[p2p-research] Wikiversity’s potential in global capacity building

[marc fawzi]

Thanks Michel.

Dear Vasillis:

The slashdot post about "secret ban list" which hints at Jimmy Wales'
corruption (which has been documented by other articles, including
ones about his misuse of Foundation funds) is available at:

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/12/04/0333252.shtml?tid=267

My own experience with Wikipedia governance, which got me thinking
about building a "people hosted" version of Wikipedia is documented
at: http://evolvingtrends.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/people-hosted-p2p-version-of-wikipedia/
 (updated)

If you look at the way Knol is structured, every topic can have
multiple entry by multiple authors. The version linked to the most
rises to the top in Google search. I believe that is a very liberal
model of dealing with the issue. Why let some corrupt Wikipedia admin
or Founder dictate all human knowledge? Why not let the users dictate
that by linking to the version they like and by doing so making it
more popular without eliminating/deleting less popular versions (of
any given topic.) Where Google goes wrong is in their misunderstanding
of why people contribute so much to Wikipedia's entries. The reason
people do it is not money but to be part of a great moral experiment.
So by Google having an incentive (to pay authors from ad revenue for
their given entry) they are actually creating a counter incentive
because people who have brains have principles too so they wouldn't do
it for pennies. The whole driver for Wikipedia is to be part of a
great moral experiment. Sadly, that experiment is failing behind the
curtain. People who support Wikipedia's governance and ignore the
problems already exposed (such as the slashdot link above) are on one
side of the debate and all those unhappy with corruption and
incompetence are on the other side. Getting the two parties to meet
half way is important but not essential to the task of building a
better pedia, using a more liberated structure that bans deletions and
bans "banning" of users but still maintains quality through use of a
PageRank like scheme.

In fact, if Google was smart they would setup a Foundation and
separate that from their business and spin off Knol to that foundation
then remove the silly ad revenue incentive and let people have a go at
building a better pedia.

But I doubt that ANY corporation can survive the test of moral goodness.

Let the people build and host their own pedia.

Marc

On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 7:31 PM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Please note that our friend vasilis kostakis is doing an in-depth thesis on
> wikipedia governance,
>
> if you know anything about the topic, thanks for connecting with him,
>
> Michel
>
> On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 3:20 AM, M. Fioretti <mfioretti at nexaima.net> wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 00:45:34 AM +0700, Michel Bauwens wrote:
>> > http://p2pfoundation.net/Wikipedia_Controversies
>> >
>> > Tere,
>> >
>> > since you ask, here's the overview of the main arguments from
>> >  http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/
>> >
>> >  is-something-fundamentally-wrong-with-wikipedia-governance-processes/2008/01/07
>> >  point 4, 5 and 6 are key, and have only worsened since it was
>> >  written,
>>
>> Michel,
>>
>> for some reason I had completely overlooked all the Wikipedia entries
>> at p2pfoundation.net. Thanks for the those pieces and all the
>> references they contain. I share many of your concerns. This is what I
>> wrote about one and a half year ago on the same topic, even if for a
>> different audience: http://digifreedom.net/node/61
>>
>> Marco
>>
>> --
>> Your own civil rights and the quality of your life heavily depend on how
>> software is used *around* you:            http://digifreedom.net/node/84
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Working at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University -
> http://www.dpu.ac.th/dpuic/info/Research.html -
> http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
>
> Volunteering at the P2P Foundation:
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> http://p2pfoundation.ning.com
>
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