Journal Entry: Wikis and eBay
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Reyes Journal Entry
plain
2013-07-22T07:07:07-07:00
Wikipedia is a great example of open-source history that is done well, better than anyone could have possibly imagined and in some cases better than the large-budget, professionally created encyclopedias. But there are some main issues, as Rozenweig points out, which boils down to trolls, nerds, and extremists: Trolls edit articles to create false information; nerds expand articles that are of interest to them, though not of interest to the general public, and extremists create bias of historical events. Given the collective voice of the story, the clean narration style of most encyclopedias is not there.
What I find most interesting is the Wikipedia editors themselves. While I understand the typical Wikipedia editor and some of the logic behind their performance of free labor, it is difficult for me to make the jump from a few edits a day as a hobby to someone who devotes 8 hours a day to editing and adding to articles on Wikipedia. What does make sense, however, is that corporations, politicians, and government entities are getting in on the game.
The eBay community is as obsessive in their focus, perhaps even more so. White’s descriptions of the eBay conventions and the community board discussions give a cult-like feel to the (mostly buyers) of eBay. The self-policing is extreme as well, with any dissent being crushed by other members who act as minions of the top administration of the company. But the difference is, they are not really being paid for their work. EBay has successfully created an environment in which free labor is considered to be correlated with financial success on eBay, though this is not necessarily true. Using themes of brotherly love, community, and altruism, eBay has been able to recruit thousands of free employees. Some of these free laborers even reject the idea of incentives (!) such as the certificates for free postings. Is this corporate brainwashing?
I would also like to point out that I have been banging my head against the computer trying to work with Scalar lately. I couldn't even figure out how to edit my own pages, much less upload files or anything more creative. Turns out, Scalar hates Internet Explorer. Why is Scalar so sensitive about browsers?