Edge; DIGITAL MAOISM: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism By Jaron Lanier: "In 'Digital Maosim', an original essay written for Edge, computer scientist and digital visionary Jaron Lanier finds fault with what he terms the new online collectivism. He cites as an example the Wikipedia, noting that 'reading a Wikipedia entry is like reading the bible closely. There are faint traces of the voices of various anonymous authors and editors, though it is impossible to be sure'. "
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Edge; DIGITAL MAOISM: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism By Jaron Lanier
Interesting essay about the praise being reaped upon "online collectivism". It seems there will always be those who are eagerly looking for proof that a bunch of "common men" have more wisdom than, say a bunch of exceptional men, or even a few brilliant men or women. I'm fascinated and troubled by how quickly people are accepting it. It reminds me of the overt efforts to make news "balanced". What the hell good is balanced news, if you are balancing between a correct interpretation and an incorrect one? I want the truth, as the reporter/org sees it and is willing to support it. I don't want them mixing equal doses of two sides of an argument, to give me a tidy little debate. Give me your honest assessment, and I'll supply my own analysis and debate. Anyway, checkout Jaron's thoughts:
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Great find! I hadn't thought through the societal/psychological/anthropological implications of digg, del.icio.us and others. On the whole, there is a problem, but breaking down by quality/demographics could get closer to finding news that is of interest to specific groups -- one such group might be those wanting "just the facts."
It's probably a tweak of social bookmarking with context-aware ratings -- then you could say "show me the most popular items that are also rated highest by my ideological peers."
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