> > I am rapidly becoming envious of a "generation" (there I said it) who will > have the option of saying "everything I know, I learned from XKCD". I'm > already guilty of imagining that "everything I know, I learned from > Wikipedia". Wikipedia having it's own feeling of being self-generating. > Well, it always feels convenient to obtain a consistent body of knowledge from a single source, but as we have (I think) discussed before, learning widely and in a varied manner gives you at least the best sense for how information flows through society, if not an education; and any monolithic source doubtless has it's roots in a similarly variegated assortment of origins. This is why teachers always tell you to read the sources on Wikipedia immediately after you have read the article, a rare piece of good advice seldom followed. Just today on the radio, I heard a story about an author finding the existence of a "women's" subcategory under the "novels" category without an accompanying "men's" subcategory sexist (a quick Google search turns up little because searches with 'Wikipedia' included turn up Wikipedia articles foremost). Basing my judgement only on what I heard in the news report, it sounded like she was quite right about it being sexist, but her subsequent action, threatening to sue Wikipedia, confused me. Why not just reorganise the category and scold the editor who first organised it that way? Do people not understand where stuff on Wikipedia comes from? Perhaps this is another case of assuming a single origin when in fact the origins are myriad - all the editors and the notable external sources they cite. Though one could make the argument that the author was merely trying to create a wider awareness of how we act when constructing public information resources by bringing the attention of the world to a small case study, but in my opinion it sours the public perception of her issue with the situation as pedantic.
> I also appreciate the comparison made here between FRIAM and "the Aerican > Empire", though I have no idea what said Empire might be other than a > virtual/game world created by a combination of individual genius and the > combined imagination of thousands of internet-mediated game play or > storytelling. > I should have linked it. The site <http://AericanEmpire.com> explains it and here <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aerican> is the mailing list. I presume you didn't Google it, in which case you made a spot-on guess. Less roleplay than community discussion, though. -Arlo James Barnes
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