Gdańsk, WikiMania and <Truth in Numbers?>
It’s 11pm on a sultry evening in Gdańsk. I’m in the city to attend WikiMania, the annual conference for wiki projects operated by the WikiMedia Foundation – especially, Wikipedia.
On this particular sultry evening, the second day of WikiMania has just about wrapped up. Buses filled to capacity with Wikipedians wrapped up in earnest discussion are shuttling the majority of attendees to the birthplace of the Solidarity movement, the Gdańsk shipyard.
I’ve taken my leave. While I’d love to see the shipyards, it’s been a full day and I was feeling a bit unwell after letting myself get dehydrated in the heat.
Earlier in the evening we had the privilege of being the first audience to see <Truth in Numbers?>, a documentary on the Wikipedia movement and it’s critics.
The film, shot and produced over a 5 year period between 2005 and 2010, focused on what Wikipedia is, what effects it has had, who the Wikipedians are, and what the criticisms are of Wikipedia.
The film felt like a media literacy piece that was designed to foster discussion and introspection. The audience of dedicated Wikimedians took the film in many different ways. By turns, it was praised and criticized. A socially awkward young man made a long comment that abstractly reduced to, “I’m disappointed that the film wasn’t made for my own needs.” One volunteer was visibly wounded by the film and commented that he felt attacked. I threw in my two cents. Sue Gardner, the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation offered her views. Small discussions and comments were twittered.
The film is worthwhile. It will foster discussions that will develop better media literacy – not just around Wikipedia, but also for traditional scholarship and media.
In some ways, perhaps the most shaken community member should have been Jimmy Wales. The movie provided a balanced view of his faults, something that few of us would like to see. Still, after the screening, he was on stage, answering questions alongside the directors and seeming to take it all in stride.
In the criticisms of Wikipedia, I’ve always been surprised at how often people focus on Jimmy and the idea that he is the project leader– it seems clear to them that this North American white male of a suitably alpha age should be in control of the project. Perhaps this idea is more comforting to them than the idea that the control really vests in those who do the work.
