Re: Wikipedia Is Battling for the Soul of the Internet

Thanks, Dennis, for posting this.  I include (please see below) some excerpts from the NYT article under these headings:

(1) The semi-democratic nature of Wikipedia:
(2) Threats to Wikipedia:
(3) Partial integration of Wikipedia with ruling class institutions:
(4) Wikipedia reliance on large amounts of money

We are living in the century of information war.  AI and social media are being increasingly integrated to shove disinformation, propaganda and slop down our throats.  This is done both to maximize profits (for individual corporations) and (for the benefit of our ruling class as a whole) keeping us ignorant and fighting amongst ourselves.
[cid:[email protected]]

Wikipedia is vastly more democratic, in its nature, that most other sources of organized information, and for this reason is of great value and worth defending.  But we need to keep our eyes open regarding Wikipedia's weaknesses and limitations: (1) its dependence on large amounts of money, (2) its partial integration with ruling class institutions and (3) its semi-democratic nature.

Again: we are living in the century of information war.  The steady development of the productive forces are making it possible, for the first time in history, to bring the truth about everything important to everyone.  These developments are often slow, like the movement of continental plates, but they are powerful beyond imagination.

But we need something more than Wikipedia to bring the truth about everything important to everyone.  The working class and progressive activists will inevitably (in my view) create information platforms that are not restricted in the ways that Wikipedia is.  These platforms will be fully democratic (ie: a level playing field, where everyone has equal rights) and less vulnerable to cut-offs of money or tax exempt status.

One good place to start would be a public information platform where useful and important information can be indexed and archived.  I wrote about this in detail in a letter to the "No Azure for Apartheid" organization (an organization of Microsoft tech workers opposed to the use of the Azure platform for Apartheid and genocide).

This letter is posted here: http://communism.org/node/4058/4058.pdf

I would appreciate comments, questions and/or criticism of this letter.

Ben Seattle

[cid:[email protected]]   [cid:[email protected]]

================================================
Some excerpts from the NYT article:
================================================
(1) The semi-democratic nature of Wikipedia:

>  Wikipedia is largely decentralized, with independent contributors
>  distilling facts through open debate and agreement. Elected
>  arbitration committees handle dispute resolution.

>  There is no shadowy mastermind, no leftist cabal, according to
>  the foundation. Just the Wikipedians - nearly 250,000 unpaid
>  strangers editing 324 times a minute under pseudonyms like
>  "Dr. Blofeld" and "WooHooKitty."

>  "The most important thing to understand about Wikipedia is
>  it is truly a democracy," said Bill Adair, who created the
>  fact-checking site PolitiFact and is writing a book about

(2) Threats to Wikipedia:

>  Last year, a Trump administration official made inquiries
>  into the nonprofit's tax-exempt status.  A Republican-led
>  congressional oversight committee initiated an investigation
>  in August, demanding that Wikimedia identify certain editors
>  and produce any evidence of influence from foreign
>  operatives or academic institutions.

>  Since 2020, at least 10 Wikipedia editors have been
>  imprisoned for their work and countless others threatened.
>  A pediatrician in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to 14 years in
>  prison after editing pages about government surveillance
>  and a women's rights activist. Belarus has detained several
>  editors, sending one to a penal colony for more than a year
>  after he edited a post about murdered journalists.

(3) Partial integration of Wikipedia with ruling class institutions:

>  Bernadette Meehan, 50, became Wikimedia's chief executive
>  in January, after stints as the U.S. ambassador to Chile and at
>  the Obama Foundation, at the State Department, at
>  the National Security Council and on Wall Street.
>  the encyclopedia. "It's messy, it's loud, it often works."

(4) Wikipedia reliance on large amounts of money

>  The foundation, with a budget of $208.6 million and
>  about 600 employees and contractors, provides servers
>  and funding but steers clear of content decisions.

>  The foundation also uses lobbyists, nearly doubling
>  its spending to $174,300 in the most recent fiscal year
>  and retaining the Holland & Knight firm last spring for
>  $150,000 a quarter.




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