THE GREAT FAILURE OF WIKIPEDIA
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Transcription of a presentation/speech given at Notacon 3, April 8, 2006. The original presentation’s audio is available at:
http://www.archive.org/details/20060408-jscott-wikipedia
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“Hello everyone, my name is Jason Scott, I run a site called
textfiles.com; made a documentary called Bulletin Board Systems: The Documentary. I run a variety of sites which are basically involved in the collection of online history, as a result I’m somebody who has a very strong relationship with information, the collecting of information and therefore the collecting of truth, of fact, of history, and in some small amount, collaboration and working together towards a goal.
So, the name of this speech is called “The Great Failure Of Wikipedia”. Part of that is branding, because that sounds really exciting, but part of it is also really true.”
In conclusion:
“When Wikipedia started out, Wikipedia was designed for an idea, a theoretical idea. An idea of human knowledge edited by everybody, with no idea of how human beings actually are. Over time, Wikipedia is becoming an accurate handrail, it’s letting people now put their hand where it is, and it’s not the place that I think Jimbo Wales expected it was going to be.”
For the entire speech in transcript, please go to this link. It is a very good read.
