Here‘s a list of nine ways in which one can use the Wikipedia. Especially the “time-capsule” use seems very promising, the more promising the longer the time Wikipedia is up.
I often use the Wikipedia also to get info on the social/ethical credentials of companies & institutions. Usually one finds a link to major criticisms in the article.
After seeing Will Smith as Ali in the eponymous movie, I got interested and read Hauser’s biography (Hauser, Thomas (2004 Reprint). Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. Robson Books. ISBN 1-86105-738-5.) What an exhilarating book and person. The books is not so much written as compiled: Hauser has interviewed tens of people, and the book tells the story through sets of quotations stiched together by short paragraphs by Hauser. This not only gives a feeling of autheticity and vividity to the book, but also lets people keep their own views and opinions. Contradictions are not brushed aside. Amazingly enough, even Hauser’s own view and voice comes through. I don’t think I have read any other biography written in this manner, but it seems that it is a very generous way of doing it. Probably extremely tedious, too, doing all those interviews and putting it all together.
As a kid in the 70’s, “Muhammad Ali” was used as a name that represented unbeatable strenght. But there is so much more, as the book explains. It can’t be too easy for the Muslim community in the States these days. The flow of events from the 60’s until the late 80’s told through Ali’s life is just mind-boggling. So much has changed for the better – but also for the worse.
From OilDrum Europe:
In a stunning interview for the French daily Le Monde, Fatih Birol, the chief economist of the International Energy Agency (i.e. the intergovernmental body created after the oil shocks of the 70s to coordinate the West’s reaction to energy crises) effectively says that peak oil is just around the corner, and that without Iraqi oil, we’ll be in deep trouble by 2015:
If Iraqi production does not rise exponentially by 2015, we have a very big problem, even if Saudi Arabia fulfills all its promises. The numbers are very simple, there’s no need to be an expert.
Urgh. It’s not just that the Western way of life need oil, it needs cheap oil. The so-called “demand destruction” is already happening. Places that have not yet been integrated in the oil economy will never be. A philosophy of technology that believes in progress or in the inevitable and immutabele nature of Technology have not been helpful in preparing us for this.
UPDATE: In Luis Villa’s blog there is a good entry on the “bounty-problem“, i.e., the question if one gets less effort out of volunteers by paying them.
One empirical study concerns parents being late to fetch their children from day care. Installing a system of fines for being late made the situation worse. This is easy to understand: the fines change the logic from “being-a-parent” to “being-a-governed-subject”. The fine just gives a good excuse for being late; in the same way as a salary can give an excuse for not caring about the work (“I’m doing it for the money”). I think this applies to OS development, too, where monetary rewards change the logic, or “ethos”. The n what about the big boys, like Morton or Torvalds, who also get paid for doing what they do? My guess is that in those cases the logic doesn’t change, since they are so strongly following an internal logic, nevermind the circumstances.
***
28.12. 2006:
Debian is famous for being one of the most freedom oriented, politically aware and volunteer-centered FOSS communities. Its longeivity and robustness are probably results of the well maintained community focus. Volunteers have been active because their freedom and the freedom of the code has been guaranteed. Now there are darker clouds on the horizon. Pressure for a predictable and steady release schedule has been growing, not least because of Ubuntu and because Debian is used in many commercial solutions and systems. This has led to ideas about monetary rerwards for main developers, which, in turn, have put off some of the volunteers. ZDNet Asia explains:
Barth and his fellow release manager, Steve Langasek, have been at the center of a controversy over the last few months, having accepted up to $6,000 of funding each for working full-time on Debian version 4, which is code-named Etch.
The funding for Barth and Langasek has been raised by an “experiment” called Dunc-Tank, which aims to speed the release of Etch.
But the establishment of the group may have backfired, as it has angered many unpaid developers. They argue that Dunc-Tank is turning Debian into a two-class system, which could have a negative effect on the distribution. Some have called for the resignation of the two release managers.
It is claimed that developers have simply started working on something else after being offended by this “two-class” system:
A group of 17 developers, led by well-known Debian maintainer Joerg Jaspert, issued a position statement in October citing its disenchantment with Dunc-Tank. It read, “This whole affair already hurts Debian more than it can ever achieve. It already made a lot of people who have contributed a huge amount of time and work to Debian reduce their work. People left the project, others are orphaning packages…system administration and security work is reduced, and a lot of otherwise silent maintainers simply put off Debian work (to) work on something else.”
