In 2006, the artist and computer scientist Jaron Lanier published an incisive, groundbreaking and highly controversial essay about “digital Maoism” — about the downside of online collectivism, and the enshrinement by Web 2.0 enthusiasts of the “wisdom of the crowd.” In that manifesto Mr. Lanier argued that design (or ratification) by committee often does not result in the best product, and that the new collectivist ethos — embodied by everything from Wikipedia to “American Idol” to Google searches — diminishes the importance and uniqueness of the individual voice, and that the “hive mind” can easily lead to mob rule.

Het wordt hoog tijd dat rijk en gemeenten hun angst voor de participerende burger opzij zetten, vindt ICT-hoogleraar Victor Bekkers. Via internet moeten ze zoveel mogelijk gegevens openbaar maken om ideeën van burgers te mobiliseren. 'Voor beleidsmakers zal het spel anarchistischer worden.'

How DataSF.org, which publishes dozens of official data sets, is starting to transform life and politics in San Francisco

A place where you can collaborate with other people to investigate things 1. Start an investigation 2. Invite other people to help you investigate it 3. Collaborate and share answers

Entering the search term Rome on Flickr returns more than two million photographs. This collection represents an increasingly complete photographic record of the city, capturing every popular site, facade, interior, fountain, sculpture, painting, cafe, and so forth. It also offers us an unprecedented opportunity to richly capture, explore and study the three dimensional shape of the city. In this project, we consider the problem of reconstructing entire cities from images harvested from the web.

De afgelopen week heb ik een nieuwe afkorting gesignaleerd: BPI. Niet te verwarren met BPM (de belasting op nieuwe auto's) of BPO (business proces outsourcing). BPI staat voor burgerparticipatie innovatie: via internet kunnen burgers bij het vaststellen van overheidsbeleid worden betrokken.

Therein lies the opportunity - using pieces of these default home pages (maintained by organisations that claim to have a social purpose, remember) for more good than simply repeatedly reminding users about the the brand of the product.

If I had to pick the critical technology for the 20th century, the bit of social lubricant without which the wheels would've come off the whole enterprise, I'd say it was the sitcom. Starting with the Second World War a whole series of things happened--ri

The strength of web communities is based on trust.

[10-07-2007] Het Amerikaanse blad Wired publiceerde gisteren op zijn website een test waarbij zoekresultaten van iStockphoto werden vergeleken met die van Corbis. Conclusie van Wired: even goed, maar bij de eerste ben je voor 30 dollar klaar, bij de ander

Prikkelend stuk van Marie-Jose Klaver, vanochtend in NRC Next, over vergelijkingssites als Kieskeurig.nl. Maar een kleine groep zogeheten ‘uploaders’ of ‘technofans’ schrijven recensies waarin ze producten beoordelen, blijkt volgens Klaver uit Ned