1. Learning from the Wikipedia
Mitch Kapor
April 2006

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

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

4. The Wikipedia Can't Possibly Work…

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

6. The Wikipedia Can't Possibly Work…

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. WMD's
Riff on Iraq

15. 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

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

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

18. 1978:
the Apple II
IMHO
I have a history here of being onto the next big thing early

19. 1982
Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus revenue story

20. 1992
UUNET
John Doerr

21. 1995
Real Networks

22. 2005
Mozilla/ Firefox

23. 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”

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

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

27. Mission
Building the wikipedia through volunteer contributions
CBPP

28. Wikipedians
Members
Yes that’s what they call themselves
Hamburg

29. Leadership
Talk a little about Jimmy

30. Values

31. 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

32. NPOV

33. Practices

34. Don't criticize, improve!

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

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

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

38. the challenge of alien invaders

39. more technology leverage

40. 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

42. Thank you