The Dave Eggers of Web 2.0 answers Questions 5.0

Wikipedia has grown to a HAL 9000 level of independence from its creator, Jimmy Wales, who must be at a crossroads in his life.  He needs a new thing.  Is Wikia his 'Next Next Thing' or will it become a Bomis?  Not only is there pressure to find a new project, but for someone like the founder of Wikipedia, he must feel the pressure to find a project that has societal impact.  At the very least, commercial impact

That pressure aside, you could call Jimmy Wales the Dave Eggers of Web 2.0, a philosopher-entrepreneur, hindered by a pedestal as he tries to stay a touchstone for countless editors.  Maybe Wikia will work out, maybe it will just stay a niche.  Even if Wikia is just a minor project, Wales knows every move he makes will be measured in terms of his legacy. 

Therein lies the problem.  Maybe Jimmy Wales will shaft the Eggers anology.  There has yet to be a J.D. Salinger of Web 2.0  and this may be a respite from the spotlight.  A world where nobody can prove that a certain sockpuppet bears a resemblance to a certiain mild-mannered pragmatist thinker.

More likely, he will become the Dean Kamen of Web 2.0.  Until then, here are five questions with Jimmy Wales:

JW:  The text of the First Amendment.

JW:  United Kingdom.

JW:  People imagine that I am remote and inaccessible when in fact I am right here in email, totally available to anyone who wants to talk to me.  I prefer the company of people who care.

JW:  No, I have been quite fortunate in this regard.

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR PEOPLE - A SERIES

• BILLY NAME - Famous Warhol live-in photographer; silverized the Factory; shot the cover of the Velvet Underground's eponymous album; iconic portraits of Lou Reed and Edie Sedgwick...I have five questions for you.

(Jimmy Wales photo:  Joi Ito via Wikipedia)

        

This was taken today:


Found on:  Physical Trauma, Paramedics in the United States

        

A favorite Wikipedia image of mine was taken with a cheap camera when I first started to photograph New York City for the site.  It was one of those spontaneous moments I was glad I captured back in March of 2007 (I've been photographing for Wikimedia two years this month):


Found on:  East Village, Manhattan; First Avenue (Manhattan); Miss Understood and Second Avenue Line (Manhattan surface)

I literally yelled, "Go out and stop that bus!" and she did!  This photograph of famed drag artist Miss Understood (Alex Heimberg) was also turned into a comic strip by Samuel Ferri in the magazine Time Out New York.

        

Steve Cuozzo of the New York Post engaged in the easiest of games: picking out inaccuracies in Wikipedia.  Unfortunately, his target was a particularly horrific mess:  New York City Wikipedia articles.  In "Urban Myths: What Wikipedia Gets Wrong about NYC", Cuozzo supplies a list of the site's glaring problems in its coverage of one of the foremost cities in the world.  The problems are hard to defend.

At the New York Wikipedia Meet-Up this Sunday, Newyorkbrad gravely burnished the article for all of us to read. 

Shocking inaccuracy on New York Wikipedia articles

Some of the problems are the usual silly things that are not dire, such as mixing up on which side of Broadway that Seventh Avenue falls (the west side south of Times Square; then it switches to the east side). 

Still, other problems are more disconcerting in that they are real examples of mangled information, difficult for readers or editors to fix or spot.  A few examples, quoting Cuozzo:

• "For starters, there's no "residential tower" planned at Ground Zero. A museum will not highlight "many of the different aspects of the past and future World Trade Centers." The Port Authority did not "organize a competition through the LMDC" to come up with a master plan in 2002 - it was entirely the work of the LMDC."
• "Take the entry on Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. When Kelly replaced Lee Brown as commissioner under Mayor David Dinkins in the early 1990s, we are told he 'saw the continuing reduction of crime that started with Lee Brown's community policing concept.' Most New Yorkers who recall that period will guffaw at that..."
• "...the article snarks that although Trump values 40 Wall at $400 million, city tax officials assess it at just $90 million. Such assessed valuations have nothing to do with a building's market value."
• "Of the New York Palace Hotel, it says former owner Harry Helmsley hired architect Emery Roth to design a 55-story tower to "blend in" with the historic Villard Houses at the site. Of course, although the entry's writers (maybe the hotel PR people?) don't mention it, Helmsley, over a period of years, infamously tried to demolish the Villard Houses - a widely reported preservation saga of the 1970s that's common knowledge to locals, but unknown to Wikipedia."

