Clear Channel Probably Views Podcasting With an Inimical Eye

Today’s word can be found in a post on BoingBoing.net. The post is about Wikipedia.organd the recent discussions about it’s future. The word is inimical. It is an adjective that describes something harmful or hostile. It comes from the latin inimcus which is also the root of the word enemy.

Clay Shirky used the word when describing the difference between Wikipedia’s structure and the traditional academic distribution of knowledge. He wrote, “of course librarians, teachers, and academics don’t like the Wikipedia. It works without privilege, which is inimical to the way those professions operate.” What I think Clay is saying is Wikipedia, to borrow yesterdays word, disintermediates the traditional vetting and storage of knowledge and the academic establishment doesn’t like it.

Twenty years ago knowledge went from an author through an editor, a publisher and then into a library where a librarian then made it available to a researcher. And if it was really special information like a journal article or encyclopedia a user probably couldn’t take it out of the library. Today, with the Internet and specifically Wikipedia, any author can contribute and any user can get the content with out the editor, publisher or librarian.

You can find a link to Cory’s Complete post at Corante.com.