Presented at Wizards of OS 3 Wikipedia and

Presented at Wizards of OS 3 Wikipedia and Friends By Sunir Shah, with acknowledgments to Meatball. Berlin, Germany June 12, 2004

I. Personal relationships

Community over content People don’t organize unconsciously. The documents don’t write themselves. The documents don’t read themselves.

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

Community over content Documents do nothing by themselves.

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, ETCon’ 04

Power Social Legal Economic Technical

Proprietor (developer)-centric Social Legal Economic Technical

Community-centric Social Legal Economic Technical

Community-centric Social Legal Personal relationships Economic Technical

Personal relationships If it’s all about the community, then it’s all about personal relationships. The power is in the network: the social network. ± “The developer is always right. ”

(vs. ) Right to leave It’s the Attention Economy, stupid! No one is forced to be here. Personal relationships keep volunteers. Impersonal relationships to lose volunteers: Dissuade interaction and reputation.

Control yourself You can’t control anyone else. You can only control yourself. All you have is your hands, heart, and mind. Power comes when others grant you influence.

II. Fair process

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.

Principle of constant respect Good bouncing means ensuring a pleasurable experience for everyone. You must give everyone respect. Even the people that suck.

Forgive and forget Assume good faith! Mistakes are mistakes. Remembering conflicts means it hasn’t ended. Move on!

Forgive and forget (in software)

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.

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.

Fair process caveats Don’t 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.

Something’s going wrong in wikiland…

Edit war When two people fight over a page. Boring. Wikipedia has the Neutral Point of View. Meatball. Wiki has a Contingent Point of View.

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)

What’s wrong with that? Does not assume good faith. Is not respectful. Violates fair process and wiki openness.

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.

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.

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)

Why is this better? Assumes the contributors are acting in good faith (even if immaturely). Not punitive. Rather, constructive A fair, inclusive process. Forgives and forgets the conflict. (hopefully) .

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