[Foundation-l] It Is not Us

Mon Jun 27 16:24:15 UTC 2011

On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 11:43 AM, Gerard Meijssen
<gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hoi.
> Wikipedia should be more like a social network. It provides us with the
> opportunity to reach out to people when we want to crowd source some
> activity. We have a problem in retaining people particular newbies. When we
> show a social side to our work on open content (not only encyclopaedic
> content) we stand a better chance we are likely to do better.
> Thanks,
>     GerardM

That's an interesting theory. Wikipedia is sort of the epitome of a
social enterprise, and all of the good and the bad in the project can
be traced to its social nature. Trying to make it more like a "social
network" can only be interpreted as making it more like some other
social network, perhaps by integrating purely social mechanisms a la
Facebook. Of course, that could either help or hinder, with no way to
know for sure in advance; perhaps encouraging more social interaction
would exacerbate and personalize the disputes and conflicts that drive
people away.