[Foundation-l] En WP Culture (was Social networking)

[Marc Riddell]

On Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 5:24 AM, Marc Riddell <michaeldavid86 at comcast.net>
> wrote:
>> 
>> A sidebar: When The Apple Computer organization was created, a conscious
>> decision was made by its creators to establish a company culture that was,
>> by existing corporate standards, considered informal. This encouraged
>> creativity, reduced stress and produced a culture of tolerance and,
>> ultimately, a great product. Their mission was to create the best damn
>> computer a creative mind in a creative culture could produce. "Socializing"
>> among its employees was not only encouraged, but the ability to socialize
>> was almost a prerequisite for being a part of the team.

on 11/3/08 3:18 AM, John Vandenberg at jayvdb at gmail.com wrote:
> 
> I think we already have a very social environment, but this
> socialising is "focused".  We chat about topics that interest us all
> the time on the wikis, usually with people who are also similarly
> interested enthusiasts and often with people who are surprisingly well
> informed.  But, we are always doing it in a way that is also
> "productive".
> 
> For example, we dont endlessly tolerate trolling and idle speculation
> on Wikipedia, because it isnt productive.  It isnt strictly forbidden,
> but if it is done on pages that others frequent, it will be viewed as
> an interruption, because there is more valuable discussions going on,
> and the rest of us want to focus on those, and we want to "clear the
> air" so that more valuable contributions are attracted.
> 
> There is so much to learn and participate in on the wikis, that if
> someone is primarily socialising, they havent caught the "wiki bug".
> These are the people who would be fired from Apple because they didnt
> fit in.
> 
>> The quality of a culture can be measured, in part, by what that culture
>> produces.
> 
> I think it is fair to say that the Wikimedia culture has already
> proved itself to be a producer of the "impossible".  This speaks
> volumes about the culture as it is.
> 
> Can our culture be improved?  Perhaps.
> 
> But ... it isn't broken, so we should be wary about trying to "fix it".
> 
> Thanks for your input Marc.
> 
Thank you for yours, John. What disturbs me a great deal about the Wikipedia
Community culture (and I only speak of the English one) is its seeming
inability to accept criticism or "dissent". And I am not speaking of the
crap that such sites as Wikipedia Review puts out. I'm talking about honest,
often well though out, criticism from persons within the Community itself.
Most often when such criticism is offered, the wagons get circled, the
defenses go up, and the critic is seen as "unpatriotic" (sound familiar :-).
For me, I have rarely, if ever, learned anything from someone who agrees
with me all of the time.

Marc

--
The intelligent person knows his abilities - The wise person knows his
limitations.