flw on Thu, 18 May 2000 19:23:12 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> RE: nupedia encyclopaedia |
osfavelados wrote: Hi, this is a recent-comer to nettime I read with interest the message sent by Peter Lunenfeld about the Nupedia-encyclopedia project. However, i was wondering if everybody believes in the possibility of "unbiased" contributions? i also read peter lunenfelds message with interest, and i also doubt the idea of an "unbiased encyclopaedia", more interesting to me is the open content idea of the whole. but why does it still have to be labeled as an encyclopaedia? for me (and i think for alot of other people) the idea of an encyclopyedia got kinda obsolete, and it might have been before things like www. read dŽalambert preface to the great encyclopaedia of 1751-1780 and diderots articles about "encyclopaedia" in the same publication: they were aware of the potential impossibility of the encyclopaedic idea (they produced THE encyclopaedia the following years, though). or take the ENCYCLOPAEDIA DA COSTA (reprinted at arkhive press) of french writers and surrealists (michel leiris, georges bataille, marcel duchamp et.al.) in the 1940s for a (creative) critique and a (late) example for reflecting the very problematic constitution of an "encyclopaedic idea", which is interpreted as an highly ideological one and showing the impossibility of the whole concept. i wonder why there are no no indices about critical reflections about this encyclopaedic idea (which includes the believe of completeness and objective knowledge distribution, as well as the distribution of knowledge is another important topic not explicitly rerflected with the concept of an encyclopaedia) in peter lunenfelds introduction of their project? the web should allow for a more plural, less hierarchical approach, without so many editors, staff, supervisors, phd's and so on, a new kind of rizhomatic knowledge-archive. and yes, i agree with you, jose, why is it the same old story with well-qualified writers, editors, and peer reviewers (...) about three dozen Ph.D.'s, M.D.'s, and otherhighly-trained professionals who will produce this knowledge container? this were just some brief thougts about my problems reading about such a encyclopaedia concept in 2000. please excuse my broken english... best wishes, marc # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net