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Mel and I rented a car this weekend to go to the wedding of two of my friends from college. Happened to be up in Quechee,VT right about the peak of fall foliage. Much to our delight,the car rental company upgraded us to a Volvo C70 hard-top convertible. Pretty amazing weekend all around. Bigs news that Pavement has reunited for a brief tour,including a 4-night stand in Central Park. Maybe I had to hit just the right age,but I was never really into Pavement until recently. I remember giving their albums a listen early in my high school days and just wasn’t feeling it. Fast forward to 2009 and I “picked up”their albums for another go round. Now,listening to their music reminds me of a lot of the parts about new,current rock music that I love,but they just do those things better than bands of today. Elements of country and grunge co-mingle on Terror Twilight and Wowee Zowee in a way that isn’t at odds,but is just good ol’rock ‘n roll. Pavement –“Cream of Gold” Play me! Pavement –“Rattled by the Rush” Play me! Working on content at Hunch over the past year has given me plenty of time to mull over various aspects of creating a UGC product. At a certain point,I realized that each and every day I was spending some amount of time at wikipedia. While assembling content and knowledge online,inevitably I kept coming across the king of all wikis. It has informed many of the UGC principles we use at Hunch,figuring that the contributors and bosses of wikipedia have already reached pretty solid positions on issues that can,at times,be especially tricky. Along the way,I’ve been picking out some of my favorite pages from across wikipedia to be shared here,beginning with one that details a central principle that I believe must exist in all wikis. This page details why,when settling disagreements,polling of the crowd is not a substitute for discussion and collaboration. It is forceful,authoritarian and anti-democratic,yet it stands at the core of a tool that has totally obliterated the barriers to entry for public knowledge and near-factual authority —and this is all a good thing! At once top-heavy and bureaucratic,in my eyes this principle helps wikipedia affirm a consensus on disagreements in a manner that both a) takes a bit o’time to appeal,discuss and simmer and b) will eventually reach a single judge to just put an end to the matter. Headed deep into Williamsburg last night with Mel. Caught a concert at the Mast Brothers Chocolate Factory and then made our way to fette sau for dinner and beers. Highlights of the night were the black angus brisket and Captain Lawrence Liquid Gold on tap. Delicious.
This also represents my complete transfer to WordPress. I’m liking it much more than my old home. Old posts to come streaming in… Snapped these last year from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.
Spring? Is that you?
Happy Holidays everyone! I’m at home for a relaxing week and felt it | ||||||
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