[p2p-research] [P2P Foundation] From Citizendium To Eduzendium

[Henrik Ingo]

On Feb 4, 2008 10:02 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
> correct me if I'm wrong but in free software, it is most usually patches
> that are refused, but nobody refuses anybody the right to try ...
>
> so the exclusion would refer to the process to select excellence, which is
> vested in unelected, but respected maintainers
>
> the problem with wikipedia is that the deletionist editors have no
> legitimacy to judge those articles and usually know less than the people
> writing them, so that their biases become limiting factors ...

Yes and no. I guess we have to be more explicit in how we map aspects
of Wikipedia to Free Software and vice versa. As I see it
 - anyone is free to try = anyone is free to write text or code
 - anyone is free to publish this on the internet, a mailing list,
even try to publish it on wikipedia until it is deleted
 - deletion is an integral part of striving for excellence. Even in an
inclusionist wikipedia you'd have to tidy up spam - at a minimum

So the problem with wikipedia is not that deletion is possible, the
problem is that wikipedia is now run by idiots. And that a lot of
other people don't agree with the choices being made by those who de
fact have the power in wikipedia. As Tere points out, the cure to that
is typically to fork the project.

So 1) wikipedia exists, 2) there are some people that hold the power
in it 3) they've chosen to make it into a very selective encyclopedia
instead of an inclusionist one (which is a choice I wouldn't agree
with but a possible choice for a website to make) and 4) unfortunately
the deletion of articles doesn't seem to sum up to "excellence",
judgement seems to be based on many other factors than the quality of
the article and experts are therefore alienated from contributing at
all, creating a bad spiral effect.

I'll say it again in slightly different terms. The desire to be
"selective" is not the problem, but somehow Wikipedia has failed to
arrive at the "excellence" part.

But also, as I've previously noted, in an online medium there wouldn't
be a need to be this selective at all. A rating system or some other
softer mechanism (like CZ editing process) would be a better
alternative than just rampant deleting.

Does this make sense?
henrik
-- 
email: henrik.ingo at avoinelama.fi
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