Eddie Tejeda wrote:
> 'Forget altruism. Misanthropy and egotism are
the fuel of online
> social production. That's the conclusion suggested by a new study of
> the character traits of the contributors to Wikipedia. A team of
> Israeli research psychologists gave personality tests to 69
> Wikipedians and 70 non-Wikipedians. They discovered that, as New
> Scientist puts
>
it<http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16349-psychologist-finds-wikipe…ml>,
> Wikipedians are generally "grumpy," "disagreeable," and
"closed to
> new ideas."'
>
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2009/06/the_sour_wikipe.php
>
> I wonder how the mailing list will react....
1. Small sample, making statistical significance difficult to assess
2. Selected sample, meaning likewise - did the Wikipedians contribute to
en:wiki or other wikis?
2a. Sample selection for non-Wikipedia editors? How and from where?
3. If the questionnaire isn't published, it's incapable of independent
analysis for bias in the questions asked
4. Peer-reviewed research by whom?
and that's just for starters. I look forward to seeing the whole lot,
because I, for one, disbelieve such wide conclusions.