[Air-L] Critical Point of View: Wikipedia Research Conference (Amsterdam, March 26/27)

[geert lovink]

Critical Point of View: Second international conference of the CPOV  
Wikipedia Research Initiative

Date: 26-27 March 2010

Location: OBA (Public Library Amsterdam, next to Amsterdam central  
station), Oosterdokskade 143, Amsterdam

Organized by the Institute of Network Cultures Amsterdam, in  
cooperation with the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore,  
India.

Website: www.networkcultures.org/cpov

Discussion List: http://p10.alfaservers.com/mailman/listinfo/cpov_listcultures.org

Wikipedia is at the brink of becoming the de facto global reference of  
dynamic knowledge. The heated debates over its accuracy, anonymity,  
trust, vandalism and expertise only seem to fuel further growth of  
Wikipedia and its user base. Apart from leaving its modern  
counterparts Britannica and Encarta in the dust, such scale and  
breadth places Wikipedia on par with such historical milestones as  
Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia, the Ming Dynasty's Wen-hsien ta- 
ch' eng, and the key work of French Enlightenment, the Encyclopédie.  
The multilingual Wikipedia as digital collaborative and fluid  
knowledge production platform might be said to be the most visible and  
successful example of the migration of FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source  
Software) principles into mainstream culture. However, such  
celebration should contain critical insights, informed by the changing  
realities of the Internet at large and the Wikipedia project in  
particular.

The CPOV Research Initiative was founded from the urge to stimulate  
critical Wikipedia research: quantitative and qualitative research  
that could benefit both the wide user-base and the active Wikipedia  
community itself. On top of this, Wikipedia offers critical insights  
into the contemporary status of knowledge, its organizing principles,  
function, and impact; its production styles, mechanisms for conflict  
resolution and power (re-)constitution. The overarching research  
agenda is at once a philosophical, epistemological and theoretical  
investigation of knowledge artifacts, cultural production and social  
relations, and an empirical investigation of the specific phenomenon  
of the Wikipedia.

Conference Themes: Wiki Theory, Encyclopedia Histories, Wiki Art,  
Wikipedia Analytics, Designing Debate and Global Issues and Outlooks.

Confirmed speakers: Florian Cramer (DE/NL), Andrew Famiglietti (UK),  
Stuart Geiger (USA), Hendrik-Jan Grievink (NL), Charles van den Heuvel  
(NL), Jeanette Hofmann (DE), Athina Karatzogianni (UK), Scott Kildall  
(USA), Patrick Lichty (USA), Hans Varghese Mathews (IN), Teemu  
Mikkonen (FI), Mayo Fuster Morell (IT), Mathieu O'Neil (AU), Felipe  
Ortega (ES), Dan O'Sullivan (UK), Joseph Reagle (USA), Ramón Reichert  
(AU), Richard Rogers (USA/NL), Alan Shapiro (USA/DE), Maja van der  
Velden (NL/NO), Gérard Wormser (FR).

Editorial team: Sabine Niederer and Geert Lovink (Amsterdam),  Nishant  
Shah and Sunil Abraham (Bangalore), Johanna Niesyto (Siegen),  
Nathaniel Tkacz (Melbourne). Project manager CPOV Amsterdam: Margreet  
Riphagen. Research intern: Juliana Brunello. Production intern: Serena  
Westra.

The CPOV conference in Amsterdam will be the second conference of the  
CPOV Wikipedia Research Initiative. The launch of the initiative took  
place in Bangalore India, with the conference WikiWars in January  
2010. After the first two events, the CPOV organization will work on  
producing a reader, to be launched early 2011. For more information or  
submitting a reader contribution: http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/cpov/reader/ 
.

Buy your ticket online at: http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/cpov/practical-info/tickets/ 
  (with iDeal), or register by sending an email to: info (at)  
networkcultures.org. One day ticket: €25, students and OBA members:  
€12,50. Full conference pass (2 days): €40, students and OBA members:  
€25.

More info: www.networkcultures.org/cpov. Contact: info (at)  
networkcultures.org, phone: +3120 5951866