[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia Leadership (was NY Times article on gender gap in Wikipedia contributors}

[Marc Riddell]

on 1/31/11 11:43 PM, Carcharoth at carcharothwp at googlemail.com wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 4:02 AM, Marc Riddell <michaeldavid86 at comcast.net>
> wrote:
> 
>> It's time.
> 
> To march on Tahrir Square?

Or the tower of babble :-)
> 
> I think you will find that "Choosing a leader" only works if you have
> the mechanisms in place to do so.

Then let's create that mechanism.
> 
> I'm not even sure it is *possible* to lead an entity like Wikipedia.

If the whole of an entity is composed of a single entity - such as a
community - then is is possible to lead. Even a riot needs leadership if the
group that is rioting has any hope of calling attention to its issues. A
group without a leader is just a mob.
> 
> Horses being led to water to drink and old dogs being taught new
> tricks come to mind.

If the horse is thirsty enough it doesn't care how it gets to the water. And
an old dog will learn new tricks when he discovers that the old ones don't
work anymore.

Marc