Wiki-Induced Kognitive Insufficiency (WIKI), Enough Symptomatics! What Is The Cause? Options Rating

[Jonny Cache]

"In order to learn you must desire to learn …"

"Ay, there's the rub …"

What is it, then, about Wikipedia, if not indeed about the whole wiki paradigm, that is proving to be such a massive failure in promoting the sharing of information, learning, knowledge, wisdom, all that good stuff — at least once that critical threshold is passed, in the direction of increasingly uncritical thought?

Well, I know the dynamics of our own sweet Etopia well enough to know that nothing so meditative will compete with the Main Distraction on the Midway this week … or the next … but I thought I might leave this note to self, just in case things get dull toward the Ides.

P.S. I was going to call it Wiki-Induced Learning Disorder but the acronym WILD might have made it sound like a good thing.

Jonny

This post has been edited by Jonny Cache: Mon 3rd March 2008, 2:01pm

[Jonny Cache]

Repeating the lead, just in case anyone was interested in that.

"In order to learn you must desire to learn …"

"Ay, there's the rub …"

What is it, then, about Wikipedia, if not indeed about the whole wiki paradigm, that is proving to be such a massive failure in promoting the sharing of information, learning, knowledge, wisdom, all that good stuff — at least once that critical threshold is passed, in the direction of increasingly uncritical thought?

[Kato]

Repeating the lead, just in case anyone was interested in that.

"In order to learn you must desire to learn …"

"Ay, there's the rub …"

What is it, then, about Wikipedia, if not indeed about the whole wiki paradigm, that is proving to be such a massive failure in promoting the sharing of information, learning, knowledge, wisdom, all that good stuff — at least once that critical threshold is passed, in the direction of increasingly uncritical thought?

Try and think of a hypothetical scenario. Imagine, say, that yourself, me, Herschelkrustofsky and Jimbo Wales created a small wiki where we were trying to create a series of pieces analysing the rules of golf. The four of us are using this wiki privately, collaborating betweem us, with the aim of presenting a finished body of work for the public consumption.

What could go wrong? What are the pitfalls? Are there any pitfalls?

[Jonny Cache]

Repeating the lead, just in case anyone was interested in that.

"In order to learn you must desire to learn …"

"Ay, there's the rub …"

What is it, then, about Wikipedia, if not indeed about the whole wiki paradigm, that is proving to be such a massive failure in promoting the sharing of information, learning, knowledge, wisdom, all that good stuff — at least once that critical threshold is passed, in the direction of increasingly uncritical thought?

Try and think of a hypothetical scenario. Imagine, say, that yourself, me, Herschelkrustofsky and Jimbo Wales created a small wiki where we were trying to create a series of pieces analysing the rules of golf. The four of us are using this wiki privately, collaborating betweem us, with the aim of presenting a finished body of work for the public consumption.

What could go wrong? What are the pitfalls? Are there any pitfalls?

Let me inject a little realism. I have scene enough real scenarios — in all kinds of collaborations, in all manner of media, with all sorts of software tools in the mix, in and out of wikis, with a passing nod to Wikipedia — that I hardly have to rely on hokey hypotheticals.

I could tell you the kinds of players that I saw play a part over a large number of scenes, acts, stages, and theatres of Wikipandemonia. And I could tell you the sorts of scenarios that I witnessed actually develop there over time.

So who needs imagination?

Doesn't the reality of Wikipedia constantly exceed the range of our outgunned imaginations? Doesn't the absurdity that Wikipedia cranks out on a daily basis put to shame our puny capacities for parody?

I think the answer is clear.

So let me arrange a modest repertory of real scenarios I've scene.

But tomorrow …

Jonny

This post has been edited by Jonny Cache: Tue 4th March 2008, 3:51am