I am just back from Bangalore, where I had the good fortune to
participate in the Critical Point of View: WikiWars
conference - a critical
reflection on Wikipedia from a number of point of views. I will probably
write more about some of the most interesting presentations, my own
presentation, and other thoughts, but I thought I'd start by posting my
tweets.
It varies how much I tweet from conferences (or in general), but during
this conference, I found myself using Twitter quite frequently. It
serves as both a note taking function, a way to communicate with some of
the others in the room, a way to focus on the content of the talk
(rather than letting thoughts wander), and a conduit for people who are
not participating.
I am not sure how useful this collection of Tweets are for people who
were not present, but I am posting them here as a collection.
Earlier
I posted the tweets from the OAI6 conference, and also mentioned how I
created the list.
Here they are, all 130 of them:
In Bangalore at Centre for Internet and Society for #wikiwars
conference. Bangalore seems nice, a small-town busy feel.
Just back from Avatar - good movie, but all the criticisms about the
noble savage etc are right on. Looking forward to #wikiwars tmrw.
@StevenWalling That's kind of nice - new voices. I love Doctorow and
Lessig, but we've all heard from them before. #wikiwars
#wikiwars 3d wiki art installation - open space idea. First
discussion starting: Wikipedia theory.
#wikiwars "WP has gotten big enough that it deserves a research
conference that is entirely external to WikiMedia Foundation."
Using new Google Live Search to follow #wikiwars updates in
real-time (automatically updating) http://bit.ly/8Cvc1i (expand)
Challenge @ #wikiwars: since we've all circulated 2k word
abstracts, how to structure 15 min presentation to still be engaging
to everyone?
@ilya Cool, I'm very interested in Wikipedias in Indic languages.
#wikiwars
#wikiwars Stuart Geiger presenting on bots in WP governance. I find
his work very interesting.
#wikiwars Wisdom of crowds vs wisdom of bots?
WP works bec. vandals outnumbered by good users? NO - 500-100 ppl
banned every day! #wikiwars
@tinucherian Cool! Random spot check: "Norway" 2 paras, but
"Democracy" and "Physics" both good length. :) (Can't check quality)
#wikiwars
#wikiwars @tinucherian Quick tool for checking articles in other
languages http://bit.ly/7KmqJN (expand). Used it to check ML article
length.
#wikiwars Geiger: bots help reinstitute traditional features of the
old style of production (gatekeepers, quality control, authority)
#wikiwars Geiger: bot "nominated itself" for adminship - very
convincing :) the machines are taking over! :)
#wikiwars: Geiger: Are academics given epistemic roles in addition
to academic. Do academics need to know coding to make headway in WP?
#wikiwars Automatically redirect to the longest article in any of
the official languages in India: http://pastebin.com/f5a21b4db
@wirefire Yes, but is there any difference between stylistic choices
in WP and other trad encyclopedias? #wikiwars
#wikiwars Comment from audience: presentations give idea that
Wikipedia is 1984'ish alienating modern nightmare...
#wikiwars Geiger: Some of my best friends are bots. Pseudonymity is
not equal to anonymity!
"Do we need to know who has written something to be able to trust
it? Or do we want to know who is it when we DON'T trust sb?"
#wikiwars
#wikiwars Wonder what the usage of bots is in other language
versions (non-English)... Are there active bots on HI WP, ML WP?
RT @thewikipedian: More @staeiou gems: I"f Wikipedia is a
battleground, the footnotes [citations] are the bullets." #wikiwars
#wikiwars Dror: Syrians much more sensitive abt what is in Arabic
Wikipedia, than English. I think the Chinese feel the same abt ZH
WP.
@williambeutler (Abt Nandi and French quote). I'm all for that.
Maybe I'll give my entire prez tomorrow in Indonesian. #wikiwars
Lot's of interesting epistemological discussions at #wikiwars, is
there objective knowledge? is NPOV possible? 很有意思的认识论的讨论
中立的知识存在吗?
@gkjohn 5:30 I think. There's a dinner at 7:30, maybe you could
sneak in :) #wikiwars
#wikiwars Dror: Wikipedia exposed me to new ideas/facts that I
didn't hear in "politically correct" school.
#wikiwars Dror: It is possible to get near objective knowledge,
and it's needed in conflict topics, we shouldn't just give up!
#wikiwars Question: What would you do if WP wasn't there? Answer:
It wasn't there...
Dror: When learning Arabic, talking to A-speakers, amazed how
different our knowledge was. Excited by WP - this is what we needed!
#wikiwars
#wikiwars Internet as a distributed network, and Wikipedia as one
place.
#wikiwars Are articles about Pokemon frivolous/don't matter? Should
this disqualify from adminship?
#wikiwars Dror: Difference between writing about a narrative, and
adopting it. We can and should do the first, and not the second.
#wikiwars Dror: East and West cult. difference of neutrality and
objectivity? When working w/ Arab editors, noticed difference in
standards.
#wikiwars Dror: Do we not only need different language versions,
but also WPs written from different epistemic traditions?
@cormaggio you would have been an obvius guest. although exclusively
wp, not all wmf projs. #wikiwars
#wikiwars very excited abt #hfordsa talk. disillusioned, next 8
yrs to work out what went wrong. want more impact in dev'l countries
#wikiwars cc as political artefact, and what are the other options?
#wikiwars lessig: ways of regulating: market, law, norms,
artefacts. which work better where?
#wikiwars no more laptop batt, using ipod. i suck at typing fast
#wikiwars sunil and hfordsa are both disillusioned/critical of open
movenents. hm, what are alternatives? how do we move forward?
#wikiwars hfordsa: by choosing cc we're reinforcing copyright,
commodification of culture...?