Read this a few days ago, and thought it was really good. Wanted to say that, even if there isn't much more to add. I particularly liked the last bit:
"We're an educational institution in two senses: we write educational material for the world in general, and we educate each other." Carcharoth On Sun, Oct 17, 2010 at 6:22 AM, David Goodman <[email protected]> wrote: > More than maintaining the articles,and more than maintaining the > group, the focus should be on maintain the continual and increasing > development of new editors and new articles--not just as content > creators, but as gnomes, and techies, and admins. The excitement of > working here has not just been on our wide influence, but of > _developing_ something that will have wide influence, and of > developing it in a way which will be self- perpetuating. Many people > and many groups have written encyclopedia, but very few have done as > we have, developed a new way of creating them, and other material > also. > > This is not a finite project., and will remain a matter not just of > replacement , but of further grown. Based on other human institutions, > we are not likely to even attain a finished form or a finite bod of > knowledge. I think that should be seen here also as what our goal > should be. I don't want as much to continue what I do in Wikipedia , > as to have others continue it , while I learn new things to do, and > find people who will do things that I've not even dreamed of being > capable of. If i have a choice between rescuing articles, or > rescuing even one editor, It's the editor who matters--in the hope > that they will write many articles and in their turn encourage yet > more editors. > > We're an educational institution in two senses: we write educational > material forv the world in general, and we educate each other. > > On Sat, Oct 16, 2010 at 1:32 PM, Charles Matthews > <[email protected]> wrote: >> On 16/10/2010 15:23, Marc Riddell wrote: >>>> On 15/10/2010 22:36, MuZemike wrote: >>>> >>>> <snip> >>>> >>>>> That comes to my question regarding whether or not we are here to build >>>>> an online community or an online encyclopedia. Should we focus outwards >>>>> toward the reading/viewing audience, or should we focus inwards >>>> towards the editors? >>> on 10/16/10 9:01 AM, Charles Matthews at [email protected] >>> wrote: >>>> It was settled early on that we are writing an encyclopedia. Before I >>>> started editing. What has happened since then? Well, we have had some >>>> divas on the site who have thought that we should focus on things that >>>> are basically all about them rather than the encyclopedia. And this has >>>> been a strategy partially successful in its own terms. But fundamentally >>>> I don't think such people have won the argument, however much harder >>>> they may have made it to see the "community" as primarily a working >>>> environment. That's what it remains, a highly interactive place in which >>>> to do voluntary work on an encyclopedia. >>>> >>> No, Charles, an environment alone does not build an encyclopedia; or, for >>> that matter, any other group project. There are two elements involved: the >>> effort required to work on the substance and goals of the project, and an >>> equal effort to build and maintain the group, yes, the "community" of >>> persons collaborating to achieve the goals of the project. >>> >> Think what you like. The actual membership of the "group" has changed >> much more than the pages on which matters are discussed, as places to >> exchange views and information. You also are misreading what I said. >> Where do I imply "alone"? >> >> Charles >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> WikiEN-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l >> > > > > -- > David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S. > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DGG > > _______________________________________________ > WikiEN-l mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l > _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
