Tim.Churches wrote:
>
> >
> > Why Wikipedia doesn't have one is a mystery to me. Why it is as good as
> > it is (however good you think it is) is also a mystery.
>
> It is wrong to think of wikipedia as an open source/open content
> project. In fact, it is about 1 million separate open source/open
> content projects (that is, articles), each with their own project team.
> All the good projects (articles) have a small "editorial" team, often
> just one person, which really cares about them. If someone else makes a
> worthwhile contribution, it is allowed to stand. If someone else
> degrades the content, then the editorial team changes it back to its
> former state. Often content goes through many cycles of degradation and
> restoration, but the editorial team usually wins through sheer
> doggedness. And the overall, average direction of change across the 1
> million articles is towards the better, although it is easy to find
> examples of articles which spiral down. But most get better.
but as far as I know there is not even a signalling mechanism for the
editor (how does she know she's the only one) to know about changes?
Where is the editorial group proclaimed? I made some additions once and
never ran into any editorial mechanism.
>
> However, if wikipedia articles were not based on the wiki-wiki roll-back
> paradigm, the whole thing would collapse. As it is, the self-appointed
> editorial team for each article can roll back changes with a few clicks
> of the mouse. Self-appointed? Yes, just like the way in which leaders of
> almost all open source software projects are self-appointed. Both OSS
> and wikipedia are meritocracies in which power and position is gained by
> doing things - writing software or writing articles.
Of course I agree with the sentiment, but I don't see where the
editorial groups are constituted.
- thomas
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