Linda's Blogspot

After Edmonton: What WCNA 2026 May Tell Us About the Future of the Commons WikiConference North America 2026 took place in Edmonton, Canada, from September 24 through September 27. Unlike some Wikimedia conferences in recent years, this year's gathering was in person only. The theme was striking: “ Building the Future of the Commons .” I find myself thinking about that phrase because I had just come away from Wikimania in Paris with a similar question in my mind: What happens to human knowledge in the age of artificial intelligence? The Edmonton conference seems to have placed that question directly on the table. A conference at an important moment Wikimedia exists because people have been willing to create, check, photograph, describe, categorize, translate and preserve knowledge for other people. For years, this work has largely been done by volunteers. Now artificial intelligence has entered the picture. Large language models can summarize information in seconds. AI assistants c...

  The Gift Economy: What Happens When Knowledge Is Meant to Circulate? Lately I have been thinking about something anthropologists call the gift economy. At first, the phrase sounds simple. Someone gives something to someone else. But the more I think about it, the more complicated—and beautiful—it becomes. A gift isn't always something wrapped in paper. Sometimes the gift is food. Sometimes it is a seed. Sometimes it is labor. Sometimes it is a story. Sometimes it is knowing where the water is. Sometimes it is knowing which plant can heal, which tree should be protected, or when it is time to plant. And sometimes the gift is knowledge. That last one has been making me think. The Gift Is Not Always About Getting Something Back The anthropologist Marcel Mauss wrote about gift exchange almost a hundred years ago. He observed that in many societies, giving isn't simply an isolated act of generosity. Giving can create a relationship. There is giving. There is receiving. And there i...

The Gift Economy: What Africa Can Teach Us About the Value of Giving When we hear the word “economy,” most of us think about money. We think about buying and selling, wages, prices, markets, banks, investments, businesses, and individual accumulation. We have become accustomed to thinking of economic activity as something measured in dollars, francs, shillings, or other currencies. But anthropology asks us to consider another possibility. What if an economy is not only about what people buy and sell? What if an economy can also be about what people give, share, exchange, teach, and pass along to one another? This is one of the questions raised by the anthropological study of the gift economy. The Gift Is More Than a Gift The idea of the gift economy became particularly influential through the work of French sociologist and anthropologist Marcel Mauss. In his classic 1925 work The Gift, Mauss examined societies in which giving was not simply an act of generosity. A gift could create a c...

  Beyond Muscle and Commodity: "Wealth in People" and the Art of Social Composition in African Political Economy ​In standard economic history, wealth is almost universally defined through the lens of tangible accumulation: the stockpiling of precious metals, the ownership of real estate, or the control of financial capital. In Western industrial models, human beings within this matrix are primarily calculated as units of labor—homogenized, interchangeable inputs designed to scale production and extract material surplus. ​However, historical Africanist economic anthropology offers a radical and resilient alternative model: the concept of "wealth in people." ​Popularized and refined by scholars like Igor Kopytoff and Jane Guyer, this framework demonstrates how, across many historical African societies, true power, security, and prestige were measured not by the hoarding of material objects, but by the depth, diversity, and composition of one's social networks....

  The AI Horizon: Why Recursive Learning, High-Skilled Automation, and Regulatory Failure Demand Our Attention In a compelling and expansive address delivered on a university campus, former President Barack Obama delivered one of his most detailed warnings yet on artificial intelligence, highlighting how rapid technological acceleration, recursive self-improvement, and commercial pressures are outpacing democratic oversight. Far from dismissing AI as mere tech-industry hyperbole, Obama underscored that while market valuations may fluctuate, the underlying capability of the technology itself is moving at an exponential pace—demanding an urgent, structured response from both government regulators and the public. Beyond Hype: The Shift to Recursive Learning Drawing on groundwork laid during his presidency—including a 2016 executive report on AI ethics, social impact, and governance—Obama observed that AI development has reached a crucial tipping point. The core driver of this transiti...

  Echoes of the Giant: How the Elephant Shaped Africa’s Nature, History, and Heritage ​Across the African continent, the elephant has always been far more than a wild animal roaming the wilderness. From the high-altitude canopy of Kenya’s Mau Forest to the historic trade routes of West Africa, this majestic creature stands as a keystone species, a silent witness to historical trauma, and a sacred cultural icon. Examining the African elephant reveals a powerful story where biology, history, and indigenous wisdom intersect. ​ The Biological Blueprint and Rapid Evolution ​In recent decades, intense human pressure has forced elephants to adapt at an astonishing speed. In areas affected by heavy poaching, such as Gorongosa National Park, the survival rate of tuskless elephants rose dramatically. Because poachers targeted animals with valuable ivory, tuskless females were left to survive and reproduce, passing on their genes at a much higher rate. ​This transformation is driven by a ...

  From Reference Page to Multi-Format Study Guide: Reimagining Wikipedia with Generative AI ​Wikipedia stands as one of humanity’s largest open-knowledge repositories. However, its dense encyclopedic style can sometimes make deep engagement challenging. By pairing Wikipedia articles with modern generative AI tools and workspace environments like Gemini NotebookLM, learners can transform static, passive reading into an active, multi-sensory educational workflow. ​Here is how converting a Wikipedia article into a conversational dialogue, a synthesized blog post, and a dynamic audio overview creates a highly effective study pipeline. ​ Stage 1: From Static Text to Interactive AI Dialogue ​The traditional way to interact with a Wikipedia article is passive scanning. By bringing an article’s text directly into a generative AI chat environment, the text transforms into an interactive conversation partner. ​ Socratic Learning & Active Recall: Instead of just reading, you can as...