[spectre] Jaron Lanier Superstar

[Heiko Recktenwald]

There may be a lot of mediocre bullshit in the net, but this snippet 
from todays BPBs e-feuilleton just shows, that JL is a superidiot.

Virtual Reality, wasnt that kitsch anyway?

Sometimes you meet people in the net and see suddenly how they really 
are, whatever they say later. My experience with Jaron was Jaron, the 
SPAMMER.

H.


*Germany - Süddeutsche Zeitung*
The newspaper prints part of an essay 
<http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/lanier06/lanier06_index.html> published 
in the online magazine 'edge' in which computer scientist Jaron 'Lanier 
<http://www.jaronlanier.com/> criticises people’s blind faith in 
Wikipedia and the "resurgence of the idea that the collective is 
all-wise, that it is desirable to have influence concentrated in a 
bottleneck that can channel the collective with the most verity and 
force. This is different from representative democracy, or 
meritocracy... History has shown us again and again that a hive mind is 
a cruel idiot when it runs on autopilot. Nasty hive mind outbursts have 
been flavoured Maoist, Fascist, and religious, and these are only a 
small sampling. I don't see why there couldn't be future social 
disasters that appear suddenly under the cover of technological utopia. 
If wikis are to gain any more influence they ought to be improved by 
mechanisms like the ones that have worked tolerably well in the 
pre-Internet world. The best guiding principle is to always cherish 
individuals first."
*» to the homepage* (Süddeutsche Zeitung) <http://www.sueddeutsche.de>
*» further articles on the theme* (Media/Global) 
<http://www.eurotopics.net/en/presseschau/archiv/aehnliche?likearticle=5183>

*Switzerland - Neue Zürcher Zeitung*
Reinher Stadler casts a critical eye over the promised benefits of 
citizen journalism that, with the publishing of the "Readers Edition 
<http://www.readers-edition.de/>" of the Netzeitung online magazine, has 
now found a new platform among German speakers. "It remains highly 
unlikely that platforms like this will create an entirely new form of 
journalism, as 'Readers Edition' rather self-importantly proclaims. 
Although several media companies are toying with the idea of using this 
new brand of journalism, they are motivated not by the desire to 
encourage free and independent media discourse but rather by the desire 
to win back an increasingly disloyal customer base with interactive 
forms and to control the communicative needs of readers through their 
own channels... This is the profane core of 'user-generated content', as 
citizen journalism is referred to in the tedious and revealing language 
of the German media industry."
*» full article* (external link, German) 
<http://www.nzz.ch/2006/06/16/em/articleE7D2O.html>
*» further articles on the theme* (Media/Global) 
<http://www.eurotopics.net/en/presseschau/archiv/aehnliche?likearticle=5191>

*Austria - Der Standard*
Editor in chief Gerfried Sperl writes about the growing popularity of 
citizen journalism and its dangers. "Because blogging (less frequently) 
and posting (usually) are done anonymously, they can become instruments 
to achieve the opposite of freedom of opinion. Massive human rights 
violations are just one of the problems, minor irritations are another. 
Anyone can use the name 'George Bush' when posting. Was it him or wasn’t 
it? How do Internet newspapers react? Sperl says postings are often 
checked to ensure that they are not in conflict with media laws or other 
aspects before they are published, but adds: "You can’t be 100 percent 
sure. However many bloggers accept all kinds of postings because in the 
end they can't be held accountable. But at the same time they also put 
Internet journalism’s credibility at risk."
*» full article* (external link, German) 
<http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=2475289%26_range=1>
*» further articles on the theme* (Media/Global) 
<http://www.eurotopics.net/en/presseschau/archiv/aehnliche?likearticle=5186>