[iDC] The wisdom of the few?

[Sal Randolph]

Not that Gawker's the be-all-and-end-all, but here's an article  
debunking some of Chris Wilson's conclusions in that Slate piece:

Wikipedia And Digg Are Exactly As They Seem, Damn It
http://gawker.com/360052/wikipedia-and-digg-are-exactly-as-they-seem- 
damn-it

This is some of the source material for Gawker's piece:

Aaron Swartz, Raw Thought: Who Writes Wikipedia?
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia

The short version of the argument is that if you count by number of  
edits, many or most are made by a core group of wikipedia groomers.  
This suggests the "dominance of the hyper-connected few," as Steve  
put it.  However, if you count by the number of words added, the  
picture changes - in the samples Swartz analyzed, large chunks of  
articles tend to be written by users who have only contributed a few  
times.  This suggests that there are many people who only contribute  
to wikipedia on areas where they have specific interest or knowledge,  
and that much of the meat of wikipedia is actually written by such  
participants.

It would seem that wikipedia would be a perfect subject for someone  
to do a really serious and comprehensive analysis of participation  
patterns - maybe someone on this list?

S


On Feb 27, 2008, at 3:56 PM, Steve Cisler wrote:

> Here's another critical view of a some so-called Web2.0 services  
> focusing on the dominance of the hyper-connected few:
>
> The Wisdom of the Chaperones Digg, Wikipedia, and the myth of Web  
> 2.0 democracy.
> By Chris Wilson
> Posted Friday, Feb. 22, 2008, at 6:11 PM ET
>
> http://www.slate.com/id/2184487/
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