[WikiEN-l] Differentiators from Wikipedia (was CZ fork: Tendrl)

[Charles Matthews]

On 24/11/2010 09:48, Fred Bauder wrote:
> It is not the specific variation which is central. Anything that
> successfully incorporates social media can succeed, as some Wikia wikis
> have such as Lostpedia: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
>
> Enthusiasm is what makes the difference. Why does FourLoko succeed where
> root beer fails?
>
Well, yes, in that "it's the community, stupid" is a good general reply 
to abstract specification and constitutional talk about online work. Of 
course this is the opposite of a "differentiator" from WP; in some sense 
a successful community ought to have something in common with (some 
successful language version of) Wikipedia. CZ had a founding idea that 
the differentiator was at least in part to be "we're not Wikipedia ... 
and so experts are welcome". Always partly a slur in fact, but they 
apparently have not made that work. Underestimation of gnoming and page 
churn is not going to help. Overestimation of the writerly neither.

There is a gap in the market for something that is basically "the mother 
of all infoboxes", or a sophisticated version of that. Commercially I 
believe this is being done in my home town, probably elsewhere too. 
Ontologies and structured data but for the masses, not theoreticians, 
and with a thoughtful and attractive front end (for younger viewers, 
let's say). Death of the author.

Charles