Steve Jankowski
@textaural.bsky.social
Assistant Professor in New Media Histories at UvA. Curator of Keywords for Studying Media, Culture & Information https://textaural.com/keywords/. I study Wikipedia, utopian computation, design and consensus politics, often all at once.
Pinned
Steve Jankowski
@textaural.bsky.social
· Oct 20
My co-authors and I recently wrote about how GenAI hype is similiar to the hype (avant de lettre) of photography / daguerrotype in the 1800s. These commonalities exist because new media produce consistent contradictions surrounding art, culture and technology. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
I don't know how this wasn't on my radar, but Robert Darnton published his _Business of Enlightenment_ with a CreativeCommons license in 2016. He really set the stage for thinking of the materiality of encyclopedias. What a gift! archive.org/details/Busi...
The business of enlightenment [electronic resource] a publishing history of the Encyclopédie, 1775-1800 : Darnton, Robert : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
In tracing the publishing story of Diderot’s Encyclopédie, Darnton uses new sources—the papers of eighteenth-century publishers—that allow him to...
archive.org
December 17, 2025 at 9:54 PM
I don't know how this wasn't on my radar, but Robert Darnton published his _Business of Enlightenment_ with a CreativeCommons license in 2016. He really set the stage for thinking of the materiality of encyclopedias. What a gift! archive.org/details/Busi...
I love seeing old lectures published as webpages.
2004: gyre.umeoce.maine.edu/physicalocea...
2004: gyre.umeoce.maine.edu/physicalocea...
December 12, 2025 at 12:51 PM
I love seeing old lectures published as webpages.
2004: gyre.umeoce.maine.edu/physicalocea...
2004: gyre.umeoce.maine.edu/physicalocea...
Every three minute startup pitch is a comedy bit of capitalist theatre.
December 5, 2025 at 4:01 AM
Every three minute startup pitch is a comedy bit of capitalist theatre.
On Nov 3, I sampled 1K Grokipedia v0.1 articles and found that about 55% of the 1000 articles were based on Wikipedia because they used its CC license. I repeated the method on those same articles today and those CC licenses are gone. Grokipedia v0.2 looks to be all generated text now.
December 3, 2025 at 11:49 PM
On Nov 3, I sampled 1K Grokipedia v0.1 articles and found that about 55% of the 1000 articles were based on Wikipedia because they used its CC license. I repeated the method on those same articles today and those CC licenses are gone. Grokipedia v0.2 looks to be all generated text now.
Reposted by Steve Jankowski
🚨 Bookmatch is back! 🚨 From now until December 2, make a donation of any amount to n+1 and we’ll send you the Bookmatch quiz—a personality test that will generate a reading list tailored to your tastes and whims. Try the quiz here: secure.givelively.org/donate/n1-fo...
November 3, 2025 at 3:27 PM
🚨 Bookmatch is back! 🚨 From now until December 2, make a donation of any amount to n+1 and we’ll send you the Bookmatch quiz—a personality test that will generate a reading list tailored to your tastes and whims. Try the quiz here: secure.givelively.org/donate/n1-fo...
Reposted by Steve Jankowski
“I see the TikTok, I see more, I get interested, I look it up online.”
www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
November 25, 2025 at 6:29 PM
“I see the TikTok, I see more, I get interested, I look it up online.”
www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
1980s: Personal computer > Noun object
1990s: Computer network > Connected noun objects
2000s: Cloud computing > Global verb
2010s: Computation > Noun from process
2020s: Compute > Nouned verb
1990s: Computer network > Connected noun objects
2000s: Cloud computing > Global verb
2010s: Computation > Noun from process
2020s: Compute > Nouned verb
November 15, 2025 at 9:20 PM
1980s: Personal computer > Noun object
1990s: Computer network > Connected noun objects
2000s: Cloud computing > Global verb
2010s: Computation > Noun from process
2020s: Compute > Nouned verb
1990s: Computer network > Connected noun objects
2000s: Cloud computing > Global verb
2010s: Computation > Noun from process
2020s: Compute > Nouned verb
Reposted by Steve Jankowski
I have a piece in @techpolicypress.bsky.social today: With Grokipedia, Top-Down Control of Knowledge Is New Again
Trying to consider the nature of the project and its vision of neutrality vs. @wikipedia.org's (without getting into e.g. article comparisons).
www.techpolicy.press/with-grokipe...
