The Truth according to Wikipedia
More info on http://www.vpro.nl/programma/tegenlicht/
The Truth according to Wikipedia
More info on http://www.vpro.nl/programma/tegenlicht/afleveringen/3940519 1/ (Dutch)
Google or Wikipedia? Those of us who search online -- and who doesn't? -- are getting referred more and more to Wikipedia. For the past two years, this free online "encyclopedia of the people" has been topping the lists of the world's most popular websites. But do we really know what we're using? Backlight plunges into the story behind Wikipedia and explores the wonderful world of Web 2.0. Is it a revolution, or pure hype?
Director IJsbrand van Veelen goes looking for the truth behind Wikipedia. Only five people are employed by the company, and all its activities are financed by donations and subsidies. The online encyclopedia that everyone can contribute to and revise is now even bigger than the illustrious Encyclopedia Britannica.
Does this spell the end for traditional institutions of knowledge such as Britannica? And should we applaud this development as progress or mourn it as a loss? How reliable is Wikipedia? Do "the people" really hold the lease on wisdom? And since when do we believe that information should be free for all?
In this film, "Wikipedians," the folks who spend their days writing and editing articles, explain how the online encyclopedia works. In addition, the parties involved discuss Wikipedia's ethics and quality of content. It quickly becomes clear that there are camps of both believers and critics.
Wiki's Truth introduces us to the main players in the debate: Jimmy Wales (founder and head Wikipedian), Larry Sanger (co-founder of Wikipedia, now head of Wiki spin-off Citizendium), Andrew Keen (author of The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy), Phoebe Ayers (a Wikipedian in California), Ndesanjo Macha (Swahili Wikipedia, digital activist), Tim O'Reilly (CEO of O'Reilly Media, the "inventor" of Web 2.0), Charles Leadbeater (philosopher and author of We Think, about crowdsourcing), and Robert McHenry (former editor-in-chief of Encyclopedia Britannica). Opening is a video by Chris Pirillo.
The questions surrounding Wikipedia lead to a bigger discussion of Web 2.0, a phenomenon in which the user determines the content. Examples include YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, and Wikipedia. These sites would appear to provide new freedom and opportunities for undiscovered talent and unheard voices, but just where does the boundary lie between expert and amateur? Who will survive according to the laws of this new "digital Darwinism"? Are equality and truth really reconcilable ideals? And most importantly, has the Internet brought us wisdom and truth, or is it high time for a cultural counterrevolution?
Broadcast date: April 7, 2008
Direction: IJsbrand van Veelen
Interviews: IJsbrand van Veelen / Marijntje Denters / Martijn Kieft
Research: William de Bruijn / Marijntje Denters
Production: Judith van den Berg
Commissioning editors: Jos de Putter / Doke Romeijn
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How to combine modernity and fundamentalist Islam. "Saudi Solutions" is a unique and revea
How to combine modernity and fundamentalist Islam. "Saudi Solutions" is a unique and revealing documentary about the lifestyles and attitudes of ambitious career women
in conservative Saudi Arabia -- the only country in the Arab
world where women are obliged to cover themselves inabayas and aren't allowed to drive cars. Because of the strong influence of fundamentalist Islam on society, filming
is severely restricted in Saudi Arabia. With unique access to the Kingdom, Backlight had the opportunity to film the daily routines of Saudi working women. This documentary
features a top gyneacologist, a TV news anchor woman, a photographer, and a university professor. It also introduces
the wealthy Prince Al-Waleed, who passionately promotes the acceptance of women into the workforce. He kindly invites
Backlight to his luxury desert camp, but there are no women to be found—only thousands of men.
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For many years now the American foreign policy has been characterized by the strong tie be
For many years now the American foreign policy has been characterized by the strong tie between the United States and Israel. Does the United States in fact keep Israel on its feet? And how long will it continue to do so? In March 2006 the American political scientists John Mearsheimer (University of Chicago) and Steve Walt (Harvard) published the controversial article 'The Israel Lobby and US foreign policy'. In it they state that it is not, or no longer, expedient for the US to support and protect present-day Israel. The documentary sheds light on both parties involved in the discussion: those who wish to maintain the strong tie between the US and Israel, and those who were critical of it and not infrequently became 'victims' of the lobby. The question arises to what extend the pro-Israel lobby ultimately determines the military and political importance of Israel itself. Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (Colin Powell's former chief-of-staff) explains how the lobby's influence affects the decision-making structure in the White House.
With political scientist John Mearsheimer, neocon Richard Perle, lobby organization AIPAC, televangelist John Hagee, historian Tony Judt, Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth, colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Democrat Earl Hilliard, Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy and investigative journalist Michael Massing.
Research: William de Bruijn
Director: Marije Meerman
For more information visit http://www.vpro.nl/programma/tegenlicht/afleveringen/3433852 4/
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This 50 minutes documentary gives an in-depth look in the world of Google and search.
W
This 50 minutes documentary gives an in-depth look in the world of Google and search.
What if all the world's information would be available and easy to find? What if all the news, all books, all texts, photographs and videos would be collected in one place, and made available, always and everywhere?
This is the goal of Google, and the company seems to be realising its core mission at an amazing speed: through its popular search engine, through Google Earth, with which users can find any kind of information based on geography, and through Google Print, a project in which Google digitizes complete libraries.
Google is divulging ever more information, in the process hiring the smartest people in the industry. But is the company aware of the responsibility it has, being the guard to all the world's information, including personal information about its users?
This documentary takes a look into the world of Google, in the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California and in its London offices. We see --among others- Vint Cerf, named 'the father' of the Internet who explains the inner workings of Google as a company. Since 2004, Cerf has been working for Google, helping them to develop new applications for the Internet. What is his view on the development of the Internet, and on the role Google plays in today's world?
