Election Day and Next Thursday's Class

Please bring your computers to class next Thursday.

And just to remind you, we won't be having class on Tuesday, Election Day. Instead please 1) check out at least two alternative or independent news sources and two mainstream news sources; 2) talk to people about how they are getting their news and communicating with people about the election day news; 3) volunteer or do something to help someone vote--give someone a ride to a polling place, volunteer at a polling place, get your friends to vote; 4) blog about it here (and don't forget to include links). And, of course VOTE if you have not already.

Here are the discussion questions for class on Thursday.

1. What are the strengths and weakness of open systems according to Wales?

2. Hoiberg applies this quote by Mumford to Wikipedia:
“[An explosion of information could] bring about a state of intellectual enervation (weakening) and deletion hardly to be distinguished from massive ignorance.” He goes on to say what is needed is “selectivity and moral-self discipline.” What does he mean by this? And what do these comments reveal about Britannica?

3. What are the biggest challenges faced by Wikipedia?

4. Is Wikipedia democratic in process (is it run democratically?), as a product (does it give people info they need to participate in democracy?), in its effects (does it mobilize people?)?

5. What are the fundamental issues associated with each form of encyclopedia?
(For example expert vs collective intelligence, but there are many more)