These are serious errors.  The New York editors have begun to pledge to at the very least adopt the article(s) that contend with their neighborhood. 

The East Village article as model

I adopted the East Village article, and I will brag about what I have done there if I may be so bold.  When I started to edit the article seriously in March of 2008 it was anemic.  The information was littered with trivia, inaccuracies and it contained only seven citations between three sources.  As of August 2008, there are 38 sources. 

I expanded coverage of the parks, the museums, the performance and art spaces and the cultural make-up.  I included information about festivals, internal neighborhoods and major art movements.  If you see a section that does not have a source on the article, that's because I have yet to work on it.

There is much work to be done on the article, but I think Cuozzo will have trouble writing that this article is wildly problematic.

        

As an interview technique I would ask substantive questions and then abruptly take the interview into absurd directions.  This would take the interviewee out of his or her "I've done a million of these interviews" headspace, and lead to more interesting answers.  They were also a lot of fun.  I typically did them with musicians.

One of the more fun of these was with Alex Necochea, of the Boston band Bang Camaro (on left in the photo with Bryn Bennett).  Below is a snippet of my wild Wikinews interview with Alex last October:

DS: Does the war in Iraq affect you artistically at all?

AN: [Laughs] No, not at all. No, you could say I'm just like everybody else. I read the paper and blogs, and I'm just as horrified as everybody else. I'm definitely not a fan of this war.

DS: If you had to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan, where would you fight?

AN: Oh, the fight was definitely in Afghanistan. Iraq was a much different animal.

DS: Are you more inspired by things in nature or things that are man made?

AN: I would probably have to go with nature. I'm a student of science. I have a degree in environmental geology. When I was 19/20 years old I went through all the regular existential questions people that age go through: why am I here and my place in the universe, that sort of thing.

DS: Did you answer any of them?

AN: Oh, God! I play rock guitar in a twenty man band!

DS: What's your favorite curse word?

AN: Fuck.

DS: What's your favorite euphemism for breasts?

AN: Big guns.

DS: Have you used that recently?

AN: Actually, I think I did use that in the last week, and no comment.

DS: I read that you named the band after fast women and fast cars.

AN: [Laughs] Who told you that? No, Bang Camaro were two words out of the English language that were the two sexiest words we could think of. We put them together and they roll off the tongue. Bang Camaro. It says a lot more than it means.

DS: What possession do you treasure most?

AN: That's a good question. Probably my cat. I love my cat more than anything.

DS: What's your cat's name?

AN: Sadie.

DS: Like Sexy Sadie?

AN: Yeah, like Sexy Sadie. That's exactly what I named her after. Big John Lennon fan, so I couldn't resist.

DS: What do you think are the greatest threats to humanity?

AN: Humanity itself. You can typically read anywhere that humanity is a virus, a plague, on Mother Earth. I really think the greatest threat to humanity is not a meteor or comet hurtling toward the planet, it's us. We'll be our own undoing. Bad politics, the spread of...oh, man, I could get in trouble...

DS: Who would you get in trouble with?

AN: No, I don't know who I could get in trouble with. But I definitely think that capitalism is something that having gone unchecked for so long isn't doing right in delivering civil freedom. It's not delivering on its promises. Then again, I play in a rock band and people come pay to see me. I understand it works on both levels.

        

Cary Bass sent me a PDF (thank you, Cary!) of a piece of mail addressed to me that arrived in San Francisco for a Fashion Week party.  I've received loads already and it's still weeks away.  This is my first year photographing a fashion week, so I am struggling to learn the ropes: who I need to talk to; who I need to contact; where I get my badges; where am I allowed access; etc.

I will be photographing for Wikimedia projects (namely, Wikipedia, Commons and Wikinews) at Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week.  For portrait shots, the biggest event so far isn't red carpet, it's yellow, as in the brick road:

What:     Debut of The Wizard of Oz Ruby Slipper Collection, made with CRYSTALLIZED™ - Swarovski Elements, in the famed windows of Saks Fifth Avenue and in 10022-SHOE serves as the official launch to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week [MBFW]. Top shoe designers were granted creative license to reinterpret the iconic Ruby Slippers with unlimited access to CRYSTALLIZED™ - Swarovski Elements.

 

Who:      Participating designers include: A. Testoni, Abaete, Alberta Ferretti, Betsey Johnson, Botkier, Christian Louboutin, Diane von Furstenberg, Giuseppe Zanotti, Jimmy Choo, L.A.M.B. by Gwen Stefani, Lisa Pliner, Manolo Blahnik, Moschino, Oscar de la Renta, Roger Vivier, Sergio Rossi, Stuart Weitzman, Tibi, Tuleh

 

                Additional special guests to be announced.

