Wikipediocracy

“The average Londoner knows just one neighbour,” says Lily Cole. But this King’s Cross resident is far from average. In the course of setting up her social network, Impossible.com — designed for users living in the same area to help each other — the 25-year-old model and actress has established an impressive posse of her own among the movers and shakers of the tech world, including Instaman Kevin Systrom. Meet Lily’s social network.

Outsider wrote:http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/lon ... 23920.html

Evening Standard Wed 18 Sep, page 21

“The average Londoner knows just one neighbour,” says Lily Cole. But this King’s Cross resident is far from average. In the course of setting up her social network, Impossible.com — designed for users living in the same area to help each other — the 25-year-old model and actress has established an impressive posse of her own among the movers and shakers of the tech world, including Instaman Kevin Systrom. Meet Lily’s social network.

It includes "Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia" and his wife.

Outsider wrote:I suspect that the current one will be around for some time. She is far more useful to him than the previous ones were.

Vigilant wrote:

Outsider wrote:I suspect that the current one will be around for some time. She is far more useful to him than the previous ones were.

Who said anything about Jimmy dumping her?
He'll revert to form and then it'll be onto the hunt for number 4.

Vigilant wrote:

Outsider wrote:I suspect that the current one will be around for some time. She is far more useful to him than the previous ones were.

Who said anything about Jimmy dumping her?
He'll revert to form and then it'll be onto the hunt for number 4.

Moonage Daydream wrote:

Vigilant wrote:

Outsider wrote:I suspect that the current one will be around for some time. She is far more useful to him than the previous ones were.

Who said anything about Jimmy dumping her?
He'll revert to form and then it'll be onto the hunt for number 4.

Can we cut Jimbo some slack for these imaginary transgressions? You can say "I told you so" if it ever happens.

[...] It is easy to dismiss Cole’s idea as just too impossibly romantic, but she is backed by the founder of one of the most successful examples of a gift economy: Jimmy Wales. Wikipedia, Wales’s freely licensed digital encyclopedia of more than 24 million entries, relies on virtually an all-volunteer staff of some 80,000 people inspired to do something helpful; in this case, provide access to accurate knowledge. Cole met Wales at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2012, and her first question to him was why had he made Wikipedia non-profit. ‘At that point I was really thinking about the business structure, and how I could put gift economy into a monetary model and not create a paradox,’ Cole says.

Wales emails to tell me how impressed he was with Cole’s pitch. ‘She had a deep understanding of what in fact makes up a huge part of human life: doing nice things for each other with no expectation of any particular return. When I started Wikipedia, I didn’t have a concern for a business model – the thing itself is the reward. Similarly Lily thinks of Impossible as something beautiful that has to happen: make something amazing and figure out the details later.’ [...] Wales, who lent her office space in Marylebone, [...] signs his email off with, ‘We have become dear friends and I do think of her as another daughter.’ [...]

Supermodel Lily Cole has launched a new social network, dubbed Impossible, that relies on the good nature of strangers to exchange "gifts" on the site for free. A cursory glance at Impossible appears to bring forth a variety of people who are trustafarians, fashionistas, stalkers, Jimmy Wales or some peculiar hybrid of all the above. Cole has (probably) been to Newcastle* and back in recent days to big up her effort with the national press as she tries to convince people to use the site.

[...] Impossible immediately nags you for your location upon entering the site for the first time. Although it freely displays the latest "wishes" to be posted on the network, anyone who wants to read the comments of others is required to create an account first. She's got financial backing from the UK government to the tune of £200,000 from the Cabinet Office's Innovation in Giving fund - which some might characterise as a different type of "gift economy". Cole has injected some of her own cash into Impossible and so has her biz partner Kwame Ferreira. And she's got support from Jimbo Wales himself.

"She had a deep understanding of what in fact makes up a huge part of human life: doing nice things for each other with no expectation of any particular return," Wales told the Telegraph. "When I started Wikipedia, I didn’t have a concern for a business model - the thing itself is the reward. Similarly Lily thinks of Impossible as something beautiful that has to happen: make something amazing and figure out the details later."

We give it two months before nominative determinism kicks in. [...]

[...] Impossible has been created under the advice of Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia (another example of a gift culture) and Nobel Peace Prize recipient and economics professor Muhammad Yunus. She met them at the Davos World Economic Forum, having been invited there as part of the Government's post-Olympics GREAT campaign. [...] “Whenever I’d meet someone who was interested in these ideas or worked in technology I’d start telling them these ideas. Again and again people would say, ‘I love it. How can I help?’” she explains. One of those was Jimmy Wales. [...]

[...] It’s a really, really lovely idea - a bless-her-cotton-socks idea. But seeing the model on a panel with Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales, I rather hope one at least whispered some advice. “Don’t do it.” [...]

