[Foundation-l] Analysis of lists statistics: community in decline

[Pharos]

On Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 11:19 AM, Robert Rohde <rarohde at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 8:06 AM, Milos Rancic <millosh at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 4:31 PM, Pharos <pharosofalexandria at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 9:13 AM, Brianna Laugher
>>> <brianna.laugher at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Is it too much to say we need our own Facebook? If only Ning was open source.
>>>
>>> I've done some a little research on this issue, and this appears to be
>>> the most promising option:
>>>
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software)
>>>
>>> It's open source, relatively popular, and is used in academic communities.
>>
>> I think that it should be solved differently. Wikia already has some
>> kind of extended profile which includes some basic social networking
>> abilities.
>>
>> It is expensive (in the sense of contributors' attention) to run two
>> different models. Even keeping blogs at Planet Wikimedia (officially)
>> and at Open Wiki Blog Planet (unofficially), as well as at some other
>> places (unofficially in different languages; I know, at least, for
>> French version) -- is expensive.
>>
>> At the other hand, MediaWiki is able to be extended in that direction
>> (which Wikia used extension shows). Also, contributors would be able
>> to ask for new features more dynamically, as well as it would be a
>> significant development path for MediaWiki itself.
>>
>> In other words, I would like to see a very rudimentary extension (like
>> Wikia's) with solved inter-project issues for the beginning. When we
>> have that, we would be able to think about improvements.
>
> Personally, I'd like to see more social interaction/networking tools
> built into Mediawiki.  However, after seeing the incredible pushback
> on enwiki surrounding things like Esperanza [1] and to a lesser degree
> Userboxes [2], I am somewhat skeptical about whether the community
> would actually embrace social networking tools.
>
> There are many who seem to feel that using Wikipedia for socializing
> and fun is contrary to our mission, especially if it attracts people
> who aren't contributors to the encyclopedia.  Personally, I think
> that's nonsense, and the community benefits from increased cohesion
> when there is fun and socializing to be had, but I realize that many
> people don't see it that way.

We should keep in mind that there is a much broader community out
there beyond Wikimedians, who are interested in cooperative efforts in
promoting priojects.

Personally, we've had great success working with the 2 Students For
Free Culture chapters in New York City, who have supported Wikimedia
projects as ardently as any Wikimedians.

On a level of real-life organization, there should be no sharp line
between people with Wikimedia user accounts and those without.  The
basic skills in organizing real-life events and projects are
orthogonal to particular technical skills or specializations.

What we really need is a social networking site for the whole Free
Culture/Open Source community, so that we can build a thousand
coalitions in a thousand different cities.

In researching this idea, I happened upon this proposal last year from
the Free Software Foundation for a "Planet Libre":

http://www.libervis.com/article/july_2007_letter_to_free_software_foundation_associate_members

That particular initiative appears to have foundered over recent
months.  I suggest we should revive it, and in cooperation with Free
Software Foundation, develop a "Planet Libre" social networking site
based on Elgg.

Thanks,
Pharos

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