[Foundation-l] "antisocial production"

[Phil Nash]

Eddie Tejeda wrote:
>> 'Forget altruism. Misanthropy and egotism are the fuel of online
>> social production. That's the conclusion suggested by a new study of
>> the character traits of the contributors to Wikipedia. A team of
>> Israeli research psychologists gave personality tests to 69
>> Wikipedians and 70 non-Wikipedians. They discovered that, as New
>> Scientist puts
>> it<http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16349-psychologist-finds-wikipedians-grumpy-and-closedminded.html>,
>> Wikipedians are generally "grumpy," "disagreeable," and "closed to
>> new ideas."'
>> http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2009/06/the_sour_wikipe.php
>>
>> I wonder how the mailing list will react....

1. Small sample, making statistical significance difficult to assess
2. Selected sample, meaning likewise - did the Wikipedians contribute to 
en:wiki or other wikis?
2a. Sample selection for non-Wikipedia editors? How and from where?
3. If the questionnaire isn't published, it's incapable of independent 
analysis for bias in the questions asked
4. Peer-reviewed research by whom?

and that's just for starters. I look forward to seeing the whole lot, 
because I, for one, disbelieve such wide conclusions.