The involvement of Jimmy Wales almost completely insures the failure of this project. See the only other projects that he truly attempted on his own -- Openserving (fail) and Wikia Search (fail). The only other charitable project that he's worked on since Wikimedia Foundation (an over-spending waste of about $20 million per year) is Civilination (near fail). Good luck, Lily Cole. You've teamed up with some heavy-duty dead weight there. It'll be tough to overcome that. Oh, and when one of your "wishes" inevitably ends up being chopped up and stored in a freezer, a la Craigslist murder victims, that's going to tarnish the brand, so to speak. So, have a crisis management plan in place.

Vigilant wrote:I am, personally, mystified as to how she is a supermodel.

Seems to suffer from the dreaded 49er syndrome.

Mancunium wrote:

Vigilant wrote:I am, personally, mystified as to how she is a supermodel.

Seems to suffer from the dreaded 49er syndrome.

I'm sorry to say that this is why Loli Cole -- pardon, Lily Cole- became a supermodel:

Vigilant wrote:

Mancunium wrote:

Vigilant wrote:I am, personally, mystified as to how she is a supermodel.

Seems to suffer from the dreaded 49er syndrome.

I'm sorry to say that this is why Loli Cole -- pardon, Lily Cole- became a supermodel:

That is so very fucking creepy.
Real stomach turning.

Sexualization of children...

Bielle wrote:Do you think maybe you could shrink the images somewhat? Otherwise, someone might conclude that you find them attractive.

I think they are likely creepy at any size, but moderation and all that ..>

Mancunium wrote:

Bielle wrote:Do you think maybe you could shrink the images somewhat? Otherwise, someone might conclude that you find them attractive.

I think they are likely creepy at any size, but moderation and all that ..>

Sorry. These are among the first photos that come up in Google Image search, and I don't know how to shrink them, except by adjusting their size with FotoFlexer. Maybe someone else could help.

Attachments, by the way, can only be seen by members of Wikipediocracy.

thekohser wrote:Don't forget -- Lily Cole was featured (in archive footage) in the documentary film, "Are All Men Pedophiles?"

Mancunium wrote:Here she is being gang-raped by old men in a music video:

Mancunium wrote:I don't know how to shrink them, except by adjusting their size with FotoFlexer. Maybe someone else could help.

Hex wrote:

Mancunium wrote:I don't know how to shrink them, except by adjusting their size with FotoFlexer. Maybe someone else could help.

Resizr will let you shrink and do other basic adjustments to images directly in your browser without having to upload anything to it - just enter the URL of the image you want to work with. When it's finished and presents you with an image, copy the URL and use the "Web" button on imgur to permanently rehost it. (Resizr doesn't keep your modified image for long.)

Meanwhile, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales and I donned balaclavas and Santa hats and spent the day running around town fulfilling wishes and giving gifts to people who posted wishes for them on impossible! “It’s just FUN,” @jimmy writes.

Bielle wrote:Well, that puts me in my place.

The Joy wrote:If I were Jimbo's wife...

The Joy wrote:

Bielle wrote:Well, that puts me in my place.

I can't see them either and I thought I was a WPO member, what with being a "Trustee" and all. Is this like The Emperor's New Clothes (T-H-L)?

SB_Johnny wrote:

The Joy wrote:

Bielle wrote:Well, that puts me in my place.

I can't see them either and I thought I was a WPO member, what with being a "Trustee" and all. Is this like The Emperor's New Clothes (T-H-L)?

They seem to have disappeared somehow.

Mancunium wrote:Loli Cole

Vigilant wrote:Jimmy Wales, the face of Wikipedia and known philanderer, cavorting about London with the current face of child sexualization.

Midsize Jake wrote:

Vigilant wrote:Jimmy Wales, the face of Wikipedia and known philanderer, cavorting about London with the current face of child sexualization.

I'd say "Honey Boo-Boo" is the current face of child sexualization, at least in the United States. Lily Cole just isn't all that well-known in a general sense, and just about any pre-teen beauty contest is vastly more creepy than a Lily Cole fashion shoot is now, though it's true that she still has the face of a teenage girl (which I strongly suspect does give the pedos a bit of a thrill now and again, though).

That's not to say Jimbo isn't stupid and/or blundering in the conduct of his personal (and self-promotional) affairs, but let's be fair about this - in this case I'd say he's just being more of an opportunistic coattail-rider, and non-sexually at that. Ms. Cole can get media coverage more readily than he can, so he gloms on to get himself into more photos in the Daily Mail. Simple as that, if you ask me.

thekohser wrote:It's getting to the point of being vomit-inducing.

(TVC Group, of course, is a PR firm.)

