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The Social Epistemology of Wikipedia

Notes from a special issue of Episteme on the epistemology of mass collaboration. In the set of articles reviewed, philosophers consider Wikipedia from the perspective of theories of testimony and truth.

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The Bristol Community Twitterati

An analysis of the Bristol "twolar system"..

Asides

• Jeanette Winterson, talking about opening her own shop instead of selling out to a coffee chain: "The coffee offer forced me to focus on what I would really like to happen, instead of either doing nothing or passively accepting what someone else would like to happen" #
• "Wells spoke of two types of mind. The majority of people, he said, are retropective in their habit of reasoning interpreting the things of the present solely in relation to the past. The other type of mind, much in the minority, is constructive in habit, interpreting the things of the present in relation to things designed or forseen" - Brian Aldiss, Super State (paraphrasing H G Wells) #
• Interesting podcast from Mitchell Baker, talking about why people are motivated to take part in Firefox & other projects. Delegation of authority seen as a major factor, though group decision making also needs to be tight to meet release dates: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1683 #
• "I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it." - Pablo Picasso #
• Can the words of disgraced anthropologist Carlos Castaneda be a good metaphor for web interaction? "For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length. And there I travel, looking, looking breathlessly." - http://www.philosophy-books.com/authors/castaneda.cfm #