[Foundation-l] Start "questions and answers" site within Wikimedia

[Erik Moeller]

On Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 1:25 AM, Oliver Moran <oliver.moran at gmail.com> wrote:
> The issues you raise about open-source vs. proprietary software, that's an
> open-source vs. proprietary software debate - and one that sounds like it is
> on the ideological edge of that arena. As a software engineer who develops
> proprietary software, I can almost guarantee that a whole bunch of
> open-source software (e.g. MIT licenced) is in the Stack Exchange software.
> Indeed, just by looking at their web source its possible to see proof of
> that. Because of this, the matter of the benefits of open source software
> vs. the proprietary software is a theoretical one. In modern practise, the
> two cannot be so cleanly separated.

There's a simple question: Can you run all key services relevant to
Wikimedia using only free/open software? If the answer is no, we're
losing something very important, which isn't merely about sticking to
our guns, but about ensuring the survivability of what we're doing for
not just years, but decades to come.

I think the idea of a dedicated Q/A site is an interesting one -- but
not necessarily the best way to address the underlying problem. We're
test-deploying a small feature for microfeedback (including requests
for help) from new users next week. The initial deployment is designed
to assess the signal/noise ratio of such microfeedback & make a
decision about whether to iterate further on that model. You can read
a bit more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:VPT#Quick_Feedback_on_Editing_Experience:_New_Editors

Such systems could potentially be expanded further, as can systems
like the new Article Feedback tool, to carefully manage, curate and
respond to a wide variety of subjective information flows from
questions to comments to reviews. In the meantime, StackOverflow,
Quora & friends are spending very substantial effort improving their
editing features, e.g.:
http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/07/faster-edits-with-inline-editing/

IMO the convergence of curation and collaboration systems for
subjective & objective information flows is a pretty natural
development and one which we shouldn't be afraid of.
-- 
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation

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