Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia

1. Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia Joseph Michael Reagle Jr.

2. Chapter One - Nazis and NormsIntroduction • The Vision The mission is to create “free encyclopedia via rigorous expert review under a free documentation license.” Using free and open source software to facilitate ease of use. Any one can access the article, edit the content and participate in a discussion specific to the page. (The next step in the long standing development of a repository for all human knowledge.) • The Encyclopedia Wikipedia evolved from Nupedia—an internet encyclopedia (the original peer-review project). The demise of Nupediawas due to the development of free and open source software. A wiki is a piece of server software. It is used as an on-line collaborative tool that allows the user to create and edit information on a web page using any web browser.

3. Chapter One (continued) • The Community Contributors to Wikipedia fall into three different categories: The administrators; and The elite – frequent editors and contributors of articles; and Wiki gnomes who correct typos and make other smaller contributions to articles. • The Culture Needs a civil discourse to operate. “…suffused with a coexisting web of practices, discussion and policy pages.” Operates on 3 core policies: Neutral Point of View(NPOV), No Original Research and Verifiability: NPOV helps reduce conflict and present a fair presentation of all sides to a dispute. No Original research helps reduce vanity links and pet projects; also promotes publication of verifiable information. Verifiability means that readers can check the information with outside, reliable sources.

4. Chapter 2 - The Pursuit of the Universal EncyclopediaHistory and Background • Before Computers Index cards and Microfilm Paul Otlet– The Repertory Developer of a Universal Decimal Classification system H.G. Wells – The World Brain Thought a world encyclopedia would bring all disjointed knowledge into a collective of understanding. Demonstrated notions about this encyclopedia similar to the three fundamental of Wikipedia. (p.26) Paul Otlet H.G. Wells

5. Chapter Two (continued) • The Computer Age Interpedia (concurrent with Wikipedia?) Distributed Encyclopedia Nupedia (the precursor to Wikipedia) Developed by Sanger and Wales Issues with getting contributors to the site Wikipedia a side project created by Wales to test the Wiki open concept server software Wikipedia proved to be more popular and easier to use. Server for Nupedia crashes and is not resurrected, andWales and Sanger part company.

6. Chapter 3 – Good Faith CollaborationWhat does it mean • Collaborative Culture Participatory culture Wikis by their nature are collaborative “…a set of assumptions about working together in a collaborative community” (p.47) Working together to create a sum greater than what they can do on their own (p.47) Regenerative and recursive feedback: “feeding back of positive research results to improve the means by which the researcher themselves can pursue their work.” Collaboration is facilitated through red links (a part that does not yet exist), stubs (articles with only a few sentences that are ready to be fleshed out), discussion pages, and forums. Oversight by admins is the last safeguard. • Wiki Practice and Policy The norms: Essays: Non-authoritative pages that may contain useful insight Guidelines: actionable norms approved by general consensus Policy: “More official and less likely to have exceptions” (p.52)

7. Chapter 3 (Continued) • Wikipedia Policy, Guidelines, and the Five Pillars Policy (6 policies)– in regard to Conduct (civility, consensus, and no personal attacks) (7) Guidelines – 1. is Behavioral (6 others mainly address content) The five pillars of Wikipedia: It is an on-line encyclopedia It has a neutral point of view It is free content All should act in a respectful manner (good faith code of conduct) It does not have firm rules

8. Chapter 3 (Continued) • Neutral Point of View and Good Faith: an Example Neutral Point of View(NPOV) – Neutral stance allows people who would not normally agree the chance to collaborate Differences between “neutral point of view “and unbiased” (p.57) Good Faith – assuming the best of others Practicing patience so as to not escalate conflict. Treating newcomers with respect “do not bite the newcomers” staying on topic not promoting individual agendas

9. Chapter 3 (Continued) • The Epistemic Stance of Neutral Point of View • The Intersubjective Stance of Good Faith Assuming the best of others Patience – so as not to escalate conflicts Civility – respect other contributors “Civility acts as both a baseline for building a culture of good faith and as a last line of defense against escalation.” (p.67) Humor – promotes self reflection Wikipedia is supposed to be an enjoyable experience

10. Chapter 4 – The Puzzle of OpennessWhat does it mean • Open Content Communities Openness but not to the level that anything goes Open Content A more pragmatic application based on the ideology of freedom. What standards should we use to judge open content. Can the information be judged by objective standards? Knowledge claims cannot. Transparency and Integrity No hidden agendas when the articles are open for all to see. “Because fair process builds trust and commitment, people will go above and beyond the call of duty.” Everything is documented so everyone can see what is going on; encourages trust in the Wikipedia process. Stewards

