on 6/12/07 8:56 AM, Mark Gallagher at m.g.gallagher@student.canberra.edu.au wrote:
G'day Marc,
(Go on, snip the bit I liked. No, no, I don't mind. If anyone wants me, I'll be alone in the corner, crying ...)
on 6/11/07 1:06 PM, Mark Gallagher at m.g.gallagher@student.canberra.edu.au wrote:
And I do agree with you about the Tyranny of Structurelessness; all it means is that the powers-that-be are hidden from view, unknown, perhaps even to themselves. And nobody is accountable. This is a constant risk on Wikipedia, and there are parts of the project that have already succumbed.
OK, folks, how many references to ³structurelessness², and the effect it is having on this Project, is it going to take, before this Community wakes up and sees it for the truly serious problem that it is?
When will this Community realize that these ³powers-that-be² members with the loudest, most persistent, seemingly ³authoritative², and seemingly most convincing voices, will take negative advantage of that structureless vacuum and steer it in the direction they want it to go? And that, right now, they like it just the way it is!
I'm not convinced that the Man Behind the Curtain is entirely conscious of his power. Certainly I've had a lot of arguments with authoritative admins who aren't aware of how much power they wield, and how much potential for damage they possess.
<snip/>
Sorry about the snip, Mark, I was focusing on the part of your post that fired me up the most: Organizational structure, or, really, the lack of it, in WP.
The bottom line is, a project (or community) of 10 cannot be managed in the same way that a project of 100 is, much less a thousand, much less one hundred thousand, much less
A formal day-to-day organizational structure must be created within WP if it is to survive. Right now it is being held together by paper clips and bailing wire.
Right now, the idea of such a formal structure, with specific persons guiding the Project, may produce anxiety in some of the Members - but this needn't be. Wikipedia is a unique work; its organizational structure can be just as unique.
I don't have an answer. I am simply trying to gather enough persons who recognize and care about this to put their creative heads together to find such an answer.
Marc