W12 blog topic: Discuss Reagle’s chapter 6 - Dong Joon, Yoo


Dong-Joon, Yoo

1. Summary



Open, civil, egalitarian, deliberative: these are some of the concepts encountered in the pursuit of a universal encyclopedia. In addition to these features, Wikipedia is characterized by leadership. Wikipedia has been shaped by authorial leadership. This chapter shows an “authorial” form of leadership whereby exceptional autocratic power is exercised by a respected “author” within an open content community. Wikipedia is an open content community that anyone can join. However, Wikipedia is not an anarchy, democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy. Because of the voluntary and meritocratic character of open content communities it is not surprising that leaders are expected to lead by example as their very leadership is founded upon exemplary behavior; leadership emerges through action rather than appointment.
Two of the most influential people in the history of Wikipedia are cofounders Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales. Jimmy Wales is referred to as a benevolent dictator. No matter how open the community, you need someone to control the minimum dispute. There is still a debate about whether the model of "benevolent dictatorship" is right, and whether the role of constitutional monarchy is right.

2. Intersting Point

I was amazed at the fact that Wikipedia, an open content community, has the character of leadership and that there is a dictator. While the word dictator may be a bit negative, it has existed in Wikipedia as a benevolent dictator. Like a real society, Wikipedia needs a leader.

3. Discussion Point

So what is the dictator's role and responsibility in Wikipedia? What are the rewards and the benefits they actually get?

Comments

  1. Clément ChevallierMay 27, 2018 at 9:18 PM

    I think they don't get concrete rewards and benefits, they just know that it's mandatory to have someone who control some contents and discussions and so they do it to save the community and the existence of Wikipedia and every users are or should be grateful for that.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

W5. Can we trust Wikipedia? - Seron Kim

Wikipedia is a large site used by people all over the world. People get information through Wikipedia and edit article directly when needed. Through the action of collective intelligence, Wikipedia is becoming more and more developed and growing. Can we trust Wikipedia? I think "We can trust Wikipedia but we should not trust it unconditionally.“   Obviously Wikipedia is reliable. Wikipedia itself has an implicit framework for editing, and people follow it and use it. It is also possible to increase the trust of the article by leaving a source for the information, and to delete the edited information through a predetermined process. So there will be more and more reliable information in Wikipedia.   But you should not trust Wikipedia unconditionally. Because there may be misinformation in Wikipedia. Of course, there is a high possibility that it will be fixed through the deletion function of Wikipedia and the collective intelligence of people. But it will be a ...
Read more

W1. What do I know about Wikipedia and what do I want to learn about it? - Yong il, Seon.

We learned another idea, we want an easy explanation.          Many people used Wikipedia. Why people visited Wikipedia? I have much thought about the answer to this question. Everyone will be editor in Wikipedia. So, several people’s opinions can be confirmed on one issue. It is also an important characteristic of democracy. Democracy is the recognition of the other’s ideas. And already in France, there were ‘Tolerance’. It means that As I am right in my opinion, and so you are right in your opinion. I think Wikipedia is making ‘Tolerance idea’ work very well. So, you can not force your own ideas on Wikipedia. Depending on the situation, users may be students, teachers, or even completely different third parties. From these points of view, Wikipedia is the modern version of Greece’s Agora.            And it is not over. Always people want an easy expanation, the more complex the case. Wikipedia has a structured form...
Read more

W2. My first edits. Describe why you made them. - Seron Kim

I rarely had access to Wikipedia before this class. Because there is a service called 'Knowledge in' operated by Naver in Korea. I've been used to the 'Knowledge in' for a long time, so I've always used it if there's something I don't know. However, I got to know Wikipedia in this class. Wikipedia has a much larger volume of data than I thought, and it is being used by people all over the world. Also, anyone could edit information. I want to search and edit my favorite soccer information. So I decided to do the editing on my idols, Ko Jong-soo and Nadson.   What was interesting about editing was that although the Korean Wikipedia was detailed by the players who played in the Korean league, the English Wikipedia had little or no information. So I want to edit more. Because I want to add their information to English Wikipedia to let people around the world know.   Different countries have Wikipedia sites and the amount and quality of informati...
Read more