I see the phenomenon in terms of two different kinds of work ethics: volunteer and salary-based (or, to use more lofty language, hacker ethics and protestant ethics). The two do not mix well. Motivated-by-money development easily has goals different from those motivated by the ideology of software freedom. Some of the problems are mentioned here. On the other hand, there should be ways of financially assisting valuable projects like Debian. Many open source projects mix paid workers and unpaid voluntees succesfully. Maybe the problem lies, again, in that Debian is not only an open source project, but a free software project. Differences in motivational basis lead to differences in community structure, or at least lead to presuppositions and perceived differences.
Hmm, I wonder if this works. Kiva.org is a “social software” site that lets people lend money to microcredit institutions that lend the money to local entrepreneurs. The lenders can get info on the entrepreneurs when they give money and also feedback on how everything went. Brings the issues closer, makes it possible to choose on the basis of your own preferences.
Microcredit is not a magic bullet, as Robert Pollin argues. Enterprise, even micro-enterprise, can work only on the basis of “an ocean of goodness”, including such non-profit activities as trust, smiling, opening the door, roads, common customs, etc. But maybe it can help somewhat sometimes.
In the words of Steve Hogart: “You can take all the boys and the girls in the world/
I wouldn’t trade them this morning for my sweet Ocean Cloud”. In no particular order:
Trevor Rabin, Yes (demo): “Love Conquers All”
– the intro is amazing, the timing perfect, goosebumps every time
Edward Van Halen, Van Halen: “Eruption”
– show-off, sure, but with a positive vibe
Steve Vai, “For the Love of God”
– when he forgets about the microintervals & stuff, and plays …
Steve Rothery, Marillion: “Easter”
– not doing too much, just flying, flying away with the song
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR05W5J05qs&mode=related&search=
Yngwie Malmsteen, “Icaros Dream Suite”
– so what if he only wrote one song; the song is so (over)confident in its musicality and performance that nothing more is needed
Terje Rypdal, “The Return of Per Ulv”
– beautiful and controlled beyond belief
Lots of stuff happening around GPLv3 these times.
First, Stallman giving the reasons fro migrating from v2 to v3.
On a tangent, but related: Torvalds expressing doubts over Sun’s agenda on OS. He thinks Sun wants developers, drivers, etc. from Linux, without really giving much back, such as, e.g., releasing the ZFS filesystem of OpenSolaris on GPL. (ZFS sounds cool; it seems that it might be an option in Mac Os X Leopard.) Quote:
they’ll talk about it. They not only drool after our drivers, they
drool after all the _people_ who write drivers. They’d love to get
kernel developers from Linux, they see that we have a huge amount of
really talented people. So they want to talk things up, and the more
“open source” they can position themselves, the better.
Sun’s Jonathan Schwartz replying in a conciliatory manner and suggesting an OpenSolaris/Linux mashup.
In the discussion on Schwartz’s blog, Zeno Davatz makes an interesting point:
I got some questions: 1. How can you say, that companies and communities do not compete? That is total Bullshit! Communities and Companies compete more then ever these days. The same as Bloggers compete with the old school media.
My 2 cents: they compete but not necessarily over the same things & from the same perspective. They may compete for developers & expertise, for instance, but not over profit.
The Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology has published my review of Gordon G. Globus’s book Quantum Closures and Disclosures: Thinking-Together Postphenomenology and Quantum Brain Dynamics.
This is an interesting book, trying to bring together post-phenomenology and the interpretation of quantum theory, in this case in the form of quantum brain dynamics. The book is very informative, and already the discussion of different post-phenomenological views (Dreyfus, Plotnitsky, Pylkkö) in Chapter 2 makes the book a must for a student of contemporary philosophy of mind, in my opinion.
Hankenilla huhtikuussa pidetyssä Wikipedia-seminaarissa filosofi Timo Kaitaro kertoi, kuinka Ranskassa 1700-luvun puolivälissä Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers-ensyklopediaa koottaessa kierrettiin katolista sensuuria. Artikkeli “Pyhä ehtoollinen†oli siistissä kunnossa, mutta artikkelissa “ihmissyönti†oli lisätietona “ks. myös Pyhä ehtoollinenâ€. Ristiinviittauksilla saatiin kapinaa ujutettua kokonaisuuteen, vaikka ei yksittäisiin kappaleisiin.
