[Search-l] _Forbes_ - Andrew Keen - Down With Internet Democracy

[Jonathan Roberts]

I think this same person was talking on BBC Radio 4 this morning and
he makes me angry. Even if you dismiss wikipedia (which I think you'd
be crazy to do!), there are clear practical examples of this model
working: GNU/Linux and every other piece of successful free/open
source software.

Jon

On 06/05/07, Seth Finkelstein <sethf at sethf.com> wrote:
> [Disclaimer - Forwarding this article segment should not be taken as
> unconditional endorsement. In fact, I have been critical of its author
> in general in terms of writing going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket pandering]
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:eJkP3xZto-YJ:members.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0521/038.html
>
> On My Mind
> Down With Internet Democracy  Andrew Keen 05.21.07, 12:00 AM ET
>
> Why you don't want anonymous volunteers powering your search engine.
>
> [...]
>
> If, like me, you believe that Wikipedia has spawned a mountain of
> unreliable, unprofessional and often corrupt so-called knowledge, then
> Wales' radical new search venture is of deep concern.
>
> According to Wales, search is "broken." It lacks "freedom,"
> "community," "accountability" and "transparency." He argues that
> Google can be gamed by spammers, marketers and other Internet cheats
> who have learned to outwit the algorithms, thereby earning their
> products or services inappropriately high rankings. So Wales' solution
> is to staff Wikia Search with unpaid programmers who will develop
> algorithms that can sniff out the spammers and challenge the cheats.
>
> What will Wikia Search be like? I fear it will resemble
> Wikipedia. Rather than gang up against the gamers, it will compound
> the corruption by giving search-engine editorial power to anonymous
> volunteers. This is exactly what has damaged Wikipedia's reputation as
> a people-powered encyclopedia. How many supposedly altruistic
> programmers will really be in the pay of Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news -
> people ) or al Qaeda or the millions of other organizations that could
> be tempted to pay to have their products and services better positioned?
>
> [...]
>
> If you want to supplement artificial intelligence with real human
> intelligence, you need to reward the real humans with real money in
> exchange for their services. Because real people have real mortgages
> to pay off and real families to feed. A genuinely people-powered
> search service should, therefore, employ and pay a professional staff
> to check the accuracy of its entries. Traditional media have a word
> for these gatekeepers. They are called editors.
>
> --
> Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer  http://sethf.com/
> Infothought blog - http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/
> Interview: http://sethf.com/essays/major/greplaw-interview.php
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