[iDC] The wisdom of the few?

Thu Feb 28 05:28:36 UTC 2008

The key problem is the following:

- many users, presumabley experts in their fields, contribute content, but the power is skewed to the less expert editors, who have created artificial scarcity, the 'notability' criteria, so that their power to delete has been enhanced. Since the deletionist reforms, the english Wikipedia has stopped growing, because the add on process has become a question of political mobilization, as the only way to balance the power of the less-expert editors.

Politically motivated editors use their knowledge of the arcane rules, to modify and change the content that they dislike,

The Wikipedia process still works for relatively uncontroversial content, but the key issue is, they do not have, unlike the free software communities, a mechanism for quality control and excellence, but on the contrary a mechanism that subverts it,

Michel

The P2P Foundation researches, documents and promotes peer to peer alternatives.

Wiki and Encyclopedia, at http://p2pfoundation.net; Blog, at http://blog.p2pfoundation.net; Newsletter, at http://integralvisioning.org/index.php?topic=p2p 

Basic essay at http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=499; interview at  http://poynder.blogspot.com/2006/09/p2p-very-core-of-world-to-come.html; video interview, at http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2006/09/29/network_collaboration_peer_to_peer.htm

----- Original Message ----
> From: Sal Randolph <salrandolph at gmail.com>
> To: iDC <idc at mailman.thing.net>
> Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 9:58:06 AM
> Subject: Re: [iDC] The wisdom of the few?
> 
> Not that Gawker's the be-all-and-end-all, but here's an article  
> debunking some of Chris Wilson's conclusions in that Slate piece:
> 
> Wikipedia And Digg Are Exactly As They Seem, Damn It
> http://gawker.com/360052/wikipedia-and-digg-are-exactly-as-they-seem- 
> damn-it
> 
> This is some of the source material for Gawker's piece:
> 
> Aaron Swartz, Raw Thought: Who Writes Wikipedia?
> http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia
> 
> The short version of the argument is that if you count by number of  
> edits, many or most are made by a core group of wikipedia groomers.  
> This suggests the "dominance of the hyper-connected few," as Steve  
> put it.  However, if you count by the number of words added, the  
> picture changes - in the samples Swartz analyzed, large chunks of  
> articles tend to be written by users who have only contributed a few  
> times.  This suggests that there are many people who only contribute  
> to wikipedia on areas where they have specific interest or knowledge,  
> and that much of the meat of wikipedia is actually written by such  
> participants.
> 
> It would seem that wikipedia would be a perfect subject for someone  
> to do a really serious and comprehensive analysis of participation  
> patterns - maybe someone on this list?
> 
> S
> 
> 
> On Feb 27, 2008, at 3:56 PM, Steve Cisler wrote:
> 
> > Here's another critical view of a some so-called Web2.0 services  
> > focusing on the dominance of the hyper-connected few:
> >
> > The Wisdom of the Chaperones Digg, Wikipedia, and the myth of Web  
> > 2.0 democracy.
> > By Chris Wilson
> > Posted Friday, Feb. 22, 2008, at 6:11 PM ET
> >
> > http://www.slate.com/id/2184487/
> > _______________________________________________
> > iDC -- mailing list of the Institute for Distributed Creativity  
> > (distributedcreativity.org)
> > iDC at mailman.thing.net
> > https://mailman.thing.net/mailman/listinfo/idc
> >
> > List Archive:
> > http://mailman.thing.net/pipermail/idc/
> >
> > iDC Photo Stream:
> > http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/idcnetwork/
> >
> > RSS feed:
> > http://rss.gmane.org/gmane.culture.media.idc
> >
> > iDC Chat on Facebook:
> > http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2457237647
> >
> > Share relevant URLs on Del.icio.us by adding the tag iDCref
> 
> _______________________________________________
> iDC -- mailing list of the Institute for Distributed Creativity 
> (distributedcreativity.org)
> iDC at mailman.thing.net
> https://mailman.thing.net/mailman/listinfo/idc
> 
> List Archive:
> http://mailman.thing.net/pipermail/idc/
> 
> iDC Photo Stream:
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/idcnetwork/
> 
> RSS feed:
> http://rss.gmane.org/gmane.culture.media.idc
> 
> iDC Chat on Facebook:
> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2457237647
> 
> Share relevant URLs on Del.icio.us by adding the tag iDCref
> 

      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Looking for last minute shopping deals?  
Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.  http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping