On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 3:12 PM, Tony Sidaway <tonysidaway(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Four or five years ago I quite confidently pronounced
it unlikely that
the success of Wikipedia could be sustained beyond 2010. Once the
novelty wore off, I thought, people would drift away to the next shiny
new thing.
By now it seems clear that Wikipedia could last at least another six
months or so, to my surprise and delight. I too will toast the
problems of success in our January celebrations.
Yup, I reckon Wikipedia got really lucky. It was created at a time
when there weren't many other collaborative projects that the average
schmoe could get involved in. Then it managed to hit this critical
size where there was a massive passive user community. Whenever you
have a large number of people who *need* something, sustainability
gets a lot easier.
Also, I credit the WMF with some amazingly good governance in the last
couple of years. I'm incredibly impressed with how they've taken
Wikipedia to "the next level", in terms of outreach, fundraising, user
interface improvements, etc etc. They're doing all the things a
foundation should.
Steve