[Sociam-soton] Re: http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/520446/the-decline-of-wikipedia/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-weekly-web&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20131120

[Ramine Tinati]

"The foundation can't order the volunteer community to change the way it
operates. But by tweaking Wikipedia's website and software, it hopes to
steer the encyclopedia onto a more sustainable path."

 

Interesting approach to manipulating the users/volunteers of Wikipedia -
technology-driven changes to engage with a new community of users, or
simply, "we shall use flashy Web 2.0 features to get more participants."

 

One worry is that this may alienate the already shrinking core group of
volunteers, as well as provide a short term fix to increase the number of
new 'volunteers' (these users will probably stick around for a short while,
use the new features, then leave). 

 

>From another perspective, we could consider the shrinking number of
volunteers as the community reaching the optimal (.) number of people
needed/able to function as a community, and I wonder how this could relate
to community dynamics and the size of an individual's social network (and
their capability to interact with larger networks).

 

Whatever the case, this is a social machine that will provide lots of
insight into socio-technical interactions, especially when then implement
their system changes.

 

Thanks,

Ramine  

 

From: sociam-soton-bounces at ecs.soton.ac.uk
[mailto:sociam-soton-bounces at ecs.soton.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Sackley, Alistair
Sent: 20 November 2013 07:54
To: 'sociam-soton at ecs.soton.ac.uk'
Subject: [Sociam-soton]
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/520446/the-decline-of-wikipedi
a/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-weekly-web&utm_medium=emai
l&utm_content=20131120

 

New crowds and modes of participation?

 

 

--

alistair sackley

strategy manager

t   +44 (0)1962 871663
<http://www.linkedin.com/pub/alistair-sackley/27/311/3a2>  linkedin   

m +44 (0)7793 759028  <http://www3.hants.gov.uk/itservices.htm> hampshire it

 

*** This email, and any attachments, is strictly confidential and may be
legally privileged. It is intended only for the addressee. If you are not
the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or other use
of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
message in error, please contact the sender. Any request for disclosure of
this document under the Data Protection Act 1998 or Freedom of Information
Act 2000 should be referred to the sender. [disclaimer id:
HCCStdDisclaimerExt] *** 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/pipermail/sociam-soton/attachments/20131120/297f37ad/attachment.html