I think is is most excellent write-up of my thoughts. Wikipedia is no longer "new and exciting"... Internet's attention span is short & people are looking for something more exciting to do. (that and all the community behavior / communication issues that drive newbies away).
What to do about it? a) Revolutionary software update b) Friendlier community c) Emphasize "we are not done yet - not even close" Renata On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 4:36 PM, Robert Rohde <raro...@gmail.com> wrote: > I have been part of the wiki community for 6 years now. As I reflect > on what I've seen over the years, I've developed a definite sense that > the enthusiasm and energy in the community has waned. (I'm going to > frame this discussion mostly in terms of the English Wikipedia, though > I think it applies to most of the large, mature wikis.) It's a > qualitative sense that the community is less active and excited about > what they are doing today than they used to be. Some data supports > this, like the declines in editor activity and administrator > attrition, though I think I perceive it most directly as a change in > the experience of being in the community. > > At the root, I think that Wikipedia is something of a victim of it's > own success. We've written the largest encyclopedia in history, > become a household name, and created a top web destination. Great > job. What now? > > Most of our processes and policies have changed little in years. Most > of the recent software changes are small and evolutionary rather than > revolutionary. Compared to the days when parser functions, templates, > cite, and other things were being introduced, it is rare to see > changes that excite people and grow to be widely used. There are > perhaps a few such things still promised on the horizon (e.g. open > street maps), but mostly it seems like we've become satisfied with > what we have and are slow to change. In the editing community, we see > a growing interest in removing redlinks on the theory that if it > hasn't been started yet how interesting can it really be, or worse > deleting stubs and other incomplete articles because no one seems > interested in finishing them. At the Foundation level, we see efforts > to leverage Wikipedia with third party deals (e.g. Orange) and > important incremental improvements (e.g. Usability), but it is rare to > even consider whole new projects or have anyone articulate a grand new > vision. > > I'm wondering what people think about this. On the one hand we could > simply accept it. We've already created a world changing > encyclopedia. We can embrace Wikipedia for what it is and accept that > maintaining it will not be as exciting as building it. That's the > direction I think we've implicitly been following, by inertia if no > other reason. We allow the policies, processes, and structures we > have now to become entrenched, and focus on ensuring that the work > which already exists will persist into the future. That would still > be a great achievement, but it is not sexy, and I think we would > continue to see a slowing and contraction in the community. Filling > in details and improving prose, isn't going to easily attract > volunteers. > > On the other hand, I think we could try to recapture some of the > vision and fire of our initial growth. Push for new tools (e.g. > string functions, data storage mechanisms, new communication tools) > and new projects (e.g. directory services, almanacs). There any many > risks with innovating. It could backfire and damage what we have, but > on the other hand having new things to do and a fresh vision could > bring new energy to the community. > > Personally, I look at Wikimedia and think there is still a lot of room > for expansion, innovation, and growth, but I also think we've become > resistant to it. > > I'm wondering whether other people at the Foundation-l level perceive > the same trends, and what they think about the balance between > innovation and growth versus simply maintaining and solidifying the > processes and products that we already have. > > -Robert Rohde > > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
