25 OCT 2017 by ideonexus
Knowledge Replaced with Social Media
When it emerged towards the end of the 80s as a purely text-based medium, [the internet] was seen as a tool to pursue knowledge, not pleasure. Reason and thought were most valued in this garden—all derived from the project of Enlightenment. Universities around the world were among the first to connect to this new medium, which hosted discussion groups, informative personal or group blogs, electronic magazines, and academic mailing lists and forums. It was an intellectual project, not about ... 1 
notes
notes02 SEP 2016 by ideonexus
Shadow Libraries and the Conflict Between Preservation an...
All this to say that although barriers to acquisition are low, the barriers to active participation are high and continually increase with time. The absorption of smaller collections by larger favors the veterans. Rules and regulations grow in complexity with the maturation of the community, further widening the rift between senior and junior peers. We are then witnessing something like the institutionalization of a professional “librarian” class, whose task it is to protect the collectio... 1 notes
notes15 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
Parkinson's law of triviality
In the third chapter, "High Finance, or the Point of Vanishing Interest", Parkinson writes about a finance committee meeting with a three-item agenda.
The first is the signing of a £10 [4] million contract to build a reactor, the second a proposal to build a £350 bicycle shed for the clerical staff, and the third proposes £21 a year to supply refreshments for the Joint Welfare Committee.
The £10 million number is too big and too technical, and it passes in two minutes and a half.
The bi...
1 Summary provided from Wikipedia until a direct quote can be found. Concept is that the more trivial an issue, the more debate weighed on it because everyone understands the issue enough to have an opinion.
03 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Bible was Like Wikipedia
The Bible can serve as a prototypical example. Like Wikipedia, the Bible’s authorship was shared, largely anonymous, and cumulative, and the obscurity of the individual authors served to create an oracle-like ambience for the document as “the literal word of God.” If we take a nonmetaphysical view of the Bible, it serves as a link to our ancestors, a window into human nature and our cultural origins, and can be used as a source of solace and inspiration. Someone who believes in a person... 1 notes
notesWritten anonymously by many authors, which produced an oracle quality about it that allow it to become a tool for manipulation.
21 APR 2011 by ideonexus
Donald Knuth on Getting to the Source Material
Seibel: Do you feel like programmers and computer scientists are aware enough of the history of our field? It is, after all, a pretty short history.
Knuth: There aren't too many that are scholars. Even when I started writing my books in 1963, I didn't think people knew what had happened In 1959. I was reading in American Scientist last week about people who had rediscovered an algorithm that Boyer and Moore had discovered in 1980. Ii happens all the time that people don't realize the glorio...Folksonomies: computer science computer science history
Folksonomies: computer science computer science history
1 notes
notesThe joy of going to the primary documents for understanding how people throughout history thought.
07 MAR 2011 by ideonexus
Advice for Dealing with Trolls
What to do instead
So what should we do instead. It's very simple:
Ask him what he means. ; interrogate him:
"Why do you feel that Python is so bad? What do you find wrong with it?"
Agree with him (but use a softer language):
"Yes, Perl is a nice language, and I agree that Python has its downsides and/or trade-offs in comparison to Perl."
"It's OK to prefer Perl, we'll still accept you here."
This will make the troll lose steam and help you find a common ground.
And eventually nego...
1 An interesting take on the issue, which borrows a page from Wikipedia's suggestions for debate.
23 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
The Internet is Fueled by Curiosity and Generosity
The Internet relies on our greed for knowledge and connections, but also on our astonishing online generosity. We show inordinate levels of altruism on the Internet, wasting hours on chat room sites giving advice to complete strangers, or contributing anonymously to Wikipedia just to enrich other people’s knowledge. There is no guarantee or expectation of reciprocation. Making friends and trusting strangers with personal information (be it your bank details or musical tastes) is an essentia...It takes inquisitive minds to browse the Internet and generous minds to fill it with content.
23 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
WWW has Replaced Sex as Propagator of Junk Data
For hundreds of millions of years, Sex was the most efficient method for propagating information of dubious provenance: the origins of all those snippets of junk DNA are lost in the sands of reproductive history. Move aside, Sex: the world-wide Web has usurped your role. A single illegal download can propagate more parasitic bits of information than a host of mating Tse Tse flies. Indeed, as I looked further afield, I found that it was not just Wikipedia that was in error: essentially every d... 1 notes
notesDNA has often propagated bad ideas, evidenced by all the extinct species throughout Earth's history; today the Internet propagates vast quantities of bad data.
13 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
How Novel is the Internet?
Before the Web we were already used to sitting in front of electronic boxes for hour upon hour. The boxes have now changed, but they are still boxes. Of course the things we do on the Internet are different from those we did (and do) in front of the TV. But it’s important to remember that they are only different; they are not new. Think for a moment about what you do on the Internet. Not what you could do, but what you actually do. You email people you know. In an effort to broaden your hor... 1 notes
notesMarshal T. Poe makes a persuasive argument that, despite the tremendous possibilities it puts before us, we end up using the Internet to do the same old stuff we were doing before the Internet, only more conveniently.
01 JAN 2010 by ideonexus
Debate Principle: Assume good faith
Assuming good faith is a fundamental principle on Wikipedia. It is the assumption that editors' edits and comments are made in good faith. Most people try to help the project, not hurt it. If this were false, a project like Wikipedia would be doomed from the beginning.
...When doubt is cast on good faith, continue to assume good faith yourself where you can. Be civil and follow dispute resolution processes, rather than attacking editors or edit warring with them. If you wish to express doubts...Folksonomies: centrism
Folksonomies: centrism
This is one of the principles wikipedia asks its contributors to apply when working with other editors. On a meta level, we should all apply this principle, even in politics, because we all want what's best for the country even though we tend to vilify our ideological opponents.
