On 6/21/07, Marc Riddell michaeldavid86@comcast.net wrote:
on 6/19/07 7:48 PM, Ray Saintonge at saintonge@telus.net wrote:
What leadership structure? Sometimes I believe that the leadership is only suitable for drawing and quartering. I often have the impression that we live in a culture of distrust, and that this infects much of our activity, whether on Wikipedia or esewhere.
What leadership structure? Precisely. This is what I have been trying to drive home for some time now.
A community without strong, definable leadership produces a culture of "everyone for themselves". This is true whether in Wikipedia or the world at large. It becomes the very familiar "survival of the fittest". And "who can you trust?" becomes the pervading question.
Online communities have, however, successfully self-organized around people that are trusted and put forwards (or put themselves forwards) as leaders.
I've said this several times before: If actively contribute to threads on Wikien-L, you're probably an English Wikipedia leader, whether you consider yourself one or not.