[spectre] Geert Lovink and Nathaniel Tkacz (eds), Critical Point of View: A Wikipedia Reader (INC Reader #7)

[Geert Lovink]

INC Reader #7

Critical Point of View: A Wikipedia Reader
Geert Lovink and Nathaniel Tkacz (eds)

For millions of internet users around the globe, the search for new  
knowledge begins with Wikipedia. The encyclopedia’s rapid rise, novel  
organization, and freely offered content have been marveled at and  
denounced by a host of commentators. Critical Point of View moves  
beyond unflagging praise, well-worn facts, and questions about its  
reliability and accuracy, to unveil the complex, messy, and  
controversial realities of a distributed knowledge platform.

The essays, interviews and artworks brought together in this reader  
form part of the overarching Critical Point of View research  
initiative, which began with a conference in Bangalore (January 2010),  
followed by events in Amsterdam (March 2010) and Leipzig (September  
2010). With an emphasis on theoretical reflection, cultural difference  
and indeed, critique, contributions to this collection ask: What  
values are embedded in Wikipedia’s software? On what basis are  
Wikipedia’s claims to neutrality made? How can Wikipedia give voice to  
those outside the Western tradition of Enlightenment, or even its own  
administrative hierarchies? Critical Point of View collects original  
insights on the next generation of wiki-related research, from radical  
artistic interventions and the significant role of bots to hidden  
trajectories of encyclopedic knowledge and the politics of agency and  
exclusion.

Contributors: Amila Akdag Salah, Nicholas Carr, Shun-ling Chen,  
Florian Cramer, Morgan Currie, Edgar Enyedy, Andrew Famiglietti,  
Heather Ford, Mayo Fuster Morell, Cheng Gao, R. Stuart Geiger, Mark  
Graham, Gautam John, Dror Kamir, Peter B. Kaufman, Scott Kildall,  
Lawrence Liang, Patrick Lichty, Geert Lovink, Hans Varghese Mathews,  
Johanna Niesyto, Matheiu O’Neil, Dan O’Sullivan, Joseph Reagle, Andrea  
Scharnhorst, Alan Shapiro, Christian Stegbauer, Nathaniel Stern,  
Krzystztof Suchecki, Nathaniel Tkacz, Maja van der Velden.

Colophon: Editors: Geert Lovink and Nathaniel Tkacz. Editorial  
Assistance: Ivy Roberts and Morgan Currie. Copy-Editing: Cielo Lutino.  
Design: Katja van Stiphout. Cover Image: Ayumi Higuchi. Priner: Ten  
Klei, Amsterdam. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam.  
Supported by: The School for Communication and Design at the Amsterdam  
University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool van Amsterdam DMCI), the  
Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) in Bangalore and the Kusuma Trust.

You can download the pdf for free here: http://www.networkcultures.org/_uploads/%237reader_Wikipedia.pdf

To order a hard copy of the reader, send an email to books at networkcultures.org

Geert Lovink and Nathaniel Tkacz (eds), Critical Point of View: A  
Wikpedia Reader, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2011. ISBN:  
978-90-78146-13-1, paperback, 385 pages.