Monday 8 March 2010

The Wikipedia Debate

This is an interesting video discussing the value of web 2.0 and individual knowledge, whether there is value in the expert view or whether everybody can contribute in the 'information age'. They question what the truth is and who is informed enough to contribute. Not really decisive either way - just outlining the different values on both sides. Does having more vantage points result in more creativity or does it just lead to confusion?

As an example, one of my favorite web pages is deviantArt because it allows artists to showcase their work and gives me a behind the scenes insight into how professional comic book artists (in particular) operate. This site is however subject to the same problems as You Tube. There are hundreds of posts by all sorts of people from professionals to children drawing their first sketches. This is great in the fact that it gives everyone a chance to showcase their creativity, but creates a maze for the audience searching for talent. The result for me is that I visit because I already know what's there rather than searching on the site. The free flow of mediocre offerings might be preventing me from finding the next creative genius and I think that this is sad. I am not arguing that there shouldn't be freedom to post on these sites, but that gatekeepers should be there to highlight the best on offer. I argue that gatekeeping already exists to an extent because I am guided to certain pages on deviantArt from other online sources that I trust.

Jonathan
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2 comments:

  1. lcc group b9 March 2010 at 15:03

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  2. Georgia Evagorou9 March 2010 at 15:11

    I agree, is difficult to find quality inside the mass. I have to agree also that everyone has to have the chance to share his/her creations but that makes our lives harder because is difficult for us to find the quality. Sometimes (very often I could say) gatekeepers are indispensable.

    But I have to come back to my words and to say that there is nothing we can do...

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