WIKINDX Resources
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Journal Article:
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BibTeX citation key: odonnell.669
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O'Donnell Daniel Paul (2007). « If I were "You": How Academics Can Stop Worrying and Learn to Love "the Encyclopedia that Anyone Can Edit" ». The Heroic Age, n° 10.
Added by: Laure Endrizzi 2007-11-22 07:18:45
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Abstract
§1. So now it is official: Time Magazine thinks the Wikipedia is here to stay.
§2. In its December 2006 issue, Time named "You" as its "Person of the Year" (Grossman 2006). But it didn't really mean "you"—either the pronoun or the person reading this article. It meant "us"—members of the participatory web, the "Web 2.0," the community behind YouTube, FaceBook, MySpace, WordPress,... and of course the Wikipedia.
§3. In its citation, Time praised its person of the year "for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game." It suggested that the new web represented
"an opportunity to build a new kind of international understanding, not politician to politician, great man to great man, but citizen to citizen, person to person".
§4. Actually, as this suggests, Time didn't really mean "us" either. At least not if by "us" we mean the professional scholars, journalists, authors, and television producers (that is to say the "pros") who used to have more-or-less sole responsibility for producing the content "you" (that is to say students, readers, and audiences) consumed. In fact, as the citation makes clear, Time actually sees the new web as being really a case of "you" against "us"—a rebellion of the amateurs that has come at the expense of the traditional experts:
"It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes".
Added by: Laure Endrizzi
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