I wonder who the special guests will be.

The last time I was at Fashion Week was when I took that ratty photo, above, in 2002 (that's Anna Wintour and Andre Leon Talley in the glow of the dress).  Back then I was dating a designer, who now has his own line that...shows at fashion week.  We haven't spoken in years, and I doubt we will run into each other.  The whole event is a mad house.

        

Currently up for consensus is whether to keep the current lead Stephen Colbert image, or change it with two new ones that became available tonight.  Go to the Talk:Stephen Colbert thread to voice an opinion.  Here are the candidates (click to enlarge):

Current


Borders Book Store, NYC, 11/2007

The Contenders

Candidate #1:


Tribeca Film Festival, May 2008


And Candidate No. 2:


Tribeca Film Festival, May 2008

        

Bleach Portrait of Al Santos, April 2008

Bleach portraits are rare.  They are often discarded by professional photographers as unusuable.  They occur at an instant when so many flashbulbs go off at once, the subject becomes bleached-out.  It is not Photoshop, it is not a camera setting.  It's a moment, and often a significant one in the life of the subject.

You can, naturally, replicate the effect easily with any photo; but for it to be a true bleach portrait, it must occur naturally in the wild.  Also called the red carpet.

Al Santos is an extraordinarily good-looking guy; a former Abercrombie model; and a rising star who has started his break-out.  He had starring roles in the teen-oriented shows The Help and Grosse Pointe.  In 2008, he was in the horror-comedy Killer Movie, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.  Red carpets are natural places where rare bleach portraits occur, and Tribeca's was where this one happened.

Click on Al's bleach portrait above to see his Wikipedia portrait, taken just seconds after this shot, with all the same settings.

To learn more about bleach portraits, click on the overexposed people below. 

Overexposed: Bleach Portraits
                   (click above for a complete list)

• Bebe Buell
  
• Steve Martin

*All information regarding Al Santos's past comes from his Wikipedia article; should it be inaccurate, feel free to let me know and I will see if there is something I can do to fix it.

        

At the New York City meet-up picnic yesterday the subject of Wikinews came up, along with the perennial topic of "What's wrong with it?"  Absolutely nothing.  What holds that project back is the lack of vision many Wikipedia editors have with their sister project, and that even some Wikinewsies suffer from. 

Jon Harald Søby wrote about how great Wikinews is, and I agree.  But there's a problem:  "Nobody reads Wikinews" said Newyorkbrad at the picnic. I propose the problem is not in lack of readership, but in how the project's potential has been limited.

When I spoke at the picnic about what I write below, it was met with a favorable response.  In some ways, I think it is the key to the constraints many active content producers feel working on subjects in-depth.

An example of the problem

I think Wikinews has a huge gaping role to fill on Wikipedia, and the projects are more related than people might think. There is a dire need for people to conduct original research with Wikipedia specifically in mind.  I raised at the picnic the case of porn king Michael Lucas' last name on his article.  There are multiple media sources that say he was given 'Bregman' at birth, which was his father's name.  Lucas disputes this, and furnished his Soviet birth certificate, Soviet passport, and expired American passport to show that he was given his mother's maiden name, Treivas, at birth.  Lucas wrote and worked with Wikipedia to correct the inaccuracy, which caused an issue on a court case when he was sued as "Bregman"

"They found the name on Wikipedia, so they used it," Lucas told me about the Plaintiff.

Would you believe that after he supplied three pieces of government-issued identification, good faith editors continued to say we could not use them because they constitute "original research", which is verboten on Wikipedia? 

Logic on Wikipedia does not always run with reason.  Clearly, that shows a problem in how we think on the site in relying too heavily on the letter, and not the spirit, of the policies.

A solution to the problem

But there must be a place in the Wikimedia media world where people can do original research.  Where guidelines are set about what constitutes a "Wikipedia-grade article" so that it can be used on Wikipedia as a source.  There is no reason why the scores of people who have built one of the most influential websites in the world can't write an article like, "Michael Lucas clears up last name issue".  I just linked to three pieces of evidence; why should sloppy reporting by the mainstream media take precedence over fact, when our goal is reliability?

Yes, this will expand the Wikinews directive, and there is no time like the present.  It needs it. 

