[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia Leadership (was NY Times article on gender gap in Wikipedia contributors} - repost

[David Goodman]

Marc, you should know me better than that.

No one way of work is capable of doing everything. Wikipedia  has
proved capable of being an extremely useful general purpose reference
source for most routine purposes--probably the most useful such source
that has ever been created. This is hardly a trivial accomplishment,
but there are other information needs in the world also, among which
is a free academically verified encyclopedia certified as such by
known experts. When I cam to Wikipedia, I simultaneously joined   the
original group of editors at Citizendium, which had promise of
accomplishing this, with the intention of working it parallel.
Unfortunately their project accomplished very little, due to a number
of erroneous decisions at the start, which inhibited the process of
building a critical mass of material; I hope it may yet recover, and
therefore have remained a member of their editorial team. I do not
think the Wikipedia structure of freely open editing  can really do
this; I do not think we   have found a good free   model, & I suspect
that it may need central editorial control of a relatively
conventional nature.

I hardly oppose a project with such control: indeed, I tried to help
form one. From what I have seen, it would however not be capable of
the extraordinarily wide-ranging coverage and open opportunity for
contributors to develop their skills that Wikipedia provides. We at
Wikipedia have a working model, we should develop in such a way as to
continue what has proven to be its strengths, not compromise them for
the remote possibility of accomplishing something else also.  We
should make such improvements as we can, in expecting high standards
of writing and referencing, and also in communicating. among
ourselves. In particular, I'd certainly advocate immediate transition
to a much stronger response to unconstructive interpersonal behavior.
There is little wrong with Wikipedia that greater participation cannot
at least partially solve, and encouraging a wider community is the
first priority.

I found it possible at Wikipedia to affect policy a little--even in my
first year here. I have not found it possible to change it the way I
would really like it, but that would be an unrealistic expectation
when in a project with thousands of others who have divergent strong
views about the way they would really like it.  To work within a
diverse group, one must accept relatively limited goals.

In short, I am not a conservative, except in the sense of someone with
an inclination for considerable anarchy trying to preserve some degree
of it, despite its disadvantages. I am so much of a revolutionary, in
fact, that I think that if one wishes radical change, it is sometimes
better to start over again from scratch than to adapt existing
structures.




On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 7:53 PM, Marc Riddell <michaeldavid86 at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
>> On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 12:24 AM, Ian Woollard <ian.woollard at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On 01/02/2011, David Goodman <dggenwp at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> The attractiveness of Wikipedia is not just that anyone can contribute
>>>> content, but that anyone can help make policy.
>>>
>>> You don't seem to live in the same world as other editors.
>>
> on 2/1/11 7:30 PM, Carcharoth at carcharothwp at googlemail.com wrote:
>
>> Goodness, is that an incivil comment? :-)
>>
>> FWIW, I agree with nearly everything DGG wrote.
>>
>> Moving away from what makes Wikipedia different is a step that is
>> fraught with danger.
>>
> What is the specific difference we're speaking about here, Carcharoth? And,
> what is the danger you're talking about?
>
> Marc
>
>
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-- 
David Goodman

DGG at the enWP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:DGG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DGG