madisen

having failed to make openness illegal using state power, the oligopolists are now trying to make it irrelevant using private power, network effects and hard-wired filters.

Jimmy Wales described it in 2004, was to create “a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.” The following year, Wales also stated, “We help the internet not suck.

What is at stake is the design of a new content production and distribution ecosystem that will shape the entire digital environment and our societies. As has been the case in the past, a strong actor committed to the values of openness and free knowledge has a chance to tip the balance away from closed ecosystems controlled by commercial monopolis... See more

The key is that knowledge is a human endeavor, and the development of Wikipedia and its sister projects depends on human collaboration and consensus. Machine learning tools can augment the process, but AI cannot replace volunteer Wikimedians.

Shallow models of openness are distant, uni-directional, and based on generosity. A creator chooses to make a resource they own and control open to others to reuse. A reuser takes that resource and does something with it. The creator may not even be aware that their resource has been used by someone else.

Deeper models of openness are close, bi-dire... See more

the way in which TikTok enables creativity and community building by supporting the reuse of soundtracks, stitching, and dueting, leading to cultural phenomena founded on collaboration

The United States, as you point out, has been actually freer than most in terms of offering access to information. It doesn’t have to be this way. Openness is not the default in terms of how if you look back in time, or even around the world. We need to show how openness works better. That you end up with companies that thrive better. That you have... See more