1,026 research outputs found
La veritat de la Viquipèdia
No full textWhat does it mean to assert that Wikipedia has a relation to truth? That there is, despite regular claims to the contrary, an entire apparatus of truth in Wikipedia? In this article, I show that Wikipedia has in fact two distinct relations to truth: one which is well known and forms the basis of existing popular and scholarly commentaries, and another which refers to equally well-known aspects of Wikipedia, but has not been understood in terms of truth. I demonstrate Wikipedia’s dual relation to truth through a close analysis of the Neutral Point of View core content policy (and one of the project’s “Five Pillars”). I conclude by indicating what is at stake in the assertion that Wikipedia has a regime of truth and what bearing this has on existing commentaries
Wikipedia and the politics of openness
No full textFew virtues are as celebrated in contemporary culture as openness. Rooted in software culture and carrying more than a whiff of Silicon Valley technical utopianism, openness—of decision-making, data, and organizational structure—is seen as the cure for many problems in politics and business.
But what does openness mean, and what would a political theory of openness look like? With Wikipedia and the Politics of Openness, Nathaniel Tkacz uses Wikipedia, the most prominent product of open organization, to analyze the theory and politics of openness in practice—and to break its spell. Through discussions of edit wars, article deletion policies, user access levels, and more, Tkacz enables us to see how the key concepts of openness—including collaboration, ad-hocracy, and the splitting of contested projects through “forking”—play out in reality.
The resulting book is the richest critical analysis of openness to date, one that roots media theory in messy reality and thereby helps us move beyond the vaporware promises of digital utopians and take the first steps toward truly understanding what openness does, and does not, have to offer
‘Good luck with your wikiPAIDia’: reflections on the 2002 fork of the Spanish Wikipedia. An interview with Edgar Enyedy and Nathaniel Tkacz
No full text
Domination and networks:A response to Nathaniel Tkacz
No full textCommons-based peer production projects such as free software communities or Wikipedia represent a really existing example of a fairer way of allocating resources and resolving conflicts. They have accordingly generated high interest in issues of ‘governance’. Nathaniel Tkacz argues that Actor-Network-Theory’s Foucault-inspired reading of power as a distributed phenomenon represents an appropriate way to map and contest power asymmetries both in peer projects and in wider society (the ‘status quo’). In contrast to Tkacz, I argue that a networked conception of power fails to account for how domination is reproduced over time or for people’s inner sense of justice. I suggest some ways in which organisation studies can contribute to a better understanding of power in anti-authoritarian groups, and conclude by outlining in what way peer production governance can be said to constitute a credible alternative
Domination and networks:A response to Nathaniel Tkacz
No full textCommons-based peer production projects such as free software communities or Wikipedia represent a really existing example of a fairer way of allocating resources and resolving conflicts. They have accordingly generated high interest in issues of ‘governance’. Nathaniel Tkacz argues that Actor-Network-Theory’s Foucault-inspired reading of power as a distributed phenomenon represents an appropriate way to map and contest power asymmetries both in peer projects and in wider society (the ‘status quo’). In contrast to Tkacz, I argue that a networked conception of power fails to account for how domination is reproduced over time or for people’s inner sense of justice. I suggest some ways in which organisation studies can contribute to a better understanding of power in anti-authoritarian groups, and conclude by outlining in what way peer production governance can be said to constitute a credible alternative
In defence of ANT : a reply to Johan Söderberg
No full textIn response to Söderberg, Nathaniel Tkacz argues that the political insights afforded by ANT are not reducible to the Marxist tradition. He argues that ANT is especially well suited to describe how force flows through peer-production projects – projects which already perform their own critique of Capital. The final installment of this debate sees O’Neil argue that ANT’s ignorance of history and justice prevents it from constituting a credible alternative
Being with Data: The Dashboarding of Everyday Life
No full textOnce the rarified stuff of scientists and statisticians, data are now at the heart of our global digital economy, transforming everything from how we perceive the value of a professional athlete to the intelligence gathering activities of governments. We are told that the right data can turn an election, help predict crime, improve our businesses, our health and our capacity to make decisions.
Beginning with a simple question - how do most people encounter and experience data? - Nathaniel Tkacz sets out on a path at odds with much of the contemporary discussion about data. When we encounter data, he contends, it is often in highly routinised ways, through formatted displays and for specific cognitive tasks. What data are and can do is largely a matter of how they are formatted. To understand our 'datafied' societies, we need to turn our attention to data's formats and the powers of formatting. This book offers an account of one such format: the dashboard. From their first appearance with the horse and carriage, Tkacz guides readers on the historical development of this format. Through analyses of car dashboards, early managerial dashboards, and the gradual emergence of dashboards as a computer display technology, Tkacz shows how today's digital dashboards came to be, and how their cultural history conditions the present.
Highly original and wide-ranging, this book will change how you think about data
Wikipedia and the politics of openness
No full textFew virtues are as celebrated in contemporary culture as openness. Rooted in software culture and carrying more than a whiff of Silicon Valley technical utopianism, openness—of decision-making, data, and organizational structure—is seen as the cure for many problems in politics and business.
But what does openness mean, and what would a political theory of openness look like? With Wikipedia and the Politics of Openness, Nathaniel Tkacz uses Wikipedia, the most prominent product of open organization, to analyze the theory and politics of openness in practice—and to break its spell. Through discussions of edit wars, article deletion policies, user access levels, and more, Tkacz enables us to see how the key concepts of openness—including collaboration, ad-hocracy, and the splitting of contested projects through “forking”—play out in reality.
The resulting book is the richest critical analysis of openness to date, one that roots media theory in messy reality and thereby helps us move beyond the vaporware promises of digital utopians and take the first steps toward truly understanding what openness does, and does not, have to offer
Mechanistic Investigations into the Palladium-Catalyzed Decarboxylative Allylic Alkylation of Ketone Enolates Using the PHOX Ligand Architecture
No full textPalladium-catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylation has become a large and important field for chemical synthesis. Many methodologies in this field offer mild conditions under which challenging and important molecular features can be reliably synthesized, including chiral all-carbon quaternary stereocenters. As a result, palladium- catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylation has found significant use in total synthesis, and growing use in industry. While the general process of palladium-catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylation has been studied for decades, there have been a number of recent modifications and developments, such as asymmetric versions of decarboxylative allylic alkylation procedures that are not yet well understood. The development of future implementations and improvements to palladium-catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylation and related methodologies is expected to be facilitated by a better understanding of these more recent developments, and thus further mechanistic investigation is warranted.
Reported herein is a set of investigations into the palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative asymmetric allylic alkylation of ketone enolates using the PHOX ligand architecture. By monitoring the reaction via 31P NMR, a series of previously unidentified key intermediates is discovered. Two representatives of these key intermediates are isolated and characterized. The solution behavior of these species under reaction-like conditions is studied along with a few novel and related complexes. The role of these intermediates and their impact on the behavior of the reaction and product formation is discussed. Previously confounding experimentally observed behavior for this methodology is rationalized via the properties elucidated for these discovered intermediates.</p
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