Critical Point of View: Second international conference of the CPOV Wikipedia Research Initiative

[Michel Bauwens]

Via Johanna Niesyto, http://www.protest-cultures.uni-siegen.de:

Critical Point of View: Second international conference of the CPOV Wikipedia Research Initiative

Date: 26-27 March 2010

Location: OBA (Public Library Amsterdam, next to Amsterdam central station), Oosterdokskade 143, Amsterdam

Organized by the Institute of Network Cultures Amsterdam, in
cooperation with the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore,
India.

Website: www.networkcultures.org/cpov

Discussion List: http://p10.alfaservers.com/mailman/listinfo/cpov_listcultures.org

Wikipedia is at the brink of becoming the de facto global reference of
dynamic knowledge. The heated debates over its accuracy, anonymity,
trust, vandalism and expertise only seem to fuel further growth of
Wikipedia and its user base. Apart from leaving its modern counterparts
Britannica and Encarta in the dust, such scale and breadth places
Wikipedia on par with such historical milestones as Pliny the Elder's
Naturalis Historia, the Ming Dynasty's Wen-hsien ta- ch' eng, and the
key work of French Enlightenment, the Encyclopédie. The multilingual
Wikipedia as digital collaborative and fluid knowledge production
platform might be said to be the most visible and successful example of
the migration of FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) principles
into mainstream culture. However, such celebration should contain
critical insights, informed by the changing realities of the Internet
at large and the Wikipedia project in particular.

The CPOV Research Initiative was founded from the urge to stimulate
critical Wikipedia research: quantitative and qualitative research that
could benefit both the wide user-base and the active Wikipedia
community itself. On top of this, Wikipedia offers critical insights
into the contemporary status of knowledge, its organizing principles,
function, and impact; its production styles, mechanisms for conflict
resolution and power (re-)constitution. The overarching research agenda
is at once a philosophical, epistemological and theoretical
investigation of knowledge artifacts, cultural production and social
relations, and an empirical investigation of the specific phenomenon of
the Wikipedia.

Conference Themes: Wiki Theory, Encyclopedia Histories, Wiki Art,
Wikipedia Analytics, Designing Debate and Global Issues and Outlooks.

Confirmed speakers: Florian Cramer (DE/NL), Andrew Famiglietti (UK),
Stuart Geiger (USA), Hendrik-Jan Grievink (NL), Charles van den Heuvel
(NL), Jeanette Hofmann (DE), Athina Karatzogianni (UK), Scott Kildall
(USA), Patrick Lichty (USA), Hans Varghese Mathews (IN), Teemu Mikkonen
(FI), Mayo Fuster Morell (IT), Mathieu O'Neil (AU), Felipe Ortega (ES),
Dan O'Sullivan (UK), Joseph Reagle (USA), Ramón Reichert (AU), Richard
Rogers (USA/NL), Alan Shapiro (USA/DE), Maja van der Velden (NL/NO),
Gérard Wormser (FR).

Editorial team: Sabine Niederer and Geert Lovink (Amsterdam), Nishant
Shah and Sunil Abraham (Bangalore), Johanna Niesyto (Siegen), Nathaniel
Tkacz (Melbourne). Project manager CPOV Amsterdam: Margreet Riphagen.
Research intern: Juliana Brunello. Production intern: Serena Westra.

The CPOV conference in Amsterdam will be the second conference of the
CPOV Wikipedia Research Initiative. The launch of the initiative took
place in Bangalore India, with the conference WikiWars in January
2010. After the first two events, the CPOV organization will work on
producing a reader, to be launched early 2011. For more information or
submitting a reader contribution: http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/cpov/reader/

Buy your ticket online at: http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/cpov/practical-info/tickets/ (with iDeal), or register by sending an email to: info (at) networkcultures.org. One day ticket: €25, students and OBA members: €12,50. Full conference pass (2 days): €40, students and OBA members: €25.

More info: www.networkcultures.org/cpov. Contact: info(at)networkcultures.org, phone: [phone]