Wikipedia editors need a place where they can go and write stories or store information that can be used to clear up problems for which there is a lack of available sources. 

Wikinews:  The place for Original Research on Wikipedia

It's also the place where you can hang out at film festivals (photo, above); have dinner with Augusten Burroughs; discuss life with your favorite band; talk to a sitting head of state like Shimon Peres; discuss the future of drag queens with RuPaul; or mull race relations with Al Sharpton.

It's also a place where you can follow your local sports team, interview the coaches about plays over which you had a question, take photographs of the players, and probably get to sit with press photographers at games.

Call up your governor, congressmen, mayor or whatever and do an interview about the pressing issues in your community, the ones the press is ignoring.

The undiscovered potential of Wikinews needs to be discovered.  One of its roles should be as a place where Wikipedia goes to conduct research, under guidelines, and voted upon by the community for its acceptability as a source. 

        

This morning's amNY ran down the celebrities expected to be in Denver for the Democratic National Convention, and which ones prefer to hang with John McCain at a party back in Los Angeles. 

One unscientific theory I have is that the more Wikipedia articles a person has in multiple languages, the more influential they are. 

Wikipedia is a good gauge of how interested the public is in a person.  The articles that are viewed and changed the most are those with the highest levels of interest (from Ann Coulter to Oprah Winfrey).  The more Wikipedia articles a person has, the more likely their support will carry influence, if any.

Below are breakdowns of the celebrities under their endorsed candidate, and their Wikipedia article counts:

Barack Obama

• Oprah Winfrey                      29
  
• Spike Lee                            20
  
• Charlize Theron                    41
  
• Josh Brolin                           12
  
• Annette Bening                     23
  
• Susan Sarandon                  35
  
• Anne Hathaway                    25
  
• Rosario Dawson                    14
  
• Kerry Washington                   9
  
• Kanye West                         34
  

TOTAL # OF WIKIPEDIA ARTICLES: 232

John McCain:

• Angie Harmon                       4
  
• David Zucker                        9
  
• Jon Cryer                             7
  
• Lionel Chetwynd                    3
  
• Craig T. Nelson                    12
  
• Jon Voight                          24
  
• Craig Haffner                        0
  
• Robert Duvall                     28
  

TOTAL # OF WIKIPEDIA ARTICLES: 82

        

For such a photographed placed, Wikimedia Commons has surprisingly few high quality photographs of Central Park.  They are either winter shots (when the trees aren't in bloom); off-color; of nothing special or import; lacking critical perspective; or just too ugly.  For instance, there was one of a shot from the top of Rockefeller Center, but it was such a hazy day the park actually looked...gross.  And off-color. 

Yesterday I went to Central Park to photograph the running of the topless women, but National Go-Topless Day that was put on as a publicity stunt by a cult, ended up a bust in New York.  There was nothing to photograph.  Except the park.

I took about fifty images between fives shots that I wanted.  I was very happy with them.  Here's a few found on Central Park:








All of these photos are about 5MB each, so you can blow them up poster size.  If you click on any of them and keep clicking until you can click no more, you can enlarge to make out what the people look like.  I like that the information in the photographs is so accessible to people.  They are not a tease - you can get as close up into them as you want, generally.  For instance, on that last photo, here is a detail of the family:



The challenge I had was to keep the blue in the sky and not have it go washed-out white.  I don't like photos with washed-out white skies, though I've produced enough of my own. 

Even when the sky is white, it can be tricky because there is usually depth to it (such as the texture of clouds) and things like branches in this photo could be swallowed up in the white.  

        

A few more recently uploaded photos and where they are found on Wikipedia:


Evelyn, Madeline and Peter Colbert
Found on:  Stephen Colbert (to be placed)


African-American lady makes a point.
Found on:  Types of gestures


Madonna side profile
Found on:  Madonna

        

I recently uploaded a round of photos to Wikimedia Commons that include these three (and where you can find them on Wikipedia):


Found on:  Meat; Barbecue


Found on:  Avenue B; Stilts



Found on:  East Village; Independence Day (United States)

To see more from my Fourth of July fireworks series, there are four photos here.

        

Back in the late spring a gallerist up in Maine expressed interest in doing a show of my photography, but I backed out of it.  Not before I went with her to the studio of Isabelle Collin Dufresne, the famous beauty of the 1960's.  She was one of Andy Warhol's principal "Superstars" and had an affair with Salvador Dali.  

