after it was brought up last week in class, thought you might enjoy colbert's take on microsoft's attempt to edit wikipedia.
and for an academic take on "the wisdom of crowds" you might want to check out James Surowiecki's book with that title.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
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2 comments:
I watched this show on TV the other day and thought immediately about our class discussion. It seems that in fact, "reality has become a commodity," and I find this to be fascinating. I personally really love Wikipedia, and I generally trust the postings on the site to be accurate (I link to the site in my blog). The thought that something as intangible as "reality" can be bought and sold, just like good publicity, is really rather disillusioning.
If our perceptions of the world are defined by our frame of reference, then who is to blame if our frame of reference is made to be so myopic (or for that matter, totally false)? Because of the lack of policing on the internet, it seems that the responsibility to look further (beyond simply what we're told or what we hear on the news) needs to fall to the individual - or the "consumer" of the information. But I worry that many people will not bother to question what they read on sites like Wikipedia - which has a certain authority and objectivity associated with it simply because it is labeled as an encyclopedia. (I guess it can only help if we all continue to watch The Colbert Report on a regular basis so that he can set us all straight on the "truthiness" of such things.) =)
I think he is hillarious -- and I think the funniest part is how right he is about the topics he discusses.
However, I believe it is our responsibility to check for consistency on the internet. Especially with sites like Wikipedia. I think it gives you a good starting point...
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