Wikipedia and Commons initiatives

Wikipedia and the Commons’ initiatives:

Features that empower:
- more information, more ideas and proposals, more debate
- the access to the this speech tool democratic (no limitation by property, by money, by rights)
- the addition of speech to this tool is also democratic (everyone who wants may contribute)
- network effect of the Wikipedia enhances the impact /importance on the democratic discussion and deliberation
- the way the system operates (the openness, immediateness, various languages , of the speech and discussion) keeps it more free from the governmental and corporations’ censorship
- the system of addition/deletion of information is auto-controlled. The possibility of expression of opposing perspectives should assure that people, at least, have the right to express and, the readers will know, the controversy
- Wiki has an example of a cooperative society where the actors expect and behave differently, and the roles and rules are also differently


Features that Desempower:
- It is so easy to add/contribute that the transaction/error costs that would dissuade bad contributors almost disappear
- It is so easy to access info on Wikipedia (free – no fee access and no advertising, many languages, topped on searches in search-engines) that people may end up by trusting too much / deliberating based exclusively upon the wiki knowledge; but, some of the wiki knowledge is total crap (as the own Website recognizes) . Requires high level of media literacy
- no identification of the author’s/contents’ biases may lead people into error
- hack of the platform/system, and fights between contributors – may lead to discredibilization of
- the contribution is still more technologically exclusive than the access. Thus, it will still be an uneven democratic platform (some voices are technologically silenced)
- censorship by administrators – their role in case of conflicts between contributors and information added
- the nature of encyclopedia imposes neutrality, instead of some partisanship that is necessary to the debate. It excludes any purpose of deliberation or even of influence of deliberation per se
- these communitarian experiences like Wikipedia, 2nd Life, Facebook, Creative Commons, are not representative of the society. They only include a fraction of the population which has a certain common identity. Any lesson taken from it can be misleading because there is a big majority of the population that doesn’t use or want to use such type of mechanisms…
- Difficult accountability for bad/aggressive user of the power of Wikipedia (ex. Seigenthaler controversy - Story of John Seigenthaler Sr., and the inaccurate entries in Wikipedia about his past and his a role in the assassinations of both John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy).

To be interviewed
- From Wikipedia:
o Jimmy Wales (Founder, Chairman Emeritus, St Petersburg Florida),
o Kat Walsh (member of Board of Trustees, Washington DC),
o Michael Davis (member of Board of Trustees, St Petersburg Florida),
o Brad Patrick (Wikipedia's Outside Counsel


- Professors and Reseachers:
o Lawrence Lessig (Stanford University) lessig_from_web@pobox.com Lessig@pobox.com
o Jonathan Zittrain (HLS – Berkman Center. Wrote about wikipedia arguing its positive effect on democracy) – zittrain@law.harvard.edu
o David Weinberger (HLS, Berkman Center) self@evident.com
o Yochai Benkler (HLS, Berkman Center) yochai_benkler@harvard.edu
o Danah Boyd (UC Berkeley, research on Wikipedia, Cooperative behavior and platforms, Berkman Center, danah@danah.org or press@@danah.org)
o Andrew McAfee (HBS – Case on Wikipedia)

- People that had/lead related initiatives:
o Eric Steven Raymond (computer programmer, hacker, author and open source software advocate, President Emeritus and Co-Founder of the Open Source Initiative) - esr@thyrsus.com.
o Mitch Kapor (entrepreneur, activist, he is related to the birth of projects like mozilla and second life) – mitch@kapor.com +1 415 946-3019
o Ward Cunningham (known as the inventor of the first wiki, called WikiWikiWeb)

- Others:
- John Seigenthaler Sr (if we want to explore his story)

I have to find some other names that can show up as critics. I hope that tomorrow Ethan Zuckerman can give me some ideas.