Weinberger - What Was The Point?

Oh Weinberger, why did you write an entire book on something that could be summed up in one chapter? Don't get me wrong, I liked your point(s), but I think that repeating it over and over for 260 pages was rather excessive. I know that you wanted to show that you have extensively researched the subject, but honestly I didn't care that you had traveled to Staples Prototype Lab, underground layers where they categorize old stuff, and Brookline News and Gift. I understood your point at your first example.

The word 'atom' was mentioned incessantly throughout the book. Our physical world is orgainzed by atoms and therefore this limits us in how we organize. Your BFF the Encyclopedia Britannica shows this. We can only include so much information in it, and are therefore limited. This is because as you say, Weinberger, what is left out is just was important as what is put in. Luckily the Holy Godsend Wikipedia saves us all with the mystical hyperlink, connecting the miscellaneous in profound ways. I remember the point you made about how the average word count of the Britannica was 650 words per article while Wikipedia had only about 363 words per article. Does this mean that the Encyclopedia Britannica is better than Wikipedia? Not necessarily. I'll give you this Weinberger: I very much liked the point you made about how Wikipedia entries can be based on interest and passion rather than fact alone. If someone is interested in say, North Dakota, and wrote 10,000 words on it on Wikipedia, visitors to the site may see that at least one person is very interested in this state. This shows that the new 'miscellaneous' world is based on different values, which is admittedly interesting.

The new world of the miscellaneous is connected by the internet, more specifically hyperlinks, tagging, and personal interest. We are no longer limited by the physical world for organization (ahem, the ATOM) and therefore have begun to organize in a more organic way - a more, miscellaneous way. Strangely, this way of organization becomes more organized and exact than previous methods.

This is important because now that Weinberger has enlightened me on the wonders of the miscellaneous, I can have better clarity for how information is being organized on the web. I know that Wikipedia is more than just a faulty information source that professors hate, and I can now properly explain why.