We were left alone for about an hour exchanging ideas about power, different types, how it is amassed, how it is kept and where it is held.  It was one of the more intellectual hours I have had this year.  There are few things I enjoy more than discussing ideas with a stranger, especially when neither of us knows what else to discuss.  Then we talked Warhol, art and power; losing power; drugs and gays in the art world, and their power.

I did Ultra's portrait a year and a half ago at the Gershwin Hotel when she was recuperating.  Below she is without her wig, in her studio, holding a card for one of her shows that shows one of her trademark insignias.  Click the image to see her Wikipedia portrait.


Ultra Violet in her studio, David Shankbone, 2008


Copyright Shankbone:  Photos from Wikimedia photography adventures not found on Wikipedia

*You would not believe some of the photos I have

        

The Deputy Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, Erik Moeller, recently wrote about my post on the reach of my photography via Wikimedia sites.  For instance, those teeth are used on 41 pages in 27 Wikimedia projects.  They have also made it into magazines, websites and books.  For any amateur artist looking to work on their skills, there are few places that provide a greater framework than the word's largest encyclopedia.  If you look at this page of subjects I have photographed you will see the limitless subjects available to work with.  I posted this response to Erik that is worth repeating here:

David Shankbone said,

August 21, 2008

Hi Eric, thank you for noticing. It is particularly important to point out how unskilled I was when I started with a $150.00 Fuji 2.3 megapixel camera. It was intimidating to show up in influential people’s homes and offices, but as Billy Name told me, necessity inspires creativity. It did.

Look at this photo of author Jennifer Egan that I took in 2006, and then one I took just a year later. The improvement is profound, IMHO. I learned a new skill on Wikipedia, and my work has been discussed in the media.

Artists should take note of this, and the highly-trafficked public space Wikipedia affords. It gives you an instant audience, even if what we need might seem more mundane to you. But it helps you learn the basic skills. Picasso didn’t paint Cubist at the beginning. Wikimedia projects are a great place to refine skills in our graphics, notable person portraits, map-making, drawing and sketches, and the list goes on…

Contribute work you are proud to associate with your name, and everyone wins. Artists - Wikipedia needs you.

David Shankbone

        

Below I have tallied the lengthy debate and dialogue to show how consensus is forming on whether to lift the ban of Greg Kohs of MyWikiBiz, which I wrote about earlier.  The public hearing continues.  If anyone feels their opinion is misrepresented, let me know and I will change it.  I will also update this list periodically (feel free to drop me an e-mail to remind me). 

In other news, Neıl ☄ opened a deletion review to have the Wikipedia article on MyWikiBiz.com restored. MWB is the business that initiated the ban that Kohs now wants lifted.

August 21 - "Happenings"
Prodego ^talk declines User:thekohser's (Greg Kohs) request to be unblocked.  John Reaves declines a second request to be unblocked by User:thekohser.  Pete (talk) unblocks User:MyWikiBiz (Greg Kohs), but John Reaves re-blocks.


They would like Kohs ban lifted immediately with restrictions:

1. -Jimbo Wales (talk) 11:49, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
2. WAS 4.250 (talk) 19:37, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
3. No Indexer (talk) 02:29, 20 August 2008 (UTC) 
4. ⇒SWATJester ^{Son of the Defender} 21:13, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
5. Seth Finkelstein (talk) 21:15, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
6. RMHED (talk) 21:36, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
7. Rodhullandemu 22:12, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
8. Jehochman ^Talk 22:17, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
9. *Dan T.* (talk) 22:23, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
10. —A. B. ^{(talk • contribs)} 23:07, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
11. Kelly ^hi! 23:15, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
12. iridescent 23:17, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
13. Cla68 (talk) 23:23, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
14. Giggy 23:35, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
15. George The Dragon (talk) 23:52, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
16. Alex Bakharev (talk) 01:52, 20 August 2008 (UTC)
17. Everyking (talk) 04:16, 20 August 2008 (UTC)
18. Viridae^Talk 12:17, 20 August 2008 (UTC)
19. Christopher Parham (talk) 05:25, 20 August 2008 (UTC)
20. Peter Damian (talk) 06:37, 20 August 2008 (UTC)
21. Neıl ☄ 10:31, 20 August 2008 (UTC)
22. Minkythecat (talk) 10:43, 20 August 2008 (UTC)
23. -MPerel 19:50, 20 August 2008 (UTC)
24. Tango (talk) 02:42, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
25. Gimmetrow 17:48, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

They want to keep the ban for the immediate future:

1. H