Presentation on a chapter of Clay Shirky's book, Here Comes Everybody

1. Personal Motivation Meets Collaborative Production Clay Shirky – Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations

2. On the author & the book Clay Shirky is a key thinker on the social and economic effects of the Internet. Key quote ‘the internet is run on love’ Referred to as ‘New media’s favorite cheerleader’ Most recent publication: Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a connected age (2010) Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (2008) Overview: Here Comes Everybody- gives a thorough analysis of how people collaborate when given the tools to work together – free from traditional organisational structures

3. Defining a few key terms Wiki: is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. (Wikipedia: Wiki retrieved 13.05.2011) In general – a wiki is a website with user generated content The word Wiki is the Hawaiian word for ‘fast’. Wikipedia: is a free, webbased, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. (Wikipedia: About retrieved 13.05.2011) Mass collaboration: is a form of collective action that occurs when large numbers of people work independently on a single project, often modular in its nature (Wikipedia : Mass Collabroation retrieved 13.05.2011)

4. Summary A brief history of Wikipedia On Wikipedia On Wikipedia Content Division of Labor Motivation for contribution On vandalism and quality On wiki love and criticisms Discussion questions and activity * Note – anything in grey is data that has been updated since Shirky wrote this book or it is information from external sources

5. A brief history of Wikipedia The failure of Nupedia Exclusive to experts Article creation process – 7 steps to completion Less than 20 articles in 9 months Ward Cunningham – creator of the first wiki The birth of Wikipedia 2001 – 2003WikiMediaFoundation

6. On Wikipedia – key (up-to-date) facts and figures Number of content pages 3,640,423 All pages (including talk pages, redirects etc) 23,985,572 Number of page edits since Wikipedia was set up 462,875,551 Number of registered users: 14,584,277 Ranks the worlds 7th most popular website Wikipedia is available in 280 languages Taken from Wikipedia statistics 13.05.2011

7. An image estimating the size of a printed version of Wikipedia as of August 2010. (using volumes of Encyclopædia Britannica) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Size_of_English_Wikipedia_in_August_2010_(L).svg

8. On Wikipedia Content More than just a free user-generated encyclopedia – it is aslo a news source (Shirky gives example of London Bombings pg. 116-116) Example: Wikipedia article on Death of Osama bin Laden Total revisions 3811 Average time between edits 0.44 days 252 ‘watchers’ Number of edits made by the top 10% of active users 2442 (68%)

11. (spontaneous) division of labor How does Wikipedia work? Creating new articles Editing existing articles ‘A Wikipedia article is a process, not a product, and as a result, it is never finished’ Shirky pg. 119

12. (spontaneous) division of labor ‘Chaos’ - Jimmy Wales Predicable balance 2 main types of Wikipedians One off editors Dedicated Wikipedians – Community Portal ‘The majority of contributors [to Wikipedia] edit only one article, once, while the majority of the effort comes from a much smaller and more active group.’Shirky, p.121

13. What motivates Wikipedians? Shirky 3 main motivations Doing something with what you know Get recognised Be part of something for the greater good How does Wikipedia foster this? Name of editor (signed in) displayed on page history The community spirit – Wikipedians and Wikipedia events Barnstars

14. On vandalism & quality How does Wikipedia survive vandalism? Publish then filter – key attribute to Wiki success but also dangerous ‘Openness, division of labor & multiple motivations…’ (Shirky pg. 135) A vandal can spend hours damaging an article and it takes one simple ‘revert’ to undo the vandal's damage A wiki can only survive vandalism if people care about it Real-time peer review

15. Quality ‘The type of people who are drawn to writing an encyclopedia for fun are generally pretty smart’ Jimmy Wales, TED talk, 2005 Locked articles Neutrality ‘It is a product not of collectivism but of unending argumentation’ Shirky pg. 139

16. On wiki-love & criticisms Shirky – Ise Shrine is rebuild every few decades – it exists as an act of love – Wikipedia exists for the same reasons. A wiki can only survive if it is loved by the community who create and maintain it. Criticisms of Shirky Collaboration and the digital divide Wikinomics – the wiki model can be applied to businesses The wiki platform – a place where everyone is equal (Wikiprogress – bridging the gap between policy makers and citizens)

17. Conclusions A wiki is a hybrid of tool and community. Shirky Pg 136 Wikinomics is a new force or movement that is bringing people together on the net to create a giant brain. Anthony Williams, Wikinomics Jimmy Wales on Wikipedia – imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given access to the sum of all knowledge – that’s what we’re doing. TED Talk, 2005

18. Discussion question & Activity What is the relationship between openness and mass collaboration? Do you agree with Shirky that the wiki model of organisation can not be applied to business or do you agree with Williams that ‘Wikinomics’ is the new way forward? Update the Wikipedia article on Clay Shirky with your knowledge from this weeks reading.