Openpedia.org > "The Current Negotiated Truth"

[Just a Gwai Lo | fire alarms kill dreams] A month ago I read Digital Maoism, an article by Jaron Lanier which argued that because so many in the Silicon Valley (and elsewhere) have an unquestioning belief that technology is here to solve all our problems, that extreme views (including, as he argues, collectivism) have mainstream appeal among technologists. I had a hard time with his argument that anonymity and the neutral viewpoint on Wikipedia leads to either bad writing or persistent inaccuracies on the site, but listening to Open Source's episode with Lanier, James Surowiecki and David Weinberger I found myself agreeing with Weinberger the most (Surowiecki and Lanier mostly agreed with each other, disagreeing mostly on emphasis and to which cases the "wisdom of crowds" applies).

Some related posts from Technorati and Google.

if:book: I really do wish the essay could be reproduced here for the purposes of a sustained dialogue; one of Jaron's issues about the loss of personality (and the trend to be 'most meta') is a really interesting one if somewhat oddly raised throughout the essay (and his point that folks will bend over backwards to make a newcomer look smart just mystifies me - anyone remember Usenet and the treatment of newbies?) but adding to Bob's points, if the Wikipedia and its notorious misinformation promotes a healthy skepticism about all monolithic universal truth claims, then so much the better. (via Cosmos)

http://madisonian.net  madisonian.net: But it appears the Yo’s are serious, perhaps becoming a techno-enabled avatar of Luther’s ideal of “every man a priest.” I think developments like this make Jaron Lanier’s arguments against “Digital Maoism” appear more and more plausible. It seems to me that one essential aspect of religious experience is the sense that one should model one’s life on that of those who, before you, led exemplary spiritual lives (saints, say, in Catholicism; (via Cosmos)

http://www.bordbuch.net  BORDBUCH.NET: Jaron Lanier, aka the person who coined the term Virtual Reality makes a good point in Edge about Web 2.0 and its collective beat - it can be hijacked for questionable causes. I think his article is a healthy reminder towards the loss of value that goes into the craft of an individual web creation, be it text, foto or video, especially when it wanders from wikis to blogs to aggregators. (via Cosmos)

http://memetherapy.blogspot.com  Meme Therapy: Although I agree with Rheingold that we should be careful not to confuse "collective action" for "collectivism," I also agree with Lanier (and Gates) that collectivism is like communism. Where I disagree with them is in the idea that the new forms of collectivism bear any resemblance to their historical predecessors. (via Cosmos)

New Media Musings: for details about the planned changes, which include a more user-friendly interface with less code for novices to grapple with. For those who want to see some more substantive criticism, take a while to ponder "Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism," which takes the celebration of the hive mentality to task. (via Cosmos)

http://el-oso.net  El Oso, El Moreno, and El Abogado: Videos of Chubby Kids A storm has been a’brewin’. It’s about the wisdom of crowds, or according to Jason Lanier, the lack thereof. (via Cosmos)

KUOW: The Conversationhttp://www.kuow.org/programs/theconversation.asp  KUOW: The Conversation: does not endorse nor control the content viewed on these links as they appear now or in the future. Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online CollectivismMoreperfect.org, guest Timothy Killian's project'Data Miners Dig a Little Deeper,' USA Today'The Limits of Crowds,' Open Source (via Cosmos)

My Four Walls: No one’s guess comes even close, but collectively taking the average of the guesses gets you within ounces of the actual weight. We are now experimenting with the wisdom of crowds through open source and information/knowledge experiments such as wikipedia. (via Cosmos)

http://www.odeo.com [Odeo.com] Odeo: The Limits of Crowds: Most people have focused on Lanier’s critique of Wikipedia, which is interesting and nuanced, but his argument is more far-ranging. Nearly every aspect of society - academia, business, pop culture, etc.

Robhyndman.comhttp://www.robhyndman.com [Robhyndman.com] robhyndman.com » Blog Archive » Digital Maoism on Open Source Radio: Jaron Lanier’s recent essay “Digital Maoism” about a new online collectivism is .Lanier, David Weinberger, James Surowiecki and the remarkable Ze Frank.

http://accountabilitybloke.blogspot.com [accountability bloke] Giving myself enough rope: Another day of commuting and Podcast listening, and this morning it was Chris Lydon's Open Source discussion on The Limits of Crowds. It was inspired by an online essay one of the guests, Jaron Lanier, on Digital Maoism.

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