Ensyklopedistien tarkoitus oli muuttaa ihmisten ajattelua ja niin taisi käydäkin. Wikipedistien päämäärä ei yleensä ole yhtä abstrakti. Tyypillinen wikipedisti – kaupungissa asuva luonnontieteitä opiskeleva nuori mies – käyttää aikaansa vapaaehtoiseen tietosanakirjailuun viihtyäkseen. Melko käsittämätöntä, sinänsä. Missä muualla lukiolaiset kiistelevät äidinkielen oikeinkirjoituksesta tunteet kuumina? Muitakin motiiveja on, aina tiedon ihanteista oman kilven kiillottamiseen. Joka tapauksessa Wikipedia tulee muuttamaan ajattelun, halusi tai ei. Wikipedioiden keskustelusivujen väittelyt oikeakielisyydestä, faktojen luonteesta, näkökulmista, merkittävyydestä ja niin edelleen ovat valtaisa ei-valtiollinen demokratiaprojekti.
Kuvitelkaa maailma, jossa Wikipedia on ollut olemassa 50 vuotta. Tai 150 vuotta. Ja kuvitelkaa maailma, jossa on olemassa lukuisia erilaisia näkökulmallisia wikipedioita: poliittisia, uskonnollisia, sukupuolisia, paikallisia, ammatillisia, … Mitä sellaista voi yliassistentti-raukka wikipedifioidun tiedon maailmassa muistaa, jota ei wikipediassa tai toisessa selitettäisi paremmin? Vihdoinkin 2000-luvulla on jotakin todellista annettavaa tieteiskirjallisuuden ystäville.
Vielä ei olla ihannetilanteessa. Suomenkielinen wikipedia ylitti juuri 100000 artikkelin rajan. Luonnontiede- ja viihdepainotus on edelleen erittäin vahva, vaikka pikkuhiljaa tasoittumassa. Monet tärkeät artikkelit puuttuvat tai ovat surkeita. Useat asiantuntijat ovat turhautuneet artikkelien kirjoittamiseen, kun lukioikäisten wikipedistien lauma käy korjailemaan oman sofisminsa mukaan, vedoten ties mihin lähteisiin ja faktakasoihin näkemyksen sijaan. Jääkiekon MM-finaalin jälkeen artikkeli “hopea†kertoi sadattelun seassa: “Hopeaa ei ole muualla kuin Suomen joukkueen kaulassa…â€
Tässä sotkussa piilee Wikipedian ajattelua muuttava voima. Englanninkielinen Wikipedia on koko netin kymmenen suosituimman sivuston joukossa. Suuri osa sadoistatuhansista ja miljoonista Wikipediaa säännöllisesti käyttävistä surffailijoista tietää, että Wikipedia ei ole luotettava. Lisäksi suuri osa tietää, että jokaista artikkelia voi itsekin muuttaa ja että historia- ja keskustelu-napeista pääsee suoraan Nietzschen ja Foucault’n taivaaseen, tiedon genealogiaan. Tämän kokemuksen jälkeen on mahdotonta palata kirjojen ja muiden tekstien ääreen muuttumattomana.
Julkaistu Aikalainen Nro 11 / 8.6.2007.
New studies published in Journal of Archaeological Science and reported by the BBC, suggest that Ötzi died because an arrow cut one of his arteries, leading to massive blood loss and, finally, a heart-stroke. The cut artery was found in a CT scan, which showed also the route of the arrow. It went through the shoulderblade (good momentum in the arrow) and was removed before the blood stopped running; probably before Ötzi was dead.
It was known that Ötzi was in a fight, the cuts on his hands and the blood of 4 other people on his gear indicate as much. He has bloob on his knife, and on one of the arrows; according to some reports also on the unfinished bow. Now the route of the arrow that hit him also suggest that he was shot from below (not an easy angle). One guess is that he was pursued or ambushed when climbing up to the glacier.
The picture shows a replica of the type of flint arrowhead used by Ötzi & his enemies; the type that cut his artery. The fact that it is made of flint further suggests some purpose & premeditation. Flint heads are better for killing people that killing animals. They break easily, causing inflammation. Not good for hunting. Ötzi himself had both bone and flint arrowheads with him.
A powerful, purposeful and skillful shot from below. Maybe did not hit exactly where intended, but probably with the desired effect. And, of course, not from very far.
