wiki%20attitude

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Presented at Wizards of OS 3 Wikipedia and
Friends By Sunir Shah, with acknowledgments to
Meatball. Berlin, Germany June 12, 2004
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I. Personal relationships
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Community over content
People dont organize unconsciously. The
documents dont write themselves. The documents
dont read themselves.
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Community over content

• The community
• maintains,
• upgrades,
• protects,
• defends,
• organizes,
• and otherwises does stuff to the documents.

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Community over content
Documents do nothing by themselves.
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Community over content
The text/source will reflect the people who write
it. If you have a community in imperfect
alignment, a wiki will accurately reflect this
state. Given a group with a genuine desire to
align, a wiki can provide a powerful and positive
feedback loop. Sam Ruby, ETCon04
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Power
Social
Legal
Economic
Technical
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Proprietor (developer)-centric
Social
Legal
Economic
Technical
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Community-centric
Social
Legal
Economic
Technical
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Community-centric
Social
Personal relationships
Legal
Economic
Technical
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Personal relationships
If its all about the community, then its all
about personal relationships. The power is in
the network the social network. The
developer is always right.
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(vs.) Right to leave
Its the Attention Economy, stupid! No one is
forced to be here. Personal relationships keep
volunteers. Impersonal relationships to lose
volunteers Dissuade interaction and reputation.
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Control yourself
You cant control anyone else. You can only
control yourself. All you have is your hands,
heart, and mind. Power comes when others grant
you influence.
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II. Fair process
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Assume good faith
People are usually acting in good
faith. Conflicts are often miscommunications or
conflicting goals, not malice. Be
optimistic. Corollary It is unwise to test
others' ability to assume you are acting in good
faith.
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Principle of constant respect
Good bouncing means ensuring a pleasurable
experience for everyone. You must give everyone
respect. Even the people that suck.
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Forgive and forget
Assume good faith! Mistakes are
mistakes. Remembering conflicts means it hasnt
ended. Move on!
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Forgive and forget (in software)
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Fair process
Engagement Involve people affected by
decisions. Explanation Everyone must
understand. Expectation clarity Let people focus
on the task at hand.
Kim, W. C., and Mauborgne, R. (1997). Fair
process Managing in the knowledge economy.
Harvard Business Review, January-February, 65-75.
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Fair process
Engagement Involve people affected by
decisions. Explanation Everyone must
understand. Expectation clarity Let people focus
on the task at hand.
Kim, W. C., and Mauborgne, R. (1997). Fair
process Managing in the knowledge economy.
Harvard Business Review, January-February, 65-75.
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Fair process caveats
Dont need consensus. Forcing consensus is
wrong. Violate fair process ? retribution
Kim, W. C., and Mauborgne, R. (1997). Fair
process Managing in the knowledge economy.
Harvard Business Review, January-February, 65-75.
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Somethings going wrong in wikiland
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Edit war
When two people fight over a page. Boring. Wikip
edia has the Neutral Point of View. MeatballWiki
has a Contingent Point of View.
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Locked pages
Shut down activity on pages with
conflicts. Requires bouncers (system
administrators) who are external, neutral,
objective? Negotiation after the fact often is
a conflict. (and then there is retribution from
trolls)
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Whats wrong with that?
Does not assume good faith. Is not
respectful. Violates fair process and wiki
openness.
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Forest Fire
You may lock one page, but the wiki has an
infinite number of pages. So, expand the
conflict over many pages. Leads to banning the
angry user, not truly resolving the conflict.
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A better answer
Let people argue as long as they want. Try to
resolve the conflict like adults. Otherwise,
have patience. You will be here longer than
they will.
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Archived pages
Let the editable versions be scrap pages. Only
after two weeks of inactivity, publish the last
version of the page. Only store the clean,
published pages. Purge the rest. (i.e. the
conflict)
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Why is this better?
Assumes the contributors are acting in good faith
(even if immaturely). Not punitive. Rather,
constructive (hopefully). A fair, inclusive
process. Forgives and forgets the conflict.
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Long view

• It does not matter how slowly you go as long as
  you don't stop.
• Confucius, In Humanity.
• The future is more than the following day.
• Fashioned in the Clay
• by Gordon Bok, Ann Mayo Muir, Ed Trickett