Once upon a time, it was deemed that History is written by the winners, it seems Mr. Tishman envisions a future where History is written by the whiners.  "It doesn't matter if it's TRUE, you're entitled to your own personal reality" -- feh.  In time, the experiment will fail, passing to the wayside as a fad, and something sane will come over the horizon -- do-it-yourself Media is doomed to fail, even if there is a degree of self-gratifiacation as people feel they are important as they temporarily make their opinion "Fact" just by typing it.

I'm just now reading this thread for the first time, and I'm...aghast and appalled. The depth to which some people will sink...and for what? It's completely absurd and ridiculous. They (or he or she) don't like JB's comics, so they call him a sex offender...on an encyclopedic database...have mercy.

Mike Tishman: Mass participatory media run by amateurs is what the future looks like.

Is that really a good idea, though?  Honestly, I'm not going to trust the guy that sometimes tinkers around with car engines to fix my car when something goes wrong.  I want someone that certifiably knows what they're doing.

And if I'm needing information about underwater basket-weaving, I damn well want to know that the information is accurate.  I don't see how that's possible in mass participatory media run by amateurs.

When my students are working on their research papers, I always tell them to be cautious about what they find on the Internet. Of course, there's lots of good, helpful stuff out there, but "Billy Bob's Hemingway Whiz-Bang" may not be the best place to go for legitimate material.