Re: [ARSCLIST] Whacky-Packia outed for what it is -- Amateur Hour in Siberia

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Steven Levy is typical of today's idiotic journalism and the state of education 
in general. Bravo for Keen! And my opinions on Wackypackia are well known to 
this group and haven't changed (nor has Wickywackypedera).

dl

Tom Fine wrote:
> although that might be too much of an insult to Siberian amateurs!
>
> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17661199/site/newsweek/
>
> of particular note:
>
> "So imagine Keen's delight in learning about an adjustment to last 
> summer's New Yorker article about Wikipedia. The article's author 
> prominently cited a person identified as "Essjay," described as "a 
> tenured professor of religion ... who holds a Phd in theology and a 
> degree in canon law." Essjay had contributed to more than 16,000 
> Wikipedia entries, and often invoked his credentials to argue for 
> changes in various articles. But as The New Yorker abashedly informed 
> its readers some months after the story appeared, Essjay was not a 
> religion professor but a 24-year-old college dropout. What's more, 
> Wikipedia's cofounder Jimmy Wales said, "I don't really have a problem 
> with it." (Wales subsequently recognized that fraudulent 
> misrepresentation is not a great idea, and removed Essjay from his 
> position of trust at Wikipedia.)"
>
> I thought that New Yorker article was far too sympathetic to the "army 
> of typing monkeys".
>
> Hey, call it arrogant or elitist or whatever, but REAL knowledge is not 
> something that just flows off the top of your head. People who are 
> really expert in any field ARE elite and are so because they have 
> invested great amounts of time and effort into becoming expert. Just 
> because "anyone can publish" or "anyone can be a star" in today's 
> idiotic Internet universe doesn't mean most of that material has any 
> validity or is anything more than media pollution. This "everyone should 
> express themselves" culture creates a haze of noise that masks real 
> facts and real knowledge and is destroying the notion of truth in our 
> society. The erosion of civility and functionality that follows the 
> eroision of truth and facts is obvious and on-going.
>
> One man's opinion, etc. I think Steve Levy's conclusions are too 
> optimistic, BTW, and lean more toward Keen's thinking. Posted on this 
> forum because I believe one of the great services of proper archiving is 
> storing and preserving factual knowledge and cultural touchstones.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>