Sure, Lily Cole is stunning and can rock a Givenchy gown like a creature pulled from a LOTR book, but with her beauty comes some serious brains and a passion to use her fame for good. The Impossible Network (still in beta), was launched back in April, and is designed to be “an altruistic social network”. Backed by Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder, it’s an online compendium of wishes and potential wishes. The idea is pay it forward, help someone out with spanish tutoring or a fish and in return – you get nothing.

Vigilant wrote:I'm not seeing the brains part...

I'm also not seeing the attractive part, to be perfectly honest.

SB_Johnny wrote:

Vigilant wrote:I'm not seeing the brains part...

I'm also not seeing the attractive part, to be perfectly honest.

I'm sure you would have found her attractive when you were 15. Or if you were Jimbo.

Bielle wrote:I have mentioned this before, but the size and number of these photos of Lily as a child-lover's dream is a disconnect with all the disclaimers of a lack of interest. Links would work just fine so that those of us who truly have no interest in these otherwise unavoidable likenesses could, uh, avoid them. Thumbnails would also work. I am reminded of those who buy Playboy for the articles . . .

SB_Johnny wrote:
Better?

Bielle wrote:I have mentioned this before, but the size and number of these photos of Lily as a child-lover's dream is a disconnect with all the disclaimers of a lack of interest. Links would work just fine so that those of us who truly have no interest in these otherwise unavoidable likenesses could, uh, avoid them. Thumbnails would also work. I am reminded of those who buy Playboy for the articles . . .

Hello. You seem to be very familiar with Rachel Haot, and I note you have also substantially edited GroundReport. Are you Rachel? This is not a problem per se, however you've removed sourced information from an article without discussion, and while I agree that the initial wording on the paragraph was substandard (e.g., "some"), nonetheless it represents a piece of information that might be included in the article. So, I ask again - are you the subject of the bio? If so, we need to make sure that we note that in the article's talk page to ensure that we don't run into conflict of interest issues, which Wikipedia takes seriously. Thank you! §FreeRangeFrogcroak 03:24, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

Thank you! We'll leave that whole paragraph off because I just realized there's actually a second piece very similar to that one, which were addressed in some way here. It does smell like a bit of a hit piece to me, and we also have a policy that governs whether to include these types of information in articles. Those pieces by Byers are really badly written indeed. As to the rest of the information, please remember that it needs to be sourced, from reliable sources and so on. I see you participated in the deletion discussion for GroundReport so you're probably familiar with how pesky we can be about sourcing information. By the way, if you wish to upload another photograph that you'd prefer be included in the article that would be fine. I found a bunch of them in the mayor's photo feed in Flickr but I'm not sure those licenses are compatible with Wikipedia. And finally, we usually welcome new editors with these flashy templates and information bullet points, plus some cookies... however I see no one bothered to do that for you, so consider this a belated welcome, and thank you for your contributions §FreeRangeFrogcroak 04:14, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

Bielle wrote:

SB_Johnny wrote:
Better?

It isn't a matter of better or worse. I am not offended, just bored. The number and size make it hard to believe that the men collecting and displaying the multiple images are as appalled and/or disinterested as they claim to be. I am surprised.

In the fiercely competitive world of tech start-ups, the idea of a website devoted to doing things out of the kindness of one’s heart may seem counterintuitive. But that’s just what the 26-year-old British model, actress and Cambridge graduate Lily Cole has put forth with her new online social platform and app, the Impossible. The site, which debuted last year in the U.K. but launches stateside this month, functions as a real-life, high-tech giving tree of sorts. [...] Supported and advised by the inventor of the Internet himself, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, as well as the Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, and the Nobel Prize-winning economist Mohammed Yunus, Impossible proffers a new sort of sharing economy, one where giving and receiving are not monetized but merely acts of authentic human kindness. [...] "I want to use economics as a prism to look at our relationship to one another and to the planet,” she says, “and challenge the assumption that there is only one way of doing things.”

Lily Cole doesn’t just look like a kindly magical being — she’s got the heart of one too. The British model and actress [...] recently launched the U.S. version of Impossible, a gift economy website and app on which users can post wishes, grant those of others, and write impossibly cute thank-you notes. Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammed Yunus, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and Internet inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee are all on board with the 26-year-old Cambridge grad’s project, which means giving strangers stuff and receiving nothing but a warm, fuzzy feeling in return can’t be all bad. So far, believers in the Impossible have asked for meetings with Madonna and Taylor Swift, jobs, lessons in taxidermy and knitting, and more Miss America-ish things like for everyone to wake up smiling. It’s hard not to feel cynical in the year of our Digital Overload 2014, but Cole says altruism is what you want it to be. “[Impossible is] a riff on ‘I’m possible’ because it depends on people,” Cole said. “I really believe in people … I believe we can make it real if people want to make it real. It’s up to us.”