Learning from the Wikipedia Mitch Kapor April 2006

The Wikipedia Can't Possibly Work… When I describe to people who haven’t seen it An encyclopedia written entirely by volunteers Completely open

but it does cite statistics Top 40 web site in world (up from 50, heading to 30)

The Wikipedia Can't Possibly Work…

but it does Reminds me of the joke who are you going to believe me or your lying eyes

The Wikipedia Can't Possibly Work…

but it does the Zen koan aspect - you're given a paradox to wrestle with insoluble in its own terms unless you transcend your limiting assumptions This talk is my effort to wrestle

Fact This is the phrase that sets people off… sort of like the Internet with its anyone can mantra part of what attracts me… inclusion, low barriers… vandalism intentionally false or misleading information opinionated people with no command of the facts as a snapshot these people and situations exist

anyone can edit any article at any time This is the phrase that sets people off… sort of like the Internet with its anyone can mantra part of what attracts me… inclusion, low barriers… vandalism intentionally false or misleading information opinionated people with no command of the facts as a snapshot these people and situations exist

Myths a lot of people have a deep-seated, unexamined belief that authority is required to guarantee quality most especially among people unfamiliar with positive example itself the wikipedia challenges that notion Wales story about volunteer sysadmins Even I wonder… I don’t have his faith And he’s been right

someone has to be in charge a lot of people have a deep-seated, unexamined belief that authority is required to guarantee quality most especially among people unfamiliar with positive example itself the wikipedia challenges that notion Wales story about volunteer sysadmins Even I wonder… I don’t have his faith And he’s been right

without experts, how can you trust the information? What this reveals we have deep-seated unconscious assumptions about the necessity of central authority to maintain order and quality Necessity - it’s the only way, without it, it’s no good the lesson of not giving our trust to experts and those in authority has to be learned over and over again

Viet Nam Coming of age in the 60’s Youth told by leaders Necessary to fight and die to save the world from communist take over

WMD's Riff on Iraq

anyone can edit any article at any time articles can always be made better it's easy to revert problems the right question is not are there problems (new kinds) but what's the trend open empirical issues anecdotally, pretty good IMHO heuristic: check the # of edits

IMHO I have a history here of being onto the next big thing early

Is Wikipedia the next big thing? IMHO I have a history here of being onto the next big thing early

1978: the Apple II IMHO I have a history here of being onto the next big thing early

1982 Lotus 1-2-3 Lotus revenue story

1992 UUNET John Doerr

1995 Real Networks

2005 Mozilla/ Firefox

2006 Wikipedia How will it play out Winners and losers Time frame No one can say But we can inform our intuition by diving into the current “is” to figure out the “will be”

Community So what is it that drives the Wikipedia As Jimmy said -- it’s a community What makes a community?

Vision Wikipedia is a community Not an anthill Ai Internet-enabled community

Mission Building the wikipedia through volunteer contributions CBPP

Wikipedians Members Yes that’s what they call themselves Hamburg

Leadership Talk a little about Jimmy

Values

Be nice! there's a value for you wikipedia demonstrates the value of being nice it holds it together - what people have in common we need those demonstrations they undercut the justification of cruelty based on necessity -- which assumes if you want to get anything done, you have to crack some heads and whip some butts Jimmy Wales, the libertarian & The Dalai Lama

NPOV

Practices

Don't criticize, improve!

real-time peer review social practice watching the recent changes page and its derivatives the IRC -> Java tool

dispute resolution social practice watching the recent changes page and its derivatives the IRC -> Java tool

And now what? social practice watching the recent changes page and its derivatives the IRC -> Java tool

the challenge of alien invaders

more technology leverage

Business Opportunities Not technophiles Technoskeptics Unwilling to put community at risk through technology Willing to be selective Cell phones in the fields, not at home Kevin Kelly book - what technology wants

Thank you