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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Wikipedia Might Make People Mad


First appeared on MarketWatch
Wikipedia’s 24-hour blackout, to attempt to stop Internet piracy legislation under consideration by the U.S. Congress, is a terrible idea.

Wikipedia is only going to infuriate many of its users.

New-media entities like Wikipedia pride themselves on offering services for free, unlike those evil capitalist, old-media fossils, who would do anything for a lousy buck. This kind of attitude has helped burnish Wikipedia’s public-spirited image.

Today, Wikpedia wants you and me to carry its water in its bid against Washington. It’s hoping it has amassed so much good will that we’ll blindly follow its lead. Hmmm.

Problem is, Wikipedia, ultimately, will hurt itself by this act. For 24 hours, we citizens are being locked out. We’re being told, You can’t use our service because we want to make a point. We want to show people, by virtue of this move, exactly how important we are. You can’t do without us, even for only one day.

That may well be 100% true, too.

But think about it from a completely different angle for a moment: Who is Wikipedia helping by making this show of foolishness? Is it enabling its users to live productive lives? Uh-uh. Is it making a contribution to the world? Not exactly.

And will the decision to shut down actually make an impression on the members of Congress? We’ll have to wait and see.

If Wikipedia really wanted to make a fuss, it would get its users to stop making campaign contributions to the hostile Congress folks.

There is a move that would make an impression in Washington.