Chris Grams

I must admit, I spent a lot of time reading Jaron Lanier's work over the weekend. I wasn't familiar with him, and I stumbled across him first here, but then also when researching my Wikipedia article posted today on the business channel. In particular, this dialog from 2006 was pretty interesting-- him vs. some of the other leading thinkers on the subject of the Wikipedia "hive mind."

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/lanier06/lanier06_index.html

I just put his new book on my Kindle, and will let you know what I think after I have read it. But in what I've seen, I don't think he is really "denouncing free culture"-- I think it is more subtle than that. I think he is warning us of some of the perils of attribution-less content (or attribution-light content).

I don't know where I stand yet, but I do think a conversation about content without attribution and accountability is a conversation worth having, even if it just helps me figure out what I think.

Drupal is a great example! And I've noticed more and more open source projects beginning to do similar things to highlight their contributors... I wonder if Wikipedia holds back for historical reasons or philosophical reasons? There is a weird hint on the Wikipedia About page here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About

"Users can contribute anonymously, under a pseudonym, or with their real identity, if they choose, though the latter is discouraged for safety reasons."

Is contributor safety the reason? Seems like people contribute all over the web now with their real names, on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Perhaps this reason is becoming outdated?