On 5/5/05, Chad Perrin perrin@apotheon.com wrote:
On Thu, May 05, 2005 at 11:20:58PM -0400, Sj wrote:
Good point.
Chad Perrin wrote"
even when the "regulars" aren't involved, what's going on is actually carefully composed edits by individuals who, though a chaotic sort of collaboration, are building something as a team. These are not insects contributing intelligence to a central thinking process that produces good works...
< It's easy to lose sight of the individual contributions
Hmm. I regularly see "regulars" making careless edits, or tossing up new pages in swarming fashion. I do it myself sometimes... other editors in a different mindset inevitably come by, and start to fit the contribution into an appropriate category, style template, etc.
The canonical "swarm" edit is a very individual contribution. Someone who uploads an entire unwikified essay, or a set of references, or a two-paragraph stub about a minor historical figure.
So now individualistic behavior is evidence of communal "swarm" behavior? When defined thusly, it's no wonder you see "swarm" behavior everywhere: apparently, anything that involves the action of large numbers of individuals constitutes a "swarm" if it isn't specifically inwardly contentious. I don't think such a broad definition of "swarm" behavior is particularly valuable, however, so I don't use it.
I just love semantics. There's nothing "communal" about the swarms I'm thinking of. They are defined precisely by being unconnected to other edits by coordination or other signaling (such as policy discussion, elaborate style guides, project definition, use of talk pages...)
And I don't see it everywhere; in a structured office environment, there is almost no such behavior. You rarely do things on a whim or at random, you find work that needs doing on some list of priorities, and either get assigned to do it or volunteer for it.
Finally, this concept doesn't rely on there being a large number of individuals. Would you be happier if I simply said "uncoordinated" and "coordinated" editing?