Comments on: The cult of the “professional” http://www.fiftybyfifty.com/lifeoffarhan/2007/09/05/the-cult-of-the-%e2%80%9cprofessional%e2%80%9d/ chapter four - my 30s Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:37:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Cathy http://www.fiftybyfifty.com/lifeoffarhan/2007/09/05/the-cult-of-the-%e2%80%9cprofessional%e2%80%9d/comment-page-1/#comment-37 Cathy Tue, 11 Sep 2007 11:37:19 +0000 http://www.fiftybyfifty.com/lifeoffarhan/2007/09/05/the-cult-of-the-%e2%80%9cprofessional%e2%80%9d/#comment-37 Thanks for sharing Farhan! I was so sad of not being able to make it, and your blog curbs my misery. This guy sounds lame (pardon my not-so-academic prose). I am sick and tired of people pouring criticisms over Wikipedia when they themselves have not tried and tested the community peer-to-peer mechanism. I am equally critical of the project, but I agree with you two (Miss N) that the significance is not on the accuracy of WP's content alone, but a new form of information production. Time to share with you my muse, Yochai Benkler's book 'The Wealth of Networks': 'At the heart of the economic engine, of the world's most advanced economies, we are beginning to notice a persistent and quite amazing phenomenon. A new model of production has taken root; one that should not be there, at least according to our most widely held beliefs about economic behavior. It should not, the intuitions of the late-twentieth-century American would say, be the case that thousands of volunteers will come together to collaborate on a complex economic project. It certainly should not be that these volunteers will beat the largest and best-financed business enterprises in the world at their own game. And yet, this is precisely what is happening in the software world. ' http://www.benkler.org/wealth_of_networks/index.php?title=1._Introduction:_A_Moment_of_Opportunity_and_Challenge Thanks for sharing Farhan! I was so sad of not being able to make it, and your blog curbs my misery. This guy sounds lame (pardon my not-so-academic prose). I am sick and tired of people pouring criticisms over Wikipedia when they themselves have not tried and tested the community peer-to-peer mechanism. I am equally critical of the project, but I agree with you two (Miss N) that the significance is not on the accuracy of WP’s content alone, but a new form of information production.

Time to share with you my muse, Yochai Benkler’s book ‘The Wealth of Networks’:

‘At the heart of the economic engine, of the world’s most advanced economies, we are beginning to notice a persistent and quite amazing phenomenon.

A new model of production has taken root; one that should not be there, at least according to our most widely held beliefs about economic behavior.

It should not, the intuitions of the late-twentieth-century American would say, be the case that thousands of volunteers will come together to collaborate on a complex economic project.

It certainly should not be that these volunteers will beat the largest and best-financed business enterprises in the world at their own game.

And yet, this is precisely what is happening in the software world. ‘
http://www.benkler.org/wealth_of_networks/index.php?title=1._Introduction:_A_Moment_of_Opportunity_and_Challenge

]]> By: shireenbee http://www.fiftybyfifty.com/lifeoffarhan/2007/09/05/the-cult-of-the-%e2%80%9cprofessional%e2%80%9d/comment-page-1/#comment-33 shireenbee Sun, 09 Sep 2007 21:52:19 +0000 http://www.fiftybyfifty.com/lifeoffarhan/2007/09/05/the-cult-of-the-%e2%80%9cprofessional%e2%80%9d/#comment-33 sensationalist this man might be....but he has a kernel of an idea, i think. there is a lot of crap on the internet....kind of like a sea that was blue and now has a lot of stuff that just shouldn't be there. not sure what the solution is, but i know that i don't want my kids (the ones i teach) reading about how to become anorexic or writing on a teacher bashing website. freedom of speech is important, but so is protecting our younger generation. i want them to have access to information on the internet, but i want them to be safe as well (and i don't mean just adding one of those baby sitting programs that block certain sites). its the principle of it. of course, now this opens up the whole censorship issue and stuff...but that is for another day when i am not sleepy.... sensationalist this man might be….but he has a kernel of an idea, i think. there is a lot of crap on the internet….kind of like a sea that was blue and now has a lot of stuff that just shouldn’t be there. not sure what the solution is, but i know that i don’t want my kids (the ones i teach) reading about how to become anorexic or writing on a teacher bashing website. freedom of speech is important, but so is protecting our younger generation. i want them to have access to information on the internet, but i want them to be safe as well (and i don’t mean just adding one of those baby sitting programs that block certain sites). its the principle of it. of course, now this opens up the whole censorship issue and stuff…but that is for another day when i am not sleepy….

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