On 09/10/06, Jossi Fresco jossifresco@mac.com wrote:
On Sep 14, 2006, at 9:43 AM, David Gerard wrote:
Dear smart people, Please look over http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:David_Gerard/Process_essay and hack it to bits.
Pretty good, David.... I liked in particular the section on "You can't legislate against misunderstanding or malice" My question is, is such a reliance on process and the inherent bureaucratization a natural evolution of a community of people wanting to create an encyclopedia based on NPOV, V and NOR? Is that a reversible/stoppable evolution? Is the current stratification of users (e.g. "inadvertent committees" or such similar groups; admins, etc.) unavoidable?
I suspect so. Politics starts when you have two people in the same place; when you have a few thousand in the same place, it's surprising the result is anything *other* than politics.
That is: an organisation and a hierarchy will form whether you want it to or not. And pretending you don't or shouldn't have one won't stop it forming, and will just make it dangerous to your cause. (I posted a link to an essay about this to this list a while ago, though I can't find a link.)
- d.