Trying to consider the nature of the project and its vision of neutrality vs. @wikipedia.org's (without getting into e.g. article comparisons).
www.techpolicy.press/with-grokipe...
With Grokipedia, Top-Down Control of Knowledge Is New Again | TechPolicy.Press
Ryan McGrady asks, who is Grokipedia for, other than its owner?
www.techpolicy.press
November 3, 2025 at 4:47 PM
I have a piece in @techpolicypress.bsky.social today: With Grokipedia, Top-Down Control of Knowledge Is New Again
Trying to consider the nature of the project and its vision of neutrality vs. @wikipedia.org's (without getting into e.g. article comparisons).
www.techpolicy.press/with-grokipe...
Trying to consider the nature of the project and its vision of neutrality vs. @wikipedia.org's (without getting into e.g. article comparisons).
www.techpolicy.press/with-grokipe...
It looks like Grokipedia is at least a partial fork of English Wikipedia (which is allowable under Wikipedia's license). Verbatim paragraphs on the "Encyclopedia" page and includes Wikipedia artifacts (like the use of Wikitext: {{cite book}}).
[Left image is Grokipedia; Right image is Wikipedia]
[Left image is Grokipedia; Right image is Wikipedia]
October 29, 2025 at 3:33 PM
It looks like Grokipedia is at least a partial fork of English Wikipedia (which is allowable under Wikipedia's license). Verbatim paragraphs on the "Encyclopedia" page and includes Wikipedia artifacts (like the use of Wikitext: {{cite book}}).
[Left image is Grokipedia; Right image is Wikipedia]
[Left image is Grokipedia; Right image is Wikipedia]
@elissawelle.bsky.social Just saw the article about Grokipedia, and if anyone is looking into academic/research background about AI, Wikipedia and encyclopedias, either myself or some of my co-authors work might be useful.
www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
Grokipedia is racist, transphobic, and loves Elon Musk
xAI’s version of Wikipedia, Grokipedia, frames the world’s history from Elon Musk’s perspective.
www.theverge.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:57 PM
@elissawelle.bsky.social Just saw the article about Grokipedia, and if anyone is looking into academic/research background about AI, Wikipedia and encyclopedias, either myself or some of my co-authors work might be useful.
www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
Fine. I will have to wade more into this eventually. But for now, it took me literally 1 minute of reading my first article on Grokipedia before I couldn't help but make a head tilt: "Pre-Columbian Indigenous Societies" makes absolutely no sense for an article on "Canada."
October 29, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Fine. I will have to wade more into this eventually. But for now, it took me literally 1 minute of reading my first article on Grokipedia before I couldn't help but make a head tilt: "Pre-Columbian Indigenous Societies" makes absolutely no sense for an article on "Canada."
Writing an introduction to a special issue with my co-editor and we aimed to split the writing 50/50 for 7000 words. I've had two days of concentrated "writing" – which actually means turning my initial 11000 garbage words into 3500 beautiful words.
October 22, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Writing an introduction to a special issue with my co-editor and we aimed to split the writing 50/50 for 7000 words. I've had two days of concentrated "writing" – which actually means turning my initial 11000 garbage words into 3500 beautiful words.
My co-authors and I recently wrote about how GenAI hype is similiar to the hype (avant de lettre) of photography / daguerrotype in the 1800s. These commonalities exist because new media produce consistent contradictions surrounding art, culture and technology. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
October 20, 2025 at 2:52 PM
My co-authors and I recently wrote about how GenAI hype is similiar to the hype (avant de lettre) of photography / daguerrotype in the 1800s. These commonalities exist because new media produce consistent contradictions surrounding art, culture and technology. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
I just updated my Keywords Index and it now links to over 550 short essays (sometimes articles) on concepts and terms that are necessary for studying media, information, and culture. A great place to start for literature reviews. textaural.com/keywords/
October 17, 2025 at 12:58 PM
I just updated my Keywords Index and it now links to over 550 short essays (sometimes articles) on concepts and terms that are necessary for studying media, information, and culture. A great place to start for literature reviews. textaural.com/keywords/
Reposted by Steve Jankowski
Really excited to announce that Chris Young, David Nieborg and I just published a new OA paper in Platforms & Society developing the concept of the "workflow monopoly". To do this we conducted a platform historiography of the Unity game engine / workflow suite journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Workflow monopolies: A platform historiography of Unity in the immersive app economy - Chris J Young, Daniel J Joseph, David B Nieborg, 2025
This article discusses the relationship between cultural production and platform companies by mapping the rapidly evolving political economy of the real-time an...
