Block Seoul — Jim Wales keynote speech | by Parallel 38°

Keynote speaker of the event is Jim Wales, founder of Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation and recently Wikitribune.com.

Block Seoul is organized by Luna Labs, a blockchain optimized online dating app and data analytics company, which launched crypto token Luna Stars (LSTR).

The mission statement of Wikimedia Foundation.

Statistics of the first open source contributed, distributed, decentralized online encyclopedia.

A conservative estimate of monthly readers.

In other words how ubiquitous is or can Internet be in the short term future?.

Cost of goods are decreasing but not as fast as the cost of technology. The Wham WS36 is an Indian low cost smartphone, available at less than 20 USD, with specifications similar to the first generation of iPhones, launched by Apple in 2007.

“Bandwidth is not a barrier anymore”. Network connections in term of bandwidth are now similar all over the world. A Lagos five star hotel internet Wifi speed is on par with New York hotspot, if not faster.

Top sites in Africa are similar to global ratings.

Internet is now available globally at same speed and bandwidth. The world is digitally connected.

Information has always been important. In essence democracy can only exist when there is an informed public opinion. The role of the press as a source of truth has been eroded by the commercialization of information: does the general media provide entertainment, while the press is the last resort of independent, verified, interesting/relevant, comprehensive/proportional information?

In “The Elements of Journalism” veteran journalists B. Kovach and T. Rosenstiel list the ten purposes of journalism. The first five are: 1) Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth. 2) Its first loyalty is to the citizens. 3) Its essence is a discipline of verification. 4) Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover. 5) It must serve as an independent monitor of power.

Ads-only contents is irrelevant, because only demographics and number of reads/views are the drivers of revenues. Investigative reports are not meaningful any longer in this context, because contents become irrelevant and are only a mean to attract more traffic of reads and views.

Fake news, fake photos, fake videos can now be propagated online almost in real time to the global audience, becoming truth.

This photograph in Beijing has been featured differently in different news outlets: in US as “sunset screen necessary for the extremely polluted air in Beijing”, in China as “US news sites show picture of big screen in Beijing square”.

Wikitribune is the new project launched by Jim Wales to contribute for an informed global public opinion. It will be a community-driven crowdfunded online news service, mostly sourced by professional and paid journalists with contribution from readers. In 2004 Wikimedia Foundation launched also Wikinews to provide a free content alternative to commercial news sites, making sure that articles are fact-checked and reviewed thoroughly. Wikinews reports and interviews are written collaboratively and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic.

Jimmy Wales goes after fake news with Wikitribune — a crowdfunded site for reporters (Wired).

Block Seoul Day 2: Crypto mass adoption still has ‘too many problems’ (CoinGeek YouTube Channel)

Block Seoul — Jim Wales keynote speech

Written by Parallel 38°