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Evolving Governance and Media Use in Wikipedia: A Historical Account

Friday, January 23, 2009

In an age of information overload, the history of Wikipedia’s co-evolving media use and governance model gives us a powerful lesson regarding the way in which the development of social structures and media technologies are fundamentally interrelated in the digital era.

Filed in Conference Presentations | Comments (0)
Do you support Wikipedia? News from the Trenches of the Science Wars 2.0

Monday, December 8, 2008

I show that asking whether Wikipedia is a reliable academic source enframes Wikipedia into an objectless standing-reserve of potential citations, foreclosing many other possibilities for its use. Instead of asking what Wikipedia has done to reality, I ask: what have we done to Wikipedia in the name of reality?

Filed in Academic Works, Unpublished | Comments (2)
Virtual Worlds in 1996: The More Things Change…

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

I came across this 1996 review published in Entertainment Weekly of The Palace, Worldsaway, and Worlds Chat. These were the first graphical chat programs, a genre which became virtual worlds a half-decade later. The entire article is fascinating from a historical perspective, but the last paragraph in particular shows us how some things [...]

Filed in Random Thoughts | Comments (0)
Wikimania 2008: Wikipedia as Real Utopia with Edo Navot

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Wikipedia as Real Utopia: Governance, knowledge production, and the institutional structure of Wikipedia – Edo Navot, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Sociology. Here follows my rough transcription of his speech, followed by my comments. The fact that his is the only presentation I have so far commented on should be taken as a sign of respect, [...]

Filed in Conference Notes | Comments (1)
Conceptions and Misconceptions Academics Hold About Wikipedia

Friday, July 18, 2008

As an ethnographer, I enter into communities, learn their customs, beliefs, and practices, then report back to the academy to share what I have discovered. In this presentation, I wish to do the opposite, presenting to the Wikipedian community an ethnography of academics as they relate to Wikipedia.

Filed in Conference Presentations | Comments (1)
Real, Virtual Communities: A Response to Brian Williams

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Brian Williams talked about how this year’s primary season has shown that even in the age of the Internet, we still have a longing for real communities. I take issue with his use of “virtual community” and claim that most political communities are virtual.

Filed in Random Thoughts | Comments (0)
Memetic Inkblots

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

I explore the memetic inkblot, which refers to units of cultural information that have effectively no singular semiotic value and therefore serve as a psychosocial indicator. In other words, they are so vague and open to interpretation that you can learn a lot about someone by asking someone to give a simple definition of them.

Filed in Random Thoughts | Comments (0)
Why aren’t the GPL and the GFDL freely licensed?

Friday, May 23, 2008

Works licensed under the GPL and the GFDL can be modified and then freely redistributed, as long as the modified versions are released under the same conditions. Why are we not allowed to modify these licenses and redistribute them?

Filed in Random Thoughts | Comments (0)
There Is No Cabal: An Investigation into Wikipedia’s Legal Subculture

Thursday, May 31, 2007

An investigation into the community formed by small number of Wikipedia contributors who care enough to decide how, at some level, Wikipedia is run. The work discusses identity, communication, and organizational hierarchy in this subculture.

Filed in Academic Works, Unpublished | Comments (0)
Senior Thesis: Democracy in Wikipedia

Thursday, May 10, 2007

My thesis studied the legal culture of Wikipedia to examine the law through stories and histories, giving the reader a sense of not only what the Wikipedian legal system is, but also what fundamental assumptions the community makes in utilizing such a system.

Filed in Academic Works, Thesis | Comments (1)