With its motto 'Don't be evil', Google seems to have the best intentions. But there are also claims that Google is slowly turning into Big Brother, keeping track of its users and continuously making decisions about the information it provides to an ever faster growing number of users.
Will Google turn out to be a new Library of Alexandria, serving as a middleman that brings all useful information to anyone? Or is it turning into a monopolistic Big Brother that challenges the freedom of information?
Research: Martijn Kieft
Director: IJsbrand van Veelen
VPRO Backlight 2006
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Do we live on a bubble? Is it possible for the heavily indebted American economy to collap
Do we live on a bubble? Is it possible for the heavily indebted American economy to collapse and take all of us down in a free fall with it? Have the days of the dollar been counted? Is it really unimaginable that we will see the time of the Great Depression repeating itself?
VPRO Backlight and Dutch national newspaper NRC Handelsblad present this 'what if' scenario. What if the dollar collapses? Fiction meets facts in this 24 hour scenario. At 9AM a Singapore trader is ordered to sell a large amount of dollars, which sends off the enormous downfall of the dollar. This film shows the results for the world economy every following hour. It ends in Amsterdam, where the only currency accepted by a taxi driver is sigarettes...
History seems to have caught up with this 2005 film, though in slow-motion...
Includes interview with analist Stephen Roach, Andy Xie, Maarten Schinkel, Cees Maas, Rob de Wijk and Kees Vendrik.
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It started as a possible case of food poisoning but within weeks turned into a grim specta
It started as a possible case of food poisoning but within weeks turned into a grim spectacle of enormous political proportions: Aleksander Litvinenko, former member of the Russian secret service, died in his place of residence London last November, after having been poisoned with a radioactive substance.
The search for the possible perpetrators lead to a political difficult situation that reminded us of the dark days of the Cold War.
Three years ago Aleksander Litvinenko told his life story to documentary maker Jos De Putter. It is a wild tale full of conspiracies, assassination attempts and imputations. Litvinenko talks about his time with the secret service, about his experience in Chechnya, and in particular about the series of bomb attacks on Russian territory that led to the seizure of power by Vladimir Putin. According to Litvinenko those attacks were the work of the secret service.
After Litvinenko's funeral in December 2006, Backlight spoke to Litvinenko's widow. Marina Litvinenko is writing a book about her husband. The book will be published in May 2007 and the film rights have already been sold to Columbia Pictures. In this unique interview, she speaks about how they first met, how they fled to England and she speaks about Aleksander´s death agony.
We also see Litvinenko's father Walter, with Chechen leader and Litvinenko's closest friend Akhmed Zakayev and the prominent Russian exile Vladmir Bukovsky, also a friend of Litvinenko.
The result is an impressive 55-minute portrait of a former spy whose death brought him worldwide fame.
Directors: Jos de Putter and Masja Novikova
VPRO Backlight 2007
For more info, please visit: http://www.vpro.nl/programma/tegenlicht/afleveringen/3483489 8/
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Chávez' goal is to remain in power until 2021 and to spread the Bolivarian revolution acro
Chávez' goal is to remain in power until 2021 and to spread the Bolivarian revolution across his country, his continent and the globe. The Well-Oiled Revolution of Hugo Chávez shows what Chávez has planned for his country and the wider world, and how his revolution is tearing Venezuela in two.
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A future scenario for The Place of Judgment, the Middle East.
Are we on course to a doom
A future scenario for The Place of Judgment, the Middle East.
Are we on course to a doom scenario? What are the scenarios for the Near East in the forseeable future? Tension in the Middle East is mounting again, as political decisions in both the United States and Iran are now being taken by neoconservatives. 'Both places have idiots in charge', states colonel Lawrence Wilkerson. And the weapon of mass destruction scenario has been dug up again, this time for Iran. PLans of attack are being made and pre-emptive strikes are being considered. Backlight presents an ominous future view on the Middle East, the Place of Judgment. For 'Endgame', director Marije Meerman has gathered opinions and attitudes from the US, Israel and Iran concerning Israel's near future. Could the possible US withdrawal from Iraq herald the destruction of Israel? And will the pro-Israel stances of the presidential candidates affect their chances? How will any rethinking of American foreign policy impact on the region?
Backlight spoke to: Martin van Creveld (Israeli military historian), Tony Judt (British historian), Brigitte Gabriel (Christian Lebanese emigre), Lawrence Wilkerson (former chief of staff to Colin Powell), Etgar Keret (Israeli writer), Anoush Ehteshami (British-Iranian political scientist) and Richard Perle (American neoconservative). This episode also features Ahmadinejad, pastor John Hagee and Barack Obama in an attempt to illustrate the frontlines of a possible Third World War. Could the increasing tension regarding the escalation of the conflict lead to a self-fulfulling prophesy?
Research: William de Bruijn
Director: Marije Meerman
VPRO Backlight 2007 49'
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Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba on December 31, 1959. Expropriation, nationalization of
Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba on December 31, 1959. Expropriation, nationalization of the industry and the departure of more than two and a half million Cubans followed.
But also the advancement of health care and education, and a continuing struggle to turn Cuba into an ideal communist state. In Miami the great countdown has begun. The Cubans who have fled the socialist experiment over the past 45 years have faith again. The momentum is there, or at least close, so the exiles in Miami hope. They'll soon be able to take possession of Cuba again and start reconstruction, from communist utopia to Caribbean investment paradise. In Miami, where 1.2 million Cuban exiles live, Cuban organizations, companies and people are ready for the post-Castro era. This documentary takes stock of the scenarios people in Miami envision for Cuba after Castro and of thepossible consequences for the island and its inhabitants.
Director: Gijs Meyer Swantee, Doke Romeijn
Producer: Frank Wiering
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