on 6/23/07 3:39 AM, David Goodman wrote:
I see a structure--a cellular structure of groups
that only sometimes
interact. If the group is reasonably small, under 50 or so--of whom in
general 5 to 10 will actually be active, and if the interfaces between
the groups are kept limited and channelized, the organization can
continue.
The cells I have in mind are he Wikiprojects. Many of them work
really well to maintain order in their work (I'm thinking particularly
of Chemistry) and are reasonably hospitable to adequately informed
newcomers. But they work only incidentally with the other groups. they
appear in the general forums when something of critical concern to
them appears, but otherwise they leave the rest of the wiki alone.
Look at most of the admin candidates--they have each of them
contributed substantially only within a scope of a few pages. When the
become admins, they do a little general activity, but most remain
fairly limited even in that. They are like the country members, who
come to the capitol only on special occasion.
David,
Another area to think about are the frustratingly complex processes of
conflict appeal and resolution; both within the various Projects and in the
encyclopedia as a whole. As it is now a newbie, in particular, doesn't stand
a chance.
While you are absolutely right that it is an area in need of reform, I
think too that it is more important to focus on what happens when things
go right than on what to do when things go wrong. This does not
diminish the importance of these processes, but they do have a tendency
to draw people's attention away from fundamental objectives. This is
akin to a community that wants to build better jails instead of better
schools.
In the recent discussion on the use of proxies it was argued that strong
measures should be taken because it was conceived that wrong-doers
_could_ avail themselves of potential security holes. A tremendous
amount of energy could be devoted to that sort of thing, and leave us
very little further ahead. Problem people can only be dealt with by
reference to what we accept as right.
Maybe we need a Wikiproject:Discipline along the lines of other
Wikiprojects, but I'm not prepared to say that that's the only way to go
with this. Whatever is done in this direction must still fit in with a
broader picture where it must also be accountable.
Ec