{ Wednesday, August 26, 2009 }
I'm quoted today Today's CNN article on Wikipedia
That's not what I said....online communities are NOT evolving or finding new ways to promote "the culture of generosity" -- I would posit that in fact nothing has changed, that the rules of civilization and good public behavior have been around since the Ten Commandments, Hammurabi or the Polis.
When I was talking on the phone with John about sites that have that "army of community management martinets" I was saying that was a bad thing and describing corporate sites that do not permit communities to express themselves -- NOT UGC sites such as Wikipedia. Taken out of context he seems to imply that I was recommending that kind of control. I was not. What I was actually saying was that sites like Wikipedia are managed by *the community itself* and that there is no "us" and "them", no overlords, no army.
What the press refuses to understand is that Wikipedia is MORE open as a result of the recent changes. Headline should be: Wikipedia unlocks thousands of topics to user contribution.
UPDATE: John saw my Twitter, read this blog post and then called me, then took the quote down. Good!
LINK | 8:44 AM | TB
This is actually a wonderful point and it's too bad it got a little obscured (I was quoted accurately, but at less length and, of course, with considerably less authority!)
But there is a great irony here that you touch on: in order to become all it can be there has to be some governance. This is not a gotcha, but part of the evolution of a maturing entity.
John C Abell | August 26, 2009 9:20 AMYeah, my point was that online has *never* been a free-for-all and *never* was the Wild West. As I said when talking with John Sutter, the author of the article, you can't have a site that's all Id, and you can't have a site that's all Superego either
In any case, for me, there is no controversy, and this latest move should be applauded for creating even *greater* openness.
Caterina | August 26, 2009 9:56 AMI've spent the last two days dealing with this crap. Cheers to Noam Cohen.
There's a perennial media narrative: unmediated content creation can't work. If it does work, it'll break soo. SEE WE TOLD YOU. No mere "facts" or "reality" will stop this story. The same narrative has been made into a story every year since Wikipedia's founding. AARGH.
David Gerard | August 26, 2009 2:47 PMAnd it speaks to a larger issue. I used to be in a line of work that regularly interfaced with the mainstream media in formal and informal ways, and in almost all instances what was reported was not what was provided. It was truly frightening, and left me with no confidence in the accuracy of any news media output.
Don McArthur | August 30, 2009 8:34 AM{ Post a comment }
This is why it's better to do video, so you can't be misquoted. ;)
Charlie | August 26, 2009 9:17 AM