O.P.Gobée

26-5-2008

Wiki: We, the People Publish

This work is under Creative Commons license: Attribute –Non-Commercial –Share Alike see: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

AnyoneAnyone

publishespublishesExpert

publishes

User-generated contentWeb 2.0

Knowledge & infomation

Music, photo, video

Opinion & judgement

Trade

Social networking

Production(software)

1.1. Quality / ReliabilityQuality / Reliability

2.2. Speed of Development and Speed of Development and ProgressProgress

3.3. Distribution of Power Distribution of Power

How to judge it?

1. Quality/ reliability1. Quality/ reliability

• See/hear… it yourself

• Plausible

• Trust, authority, expert

• Frequency

Is it True?

Frequency

Trust, authority, expert

Plausible

See/hear yourself

Encyclopedia Brittanica

Wikipedia, Google, Internet

+/(access orig. sources, photo,

video)

+(discussion, access

more sources)

-

+(Google page-ranking,

star-systems)

+

-

New Scientist, 22 September 2007,

Volume 195, Issue 2622, P. 28-29Jim Giles

• German Wiki:check prior to publishing by ‘trusted editors’

• English Wiki:- certified entries available, besides default- quality rating

The proof of the pudding…The proof of the pudding…

All errors (per lemma)

Serious errors (total)

Encyclopedia Brittanica online

Wikipedia, Google, Internet

4 4

4 / lemma 3 / lemma

Internet encyclopaedias go head to head. Special report. J Giles, Nature, Vol 438, 15 Dec 2005, pp900-901

Wikipedia for students?Wikipedia for students?

• Cross-check Cross-check anyany resource resource• Web-resources:Web-resources:

– volatile nature of the web draws extra attention to volatile nature of the web draws extra attention to this needthis need

– easy access to large scores of resources easy access to large scores of resources facilitates cross-checkingfacilitates cross-checking

“it’s printed, so it must be

true”

2. Speed of Development and 2. Speed of Development and ProgressProgress

Encyclopedia BrittanicaEncyclopedia Brittanica• exists 240 years• 4000 authors• 65000 articles

WikipediaWikipedia• exists 7 years• 75000 authors• 2.25 mln English articles, 10 mln articles in 250

languages

404-error

The 404 error is the blessing of the Web

Tim Berners Lee: allow 404 error

CHECK WWW

April 2008:166 mln host names66 mln active sites

3. Distribution of Power3. Distribution of Power

KnowledgeKnowledge&&

possibility to Influencepossibility to Influence

=Power

Masses

Masses

Masses

Printing has democratized the recipient, Internet has democratized the sender

http://www.

Knowledge & infomation

Music, photo, video

Opinion & judgement

Trade

Social networking

Production(software)

Monopolists of:Monopolists of:

• knowledge and opinion (experts)knowledge and opinion (experts)• means of distribution means of distribution

(publishers, tv, recording industry)(publishers, tv, recording industry)• means of productionmeans of production

(music, photo, film, software)(music, photo, film, software)

lose their monopoly….lose their monopoly….

Digital revolutionDigital revolution

The availability to the peopleThe availability to the people

of means for production, distribution and receipt of of means for production, distribution and receipt of knowledge, services and goods knowledge, services and goods

instead of only to a fewinstead of only to a few

Developments leading to more equal sharing of Developments leading to more equal sharing of powerpower

Magna CartaMagna Carta

French RevolutionFrench Revolution

DemocracyDemocracy

PrintingPrinting

Mass mediaMass media

Internet, Web 2.0Internet, Web 2.0

More widely accessible easier means of More widely accessible easier means of production production

ConclusionConclusion

At the price of a small loss in guarantee of reliability

an enormous increase in speed of development and

a more equal distribution of power

has been achieved

• Quality / ReliabilityQuality / Reliability• Speed of Development and ProgressSpeed of Development and Progress

• Distribution of PowerDistribution of Power

Closed source proprietary software, e.g. Microsoft, Adobe

Open Source software, e.g. Linux, OpenOffice, PHP, Apache, MySQL

production of software

ads in newspaperspersonal profile sites (e.g. FaceBook (USA), MySpace, Hyves (NL)), dating sites, career sites (Monster.com)

social networking

traditional auctions, (second-hand) shops

eBay, Marktplaats.nl (NL) anyone wanting to sell something

trade

Limited number of criticists, journalists, experts, traditional newspapers, magazines, tv and radio programs

rating-systems (e.g. stars ****) and reviews posted by anyone on sites as Amazon, Booking.com.

Numerous weblogs

judgements and opinions

Film producers, recording industryYouTube, Flickr, p2p, musicians publishing own works online

music, pictures, film

Encyclopedia, books, publishersGoogle, Wikipedia, anyone who can publish online

information and knowledge

‘Traditional era’‘Digital era’Field