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Collective Anonymity

I’d like to bring up Wikipedia as an example of Collective Anonymity. Although in a strict sense Wikipedia is not anonymous at all (since almost all revisions are associated with a user), I’m using the term ‘Anonymous’ to mean that its articles are generally described “authorless” because they’ve been written and edited collectively. As seen in [knowledge_object_id:19]s Wiki v.s. AcademiXML diagram, Wikipedia follows a Many makes One method of collaboration, a method similar to that of the Bible or mythologies, written, spoken and edited over many hundreds of years. The Mass-think, Many makes One philosophy seems a prominent image shared by some utopic Web 2.0 visions, but what is notable is how the “One” becomes increasingly imposing as more contributions are made – making, for example, Wikipedia an extremely moderated site requiring a lot of expertise to avoid getting a new article banned. Wikipedia is a significant achievement in terms of creating high quality, free access encyclopedia, but in this sense it does strongly resemble “unity imposed on texts”. This may be a crucial reason behind the following issue raised by Geert Lovink about the lack of new theory developed on Wiki platforms :
[lovink] ‘why are wikis and other online platforms not utilized more to create, develop and change theory and theoretical concepts, instead of theory continuing to be considered, as it is now, primarily the ‘terrain of the sole author who contemplates the world, preferably offline, surrounded by a pile of books, a fountain pen, and a notebook?’’[/lovink]
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#collection [id:22, creator:"Hiromi Ozaki", time:"2009-09-25T01.41.58.0Z", tag:"Collective Anonymity"]

#hiromi [creator:"Hiromi Ozaki", time:"2009-09-25T01.41.58.0Z", tag:"Collective Anonymity"]

#lovink [creator: "Geert Lovink", title:"Updating Tactical Media: Strategies for Media Activism’, Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture (London: Routledge)", time: "2007-08-09T00.00.00.0Z", tag:"Wiki, New Theory, Innovation"]

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