<CPOV> The world according to Jimmy Wales?

[Athina Karatzogianni]

Hi Everyone

I have been following the discussion with interest, I agree that there is a
technological utopianism involved, and I find the analysis by Evgeny Morozov
here something that might be of interest in that regard. I dont know whether
this is taking us out of the wikipedia remit, and apologies to those that
might find it so, but I think it is worth checking out nevertheless
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703983004575073911147404540.html

[serendipity threw me on the article while researching russian hackers and
the discourse leading to the automatic blame for climategate hack]

Cheers

Athina

On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 1:41 PM, Joseph Reagle <joseph.2008 at reagle.org>wrote:

> On Tuesday, May 25, 2010, Jeanette Hofmann wrote:
> > So, perhaps the universal vision is not that specific to Wikipedia but
> > rather a comment element of many Internet related projects.
>
> I would go so far to say technology in general, though information
> technology seems particularly susceptible. Here's a paragraph that includes
> the quote from H. G. Wells I noted earlier, as well as a reference to
> Sturken and Thomas' "Technological Visions: The Hopes and Fears That Shape
> New Technologies"
>
> [[
> Furthermore, whereas Wales conceived of his encyclopedia reaching those
> without access to the Internet, technology is central to the modern version
> of the vision (Sturken and Thomas 2004). Technology is expected to
> facilitate a radically accessible resource that bridges the distance between
> people. As recounted in Tom Standage's history of the telegraph (i.e., the
> "Victorian Internet"), the "rapid distribution of news was thought to
> promote universal peace, truthfulness, and mutual understanding."
> (Standage1999, p. 163). H. G. Wells felt that "Encyclopaedic enterprise has
> not kept pace with material progress" but when the "modern facilities of
> transport, radio, [and] photographic reproduction" were embraced the
> creation of a permanent world encyclopedia would be "a way to world peace":
> "Quietly and sanely this new encyclopaedia will, not so much overcome these
> archaic discords, as deprive them, steadily but imperceptibly, of their
> present reality" (Wells 1937). One can even see the universal vision in a
> different sort of technology altogether: the airplane. Joseph Corn, in *The
> Winged Gospel*, tells of high aeronautical expectations. "Air Globes,"
> representations of the earth and its cities without political or
> geographical boundaries, were deployed in the classroom to tangibly
> symbolize "the new world which Americans believed the airplane was about to
> create, a world of peace where national boundaries and topographical
> features were no longer pertinent" (Corn 1983, p. 129).
> ]]
>
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-- 
Dr Athina Karatzogianni
Lecturer in Media, Culture and Society
The Dean's Representative (Chinese Partnerships)
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
The University of Hull
United Kingdom
HU6 7RX
T: ++44 (0) 1482 46 5790
F: ++44 (0) 1482 466107
http://www2.hull.ac.uk/FASS/humanities/media,_culture_and_society/staff/karatzogianni,_dr_athina.aspx

Check out Athina's work
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3AAthina%20Karatzogianni&page=1

China-Google article: http://www.e-ir.info/?p=3420
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