I understand your reservations completely. I do not belong to any social media platforms. My concern, as a retired teacher, is that this newest generation of kids who prefer texting to talking or reader, literally do not know how to conduct a constructive debate using facts to reach a mutually agreed upon conclusion. I think that Wikimedia should not get involved in any social platform but can remind people that summoning Wikipedia or WhikiChat can bring peer reviewed curated facts to help them learn to debate instead of calling each other names.
It does not help to build a Noah’s Ark if there is no place for the Ark to land. Like it or not, a technologically empowered superpower (US) unfettered by a poorly informed populace is more dangerous than Germany of the early 1940s… Thanks for responding, I do donate annually to Wikipedia and use it often Fred Fredric Gorin MD PhD Professor Emeritus UC Davis On Sun, Jan 19, 2025 at 8:59 AM Anders Wennersten <m...@anderswennersten.se> wrote: > I agree that our traditional context of truth, and what reality looks > like, is under attack. > > And, oh, how happy I am that we under these 20+ years have created our > wonderful Wikipedia with sister project. And not only create a repository > but also a network or 10th of thousand committed and competent volunteers, > supported by a clever infrastructure, including totally independent > steering structure and financing (the endowment fund is really important in > these days) > > If we just keep this alive and according to our vision and mission we > will be the Noah's Ark of our time, that will come out as a key component > to the new brave world that will emerge when the current problematic times > is over! > > So ,I do not hink we actively should get into the social media mess of > today, even if we, if requests occur, should help in getting our > information available as broadly as possible. > > And i also believe the most import for us at this time is to strengthen > the content and infrastructure of our projects > > Anders > > > > > Den 2025-01-19 kl. 08:02, skrev Fredric Gorin: > > Social media is a mixed blessing as it pertains to informational content. > On the positive side it democratizes access and informational transmission > to a much larger number of individuals who can report and discuss > information on an individual or tribal level. > > This strength is also the weakness of all social media platforms and > frankly threatening US democracy. Without being grounded by some > incontrovertible facts, , discussion of opinions morph into “alternative > facts”- “the scientific data on smoking causing cancer is still up for > debate”, “global warming from carbon dioxide emissions has not been > conclusively proven”, “the US lunar landing was faked”. Etc. > > Wikimedia could provide Wkipedia links during a social media discussion > upon the request of a participant (example “type Wkimedia’s version of > Chatgpt” or “ask Alexa”). > > The Wkipedia subject links would provide access on to peer-edited > information about a topic without Wikimedia offering a declaration of > “facts”. Wikipedia should preface the links by explaining how the > information is provided and curated. ‘Asking about the origins of Covid > virus” would expose social media participants to two points of view and > educate them that information is continually being refined toward a common > objective of veracity and not to provide “alternative truths”. Wikipedia > thus serves as a real time educational tool. > > A democracy only functions when its populace is educated to accept some > factual underpinnings “ozone layer was being destroyed by > fluorohydrocarbons” and corrective measures has permitted majorly recovery > of the ozone layer. > > The US political system is entering rocky waters as a semi-democracy (see > Economist magazine criteria) and the abilty to call a “WkikChatGPT” by a > participant from any platform in the middle of any discussion provides > informational grounding that is peer-reviewed and updated. It would > desirable when data is refuted (“the January 6 storming of the Capitol was > peaceful”) to provide a Wiki moderator (also ChatGPT) query about the facts > and assumptions underlying data refutation. > > Let me know if I can be helpful or why is not a useful endeavor. > WikipediaChatGPT will be summoned from outside ant social media platform > The AI will need to recognize that many questions are rhetorical and to > identify them as such. > > Let me know how I can be helpful or why this proposal is flawed > > Thanks > > Fredric Gorin MD PhD > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/2IUQ3AVSW3CC3NYYQY3RWG74S36I4RXT/ > To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/Z4V5HDUL67BH22JW623KJTCPXREVFC3F/ > To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org
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