[Wikimedia-l] On the gentrification of Wikipedia, by Superbass (was: Visual Editor)

[Michael Snow]

On 7/29/2013 1:50 PM, Erik Moeller wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 29, 2013 at 1:12 PM, Jan Ainali <jan.ainali at wikimedia.se> wrote:
>> I have not read the vision statement as it is the production of knowledge
>> that need be availible to every human being, but the consumption.
> Actually, having co-drafted the Vision Statement (it was drafted at
> the October 2006 Board retreat in Frankfurt and then finalized after
> community discussion), I can assure you that that was not the intent.
> I recall that Florence and I talked about that specific aspect a fair
> bit. We proposed the language "share in" over "given free access to"
> in order to emphasize that it's not a one-directional process (some
> treasure trove of knowledge that you are given access to), but a
> process we are creating an opportunity to participate in. It could be
> made clearer, but that was the intent.
In any case, I'm not sure why we'd conclude that making the production 
of knowledge more widely available is somehow harmful to the cause of 
making the consumption of knowledge available to everyone. Because the 
success of Wikipedia has been built on rather the opposite of that. In 
that context which comes first, production or consumption, is sort of a 
chicken-or-the-egg question about the origin of network effects.

--Michael Snow