irony about the fact that a man who has turned what was supposed to be an open organization into a gigantic nest of nepotism, cronyism, corruption and abuse of power in charge of an "open government" initiative.
  Whatever you might think about Wikipedia, and it has a lot of positive attributes, its governance sucks. The place is in a lot of ways more corrupt and has a greater lack of transparency than the government he's now advising.
The DEA is not SOPA by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · 2012-03-12 16:30 · Score: 4, Informative

Not only is the DEA not SOPA, it was also pushed through under very dubious circumstances right before the last election (most MPs didn't even vote on it, never mind discuss it properly) and is subject to ongoing legal challenges on several counts.
It's a silly bit of law, made on a technicality, but let's not get hysterical.

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Please Read by GonzoPhysicist · 2012-03-12 17:01 · Score: 5, Funny

How could they ignore him, just think of all the personal appeals he'll be making.

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What I'm not looking forward to by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2012-03-12 17:11 · Score: 5, Funny

Invade Pakistan - a personal appeal from Jimmy Wales.

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Re:Good luck with that by Brett+Buck · 2012-03-12 17:35 · Score: 2

I am going to revert that comment, it's unsourced!
Re:Good luck with that by SimonTheSoundMan · 2012-03-12 19:40 · Score: 2

Go back to Wikipedia, copy your post there and link the source back to your original slashdot posting.
Best way to win edit wars too.
Re:Karma by Opportunist · 2012-03-12 19:49 · Score: 2, Insightful

More likely, his input will be reverted for "inaccuracy", i.e. for diverging from the groupthink.

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Re:Oh the irony. by MysteriousPreacher · 2012-03-12 21:05 · Score: 4, Insightful

Rule of law is whst makes freedom possible. What you appear to be describing is an online version of that Randian dream, Somalia. Try building an online encyclopedia of this scale, without having rules and measures to deal with the guys who will devote alarming amounts of time to replacing all nouns with "shitcock".

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Re:By 'Lord' Mandleson by teh31337one · 2012-03-12 22:30 · Score: 2

Except Prime Minister has never been an elected position.
From Wikipedia:

British Prime Ministers have never been elected directly by the public. They have all become Prime Minister indirectly because firstly, they were members of either the Commons or Lords; secondly, they were the leader of a great political party; and, thirdly, they either inherited a majority in the Commons, or won more seats than the opposition in a general election.
Re:By 'Lord' Mandleson by dave420 · 2012-03-12 22:48 · Score: 2

Don't bother bringing facts to this dispute. We've got a story about the UK government and Jimmy Wales. Game over, man, game over.
And if they do... by jopsen · 2012-03-12 23:17 · Score: 2

And if they do ignore him, at least he'll have a position he can leave in protest :)
Though, I do see any reason why they would ignore him?