Does the Internet Need More Editors?

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/02/28/Jimmy_Wales_and_Andrew_Keen_Debate_Web_2_0

Wikipedia co-creator Jimmy Wales debates internet cultural critic Andrew Keen on the usefulness of the "wiki" model.

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Web 2.0: Amateur Hour or Mass-ive Knowledge? A debate with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and author Andrew Keen.

In today's self-broadcasting culture, where amateurism is celebrated and anyone with an opinion can post a video on YouTube, change an entry on Wikipedia or publish reviews on Yelp, we increasingly turn to the collective intelligence of large numbers of people.

Should we rely on the "wisdom of the crowds," trusting that they are smarter than the expert few? Or is Web 2.0 weakening traditional media to the point where we only have opinion and chaos? - The Commonwealth Club of California

Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales (born August 7, 1966 in Huntsville, Alabama) is the founder, board member and Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit corporation that operates the Wikipedia project, and several other wiki projects, including Wiktionary and Wikinews. He is also the co-founder, along with Angela Beesley, of the for-profit company Wikia, Inc.

Andrew Keen is a Silicon Valley author, broadcaster and entrepreneur whose provocative book Cult of the Amateur: How the Internet is killing our culture was recently acclaimed by The New York Times' Michiko Kakutani as "shrewdly argued" and written "with acuity and passion."

Chronicle, a commentator for NPR's Morning Edition and co-host of BioTech Nation on NPR. He has been a special correspondent and producer for ABC's Nightline and 20/20, and a producer for Discovery Television. He is a correspondent for NOVA's ScienceNow!. He is a regular contributor to National Geographic, Fortune and MIT Technology Review, and was a longtime correspondent for Life. He also writes for Harper's, Atlantic Monthly, Smithsonian, Outside, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Washington Post Book World, and The New York Times, among others. He contributes to the Dialogues column for Discover.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• web
• 2.0
• net
• wikis
• wales
• keen
• debate
• panel
• information
• multimedia
• media
• encyclopedia
• wikipedia
• editors
• editing
• foratv
• fora.tv
• fora
• tv

[happiari58]

GOD!!! Just because this jerk has an English accent we don't have to believe what the hell he says!!!!! What an absolute FOOL.......as are so many so FOOLS who come from across the "Pond" and act like they have SO much to tell us..... We do have our own minds and they think we are such dummies!!!!!!

[CityzenJane]

Why the hell doesn't just go and write a decent Hannah Arendt page?

[JohnAdamCulligan]

I agree with Wales. I think a better analogy to make his point might have been the prominence of, say, Harry Potter books at Border's Book Store versus the prominence of Shakespearean works (perhaps Shakespear is sufficiently more prominent, but that's beside the point). No one construes this gross inequity as anything other than a popularity gap.

[u5chi1]

@happiari58 He does sound more intelligent than you

[CamiloSanchez1979]

hahaha love how Wales owns him!

[bugsduggan]

Maybe you should try watching kids videos instead? Much less intellectual.

[justplainjill]

that artwork in the background really sucks

distracting and seriously, the subject matter just reminds me of alcoholics and sends my mind wandering.. and off of even what they are saying.

[angelgabby]

Please have a debate on the positive aspects of an unregulated internet, and decentralized information, instead of trying to justify contriving and quantifying one topic with another.

[bebop54]

great argument.......