Wikipedia started as one of the greatest gatherings of knowledge on the internet. Aided by all levels of mastery and understanding it grew to be for the most part reputable starts of any research project or quandary. Now the great site is a sordid excuse of a despotic administration handing out favoritism to agenda pushing organizations and individuals rather than anything approaching objective truth.
Tired of watching the internet slip from a place where “we charted out own destiny” to a place where special interests and corporations “use people contemptuously,” Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger has, with The Knowledge Standards Foundation, been developing a successor to the — as he and many others view — now corrupt Wikipedia.
As he sees it, today Wikipedia is “in the hands of an anonymous mob” that dictates with the aid of the Wikipedia Foundation what the truth of each article will be. It cannot be said his views are wrong. All one has to do for a perfect example is look up the controversial handling of the Gamergate page or look towards the coverage of Pizzagate. A conspiracy involving elite pedophilia rings that today we know as fact with the exposure of Eptstein, but was at the time widely mocked by the establishment and people on the Left. Wikipedia would go so far as to delete journalists Wikipedia pages in retaliation for covering the topic and falsely label the conspiracy as debunked.
If you dare commit the high crime of having politics believed to be right leaning editors will delete your Wikipedia pages. If you think you are safe because you are a Centrist or lean only slightly Left think again. Not only did they hit their desired target during this purge, but also hit several leftist and centralist writers in the dragnet against wrong think.
The co-founder and man responsible behind the success of Wikipedia –Larry Sanger- now returns with a new project he believes will revolutionize the internet once again returning the power to the hands of the people that helped shaped it to be great in the beginning.
You know why Wikipedia took off so fast? I can tell you why, because I piloted the take-off. It’s because people REALLY REALLY wanted a free encyclopedia built by the general public.
— Larry Sanger (@lsanger) October 8, 2019
You know why Wikipedia took off so fast? I can tell you why, because I piloted the take-off. It’s because people REALLY REALLY wanted a free encyclopedia built by the general public.
That’s just what Wikipedia was, for a while. That’s why the neutrality policy actually worked, for a while.
Then the editorial cabal closed, small, and insular. I told them not to become that way when I left, but they did anyway.
— Larry Sanger (@lsanger) October 8, 2019
That’s just what Wikipedia was, for a while. That’s why the neutrality policy actually worked, for a while.
Then the editorial cabal closed, small, and insular. I told them not to become that way when I left, but they did anyway.
Not much is known about the project whose full reveal will be on October 17th, but what is known sounds simple and revolutionary. As of yet its creators have not bestowed a name upon it, but for sake of coverage we will be calling it the Encyclosphere. Understand though the term is coined by the creator this has not been revealed to be the official name of the new project.
How? By spreading out encyclopedic content among a zillion websites and loosely joining them via a neutral, technical standard for sharing. Like the Blogosphere.
There will be no way for a controlling cabal to manipulate it, any more than there is one for the Blogosphere.
— Larry Sanger (@lsanger) October 8, 2019
How? By spreading out encyclopedic content among a zillion websites and loosely joining them via a neutral, technical standard for sharing.
Like the Blogosphere. There will be no way for a controlling cabal to manipulate it, any more than there is one for the Blogosphere.
What is known about the Encyclosphere is it will be decentralized commons similar to how blogging or the Fediverse operates. What this means is hosting of individual content will not be controlled by a singular source, but will be distributed amongst a potentially infinite number of hosts. Thus preventing any one group or individual from asserting complete control over the entire network of competing articles.
Each topic will offer competing versions of the article, each available for the audience to see and rate. While this does not prevent the inevitable brigading and bot manipulation of ratings, users will be able to judge for themselves the value of each individual piece and source. They may strike down article scores, but they cannot strike down the article in question.
The Knowledge Standards Foundation will retain development control, but other developers are allowed to build even for profit on top of the foundation they release. Sanger has confirmed the foundation will remain non-profit with no public offerings or investor related schemes. The network itself will be a truly decentralized network without any leaders deciding what voice gets heard and which does not.
The official reveal will be on the 17th, but Sanger has confirmed the platform is already in a usable state where he and other volunteers are already contributing. A long drawn out battle awaits us up ahead as we continue to challenge the legacy media and old institutions such as Wikipedia.
If you want to help out The Knowledge Standard Foundation they are looking for various individuals in multiple fields to aid the project. A full list of all those that are needed is available. Ranging from coders to writers to content creators of every variety and beyond are all needed to help see this project to fruition. Check it out and stay tuned for the upcoming official announcement.