journals.sagepub.com
September 13, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Really excited to announce that Chris Young, David Nieborg and I just published a new OA paper in Platforms & Society developing the concept of the "workflow monopoly". To do this we conducted a platform historiography of the Unity game engine / workflow suite journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
The Catholic practice of prompting an LLM chatbot involves using the software and then confessing and asking for forgiveness.
October 14, 2025 at 3:33 PM
The Catholic practice of prompting an LLM chatbot involves using the software and then confessing and asking for forgiveness.
Reposted by Steve Jankowski
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
October 1, 2025 at 2:38 PM
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
Since grad school, I struggled to work through what discourse analysis was as a method. Inspired by a number of historians and works on method (below), here's my general model for thinking through the process.
September 11, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Since grad school, I struggled to work through what discourse analysis was as a method. Inspired by a number of historians and works on method (below), here's my general model for thinking through the process.
Reposted by Steve Jankowski
The world’s largest encyclopedia became the factual foundation of the web, but now it’s under attack.
Read more from @joshdzieza.bsky.social: www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
Read more from @joshdzieza.bsky.social: www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
September 4, 2025 at 12:55 PM
The world’s largest encyclopedia became the factual foundation of the web, but now it’s under attack.
Read more from @joshdzieza.bsky.social: www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
Read more from @joshdzieza.bsky.social: www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
"Republicans investigate Wikipedia over allegations of organized bias" thehill.com/homenews/hou... 👀
thehill.com
August 29, 2025 at 2:43 PM
"Republicans investigate Wikipedia over allegations of organized bias" thehill.com/homenews/hou... 👀
With the school year approaching, a number of scholars and myself have assembled together a Critical Wikimedia Research Bibliography. If you are teaching a course or doing research, we think you might find some good resources here. meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Critica...
Critical Wikimedia Research Bibliography - Meta-Wiki
meta.wikimedia.org
August 27, 2025 at 9:26 PM
With the school year approaching, a number of scholars and myself have assembled together a Critical Wikimedia Research Bibliography. If you are teaching a course or doing research, we think you might find some good resources here. meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Critica...
Over a million views of an AI impersonation ad of Canada's prime minister. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN7d.... Published yesterday.
Motion Daily 1
YouTube video by Life in Motion
www.youtube.com
August 26, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Over a million views of an AI impersonation ad of Canada's prime minister. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN7d.... Published yesterday.
I've read the draft guideline for researching Wikipedia's neutrality (meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Researc...) & I will add my thoughts to the discussion.
But Heather Ford has already raised a number of important concerns about it that shouldn't be ignored.
theconversation.com/wikipedias-n...
But Heather Ford has already raised a number of important concerns about it that shouldn't be ignored.
theconversation.com/wikipedias-n...
Wikipedia’s ‘neutrality’ has always been complicated. New rules will make questioning it harder
Wikipedia is built on a “neutral point of view”. But who decides what neutral means?
theconversation.com
August 17, 2025 at 5:02 PM
I've read the draft guideline for researching Wikipedia's neutrality (meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Researc...) & I will add my thoughts to the discussion.
But Heather Ford has already raised a number of important concerns about it that shouldn't be ignored.
theconversation.com/wikipedias-n...
But Heather Ford has already raised a number of important concerns about it that shouldn't be ignored.
theconversation.com/wikipedias-n...
Reposted by Steve Jankowski
"A living visual archive on cybernetics in the expanded field. Browse and contribute images of all kinds: diagrams, schematics, photos, graphic elements, and other visual fragments."
Cybernetics Image Library
A living visual archive on cybernetics in the expanded field.
cyberneticsimagelibrary.dev
August 14, 2025 at 6:41 PM
"A living visual archive on cybernetics in the expanded field. Browse and contribute images of all kinds: diagrams, schematics, photos, graphic elements, and other visual fragments."