W7. Why Free Culture matters? posted by Sojeong Yeon

   Wikipedia has five basic principles users should follow. The rules contain certain guidelines for users to write and edit articles on Wikipedia, and do not specify provisions such as sanctions or penalties for those who violate the rules. Of course, Wikipedia mentions about attitudes and behaviors that should be avoided, and when it is not followed several times, users are constrained to certain behaviors. For example, a person breaking a rule may be restricted from writing a post. But such sanctions are different from coercive punishment. Weak sanctions, not strong penalties, contribute to making users control their behavior.

 

  The reason why free culture is important can be found through an interesting research. At care center, some parents often did not take the child late until the nursery school closed. The nursery school introduced a nursery fines system and said that after a certain period of time, it would pay a fine if it did not come to take the child. However, as the culture within the day care center began to change, the behavior of young children's parents began to change. Was it changed in the good direction or in the bad direction? Parents broke the common sense of expectation that they would be bringing their children on time more hard, and parents began to come later. They decided that it would be better to pay a fine later. They did not feel any remorse for their moral conscience. Instead, they paid the money and gave it justification to take the child late.

   Consideration of the economic cost is what made their decision. Their noble behavior, which they did voluntarily, has been transformed into a work of cheap fines in a moment. The implication for us here is that consideration of economic cost can change behavior. Also, according to the rules of punishment and someone's orders, people's behavior loses voluntary internal motives. The best way is by pure spontaneity without cost. The situation has not improved even though the fine was abolished. The fine has destroyed the original culture of the nursery school. Thus, the constraint by the contract lowers people's internal motivation. It shows how important social transactions based on spontaneity are.

   

  Because there is still a free culture in Wikipedia, that is, users have the intellectual motivation to write and edit voluntarily, so that Wikipedia can be made together by many people. If Wikipedia lose a free culture and people have a sense of obligation which have to do something in it, would people write their own and talk about it in a discussion page? Probably not. When people are voluntarily seeking no economic value, people can be assured of their desire to participate in it.