11. Chapter 4 (Continued) Nondiscrimination Any hierarchal structure attributed by contributors to each other is discouraged; no elites Rules of Conduct limit…. No cultural obstacles to newcomers Noninterference “Because the content is available under an open/free license, those dissatisfied with it or the community can take the content and work on it elsewhere.” (p.82) Forks of Wikipedia

12. Chapter 4 (Continued) • Discussing Openness Can anyone edit? Unregistered/anonymous users can edit in addition to registered users. Every edit is captured and can be viewed on an article’s history page Problem of vandalism: articles can be protected by admins, which prohibits edits by non-administrative users Admins have the power to block users “Semi- protection:” prevents unregistered users or users registered within the last four days from editing a page Interfacing with the outside world What is the community’s responsibility towards the information it houses Bureaucracy Some degree of policy is necessary in any community Bureaucratization is a common feature of organizational development. Enclaves and Gender When a subset of community members creates a closed space WikiChix

13. Chapter 5 – The Challenges of ConsensusConsensus in Decision making • The Case of Disambiguation Disambiguation pages are used when there are multiple pages with similar of identical page titles Disagreement on how disambiguation pages should be applied Arbitration Committee (ArbCom) – panel of experienced users that exists to impose binding solutions to Wikipedia disputes that neither communal discussion, administrators, no mediation have been able to resolve. ArbCom Decisions documented on a wiki page (transparency) • Rough Consensus General agreement Consensus is overwhelming agreement that does not mean unanimity

14. Chapter 5 (Continued) • Deliberation and Openness Goal is to arrive at the best possible solution. Wikipedia’s Consensus Policy: “Achieving consensus requires serious treatment of every group member’s considered opinion.” (p. 103?) Time and Precedence ? • The Facilitator (p.106) • Polling and Voting Voting is generally treated hostilely on Wikipedia (p.110) Voting and polling thought to discourage consensus Online voting is easy to skew: people can create multiple accounts (sock puppets) Consensus presumes good faith, voting does not (enforces division)

15. Chapter 6 – The Benevolent DictatorLeadership • Authorial Leadership Authorial leadership – leadership by one who originates or creates. Wales quote concerning leadership style , p.118 “Wikipedia is not an anarchy, though it has anarchistic features. Wikipedia is not a democracy, though it has democratic features. Wikipedia is not an aristocracy, though it has aristocratic features. Wikipedia is not a monarchy, thought it has monarchical features.” Leadership in open content communities arises from leadership through action rather than appointment, and expectations of leadership by example. “While a founding leadership role has some semblance of authoritarianism to it,…it is eternally contingent: a dissatisfied community …can always leave and start again under new leadership.” (p.119) • Wales and Sanger Wales hires Sanger to Launch Nupedia in Feb. 2000 Good cop, bad cop issues arise do to differing styles of leadership (management?) between the partners. Sanger is frustrated with the slow progress of Nupedia and the unruliness of Wikipedia. Sanger leaves Wikipedia to start Citizendium (amore”expert-friendly collaborative encyclopedia”) (p.120)

16. Chapter 6 (Continued) • Wales Influence Shuns the content contributor role in favor of a more hands-off approach to leadership. “I am not in my present position because I am smart but because I am friendly.” (p.123) Wikipedia contributors keep Wales in check when he attempts to stir the direction of Wikipedia, encouraging people to vote for specific candidates to the “Board of Trustees” (p.124) • Beyond the Founders: Admins, ArbCom, and the Board Leadership and governance structure of Wikipedia contributors (responsibiltyrather than rights) , listed from least? to most? authority (all are volunteers) Anyone can edit Contributors who sign up for an account have access to user pages and the ability to track pages. System Administrators--a more experienced user—can enact Wikipedia policy and group consensus. (Steward?) and Bureaucrats appoint administrators Developer s write software and administer the servers (acting outside of the article contributor roles) • Discussing Leadership

17. Chapter 7 – Encyclopedic Anxiety • The Normativeness of the Reference Work • Bias: Progressive and Conservative • Criticisms of Wikipedia and “Web 2.0” Collaborative Practice Universal Vision Encyclopedic Impulse

18. Chapter 8 – Conclusion: “A Globe in Accord”