David Gerard wrote:
2009/6/21 Cormac Lawler cormaggio@gmail.com:
I think what's interesting here is asking: how does Wikipedia harness the energy of the public (for want of a better word) in a way that can be more productive, useful (or at least less brain-sporkingly nonsensical) than a newspaper open comment section does? What is it about this way of working - this mode of production - that works well? And what is afforded by 'open commenting' that the wiki model doesn't? (I don't we should overly idealise the wiki model - I'm sure we've all sporked our brains out over on-wiki affairs at some stage or another.)
I recall a presentation by Brion Vibber with a slide that said something like:
- Let any idiot edit your website
- Make sure the good idiots outnumber the bad idiots
Absolutely. The bad idiots can be identified by how much they try to prove that they are not idiots, or to confine the other idiots.
Ec