Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales Appointed UK Government Adviser

[JMcEntegart]

Jimmy Wales named as an unpaid adviser to the Government.

Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales Appointed UK Government Adviser : Read more

 

[virtualban]

Congratulations good man!

 

[back_by_demand]

About time they got knowledgable people from the biz rather than relying on stuffy pointless pen-pushers with all the technical background of an Amish man.

 

[hunshiki]

Jibby needz more money!

http://chzmemebase.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/internet-memes-scumbag-jimmy-wales.jpg

 

[__-_-_-__]

I don't think it's a good thing. He should be impartial and avoid politics.

 

[mrmaia]

It just... doesn't sound right for me. I hope the donations Wikipedia begs for every year doesn't meet politicians' pockets.

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]__-_-_-__[/nom]I don't think it's a good thing. He should be impartial and avoid politics.[/citation]
That's why they asked him, because he is impartial and is a good person to ask for the best ideas
...
Turn it on it's head, would you rather they appointed someone for advice who was entirley partisan and only motivated by political will?

 

[sicom]

This is really fantastic. He's only there to offer advice, and without the incentive of money swaying his opinion. Just purely open and honest advice on how to move the government into the digital age. Really shines a light on the UK.

 

[billybobser]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]That's why they asked him, because he is impartial and is a good person to ask for the best ideas...Turn it on it's head, would you rather they appointed someone for advice who was entirley partisan and only motivated by political will?[/citation]
Also, he is quite forthright in his views, which is a bonus.

Previous 'advisors' to the UK governement have been political devices. 'independantly' approved gimmicks to throw backing to the governement.

Not very often the Uk governement listens to good advice anyway.

 

[cronik93]

So does that mean everything about the UK government will be at the top of Google search now?

 

[Pherule]

This article rustled my jimmies!

 

[Fierce Guppy]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]That's why they asked him, because he is impartial and is a good person to ask for the best ideas...Turn it on it's head, would you rather they appointed someone for advice who was entirely partisan and only motivated by political will?[/citation]

Jimmy Wales is an Objectivist, so of course he's ~not~ impartial on certain issues such as the right to privacy and the freedom of the individual versus big government. It also makes him non-partisan. All UK political parties favour a blossoming state so he's not likely to hold any allegiance to any particular one.

 

[IndignantSkeptic]

I know I will probably be getting a lot of thumbs down for this but please try to understand me. Widely distributing information freely to the public will undoubtedly be of huge benefit to humanity, However this would be for the short-term only. In the long-term it would be hugely damaging to humanity because now nobody will want to try to discover new things that nobody knows about because doing so is usually extremely expensive so that if those discoverers had to share what they found-out for free without being able to make money from their discovery then they will probably be putting themselves into severe debt that they could never get out of.

It is very much like the phenomenon of piracy on game consoles. Piracy being enabled on a console will boost sales of a console in the short-term but then almost kill its sales for the long-term. If you don't know why then I can explain it to you.

 

[maxwebb]

whoa... does this mean that they have some type of plan to allow some new form of legislation creation? by the people? i'm interested to know what the outcome will be after a few decades.

 

[Fierce Guppy]

whoa... does this mean that they have some type of plan to allow some new form of legislation creation? by the people? i'm interested to know what the outcome will be after a few decades.

I hope not. People will mandate themselves four work day weeks, six months annual leave, a 20% pay rise every year, and a blow job on Friday evenings until the economy comes crashing down and people start devouring each other after they've whacked all the rich. But, I suspect Jimmy Wales advice will be on how best to store and retrieve a mass of information and display it in a format similar to the Wikipedia.