Stevertigo wrote: > The word "monopoly" implies unfair business practices such that make > an inferior product the exceedingly market-dominant one. Putting aside > its basic inapplicability in an open-source context, and the fact that > in that context people will make free choices to use a tool, and not > to mention participate in that tools' further development.. what is > the argument?
If you don't like the connotations of the word "monopoly," maybe you'll be happier with "path dependence," which conveys the same basic point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_dependence Obviously, "unfair business practices" are not responsible for maintaining Wikipedia's existing templating system. However, path dependence clearly occurs even in open source contexts. I think path dependence plays a big role in enabling Wikipedia to maintain its standing as the most popular online encyclopedia, and it probably is responsible for preventing a number of improvements from happening with Wikipedia. For example: (1) No WYSIWYG editing system. (2) The current templating system, which works but is far from easy for most people to use. (3) Governance practices which are sometimes less than optimal. If you look at Wikipedia pages and really compare them to what has now become state-of-the-art website design, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that Wikipedia looks a lot like Web 1.0 rather than Web 2.0. Web design has come a long way since Wikipedia was launched. Many websites now integrate video very nicely and use Javascript/AJAX to improve user-friendliness and make pages more interactive and dynamic. The semantic web is also becoming more than a buzzword, and it's not hard to imagine a "Wikipedia 2.0" that would incorporate those sorts of features to become even more useful, attractive and popular than it already is. So why aren't those features already in place? Because the huge weight of Wikipedia's millions of articles and users makes it inevitable that introducing those sorts of features will be more technically challenging than if someone were to design those same features for a website that only has a small number of articles and users. In short, path dependence means that Wikipedia's very success makes it harder in some ways for the project to innovate and improve. ------------------------------------------- SHELDON RAMPTON Research director, Center for Media & Democracy Center for Media & Democracy 520 University Avenue, Suite 227 Madison, WI 53703 phone: 608-260-9713 Subscribe to our free Weekly Spin email: <http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/subscribe_sotd.html> Subscribe to our Weekly Radio Spin podcasts: <http://www.prwatch.org/audio/feed> Read and add to articles on people, issues and groups shaping the public agenda: <http://www.sourcewatch.org> Support independent, public interest reporting: <http://www.prwatch.org/donate> _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
