everything i know about ost...

[Michael Herman]

one more thought for today... as more and more of the
http://www.openspaceworld.org wiki website becomes open and editable, i
thought this might be interesting.  it comes from the MeatballWiki
(http://www.usemod.com), which is a wiki website for programmers and
others interested in feeding the use of wiki.   you'll see that some of
what they are saying here could easily weather a little
search-and-replace, plugging in OST for wiki...

----

Why use a wiki, when anyone can change or delete anything there?

What's to prevent someone from going berserk and wiping the whole site,
or secretly changing the meaning of what people say, or clogging
everything up with spam?

Most community web sites rely on technology to restrict the actions of
community members. Elaborate schemes have been designed to moderate
postings (such as SlashDot
<http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?SlashDot> and KuroShin
<http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?KuroShin>) or to establish a trust
metric for community members to rate each other (such as AdvoGato
<http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?AdvoGato>).

There are several problems with this:

    * Only one person can generally edit what they have already said,
      regardless of how bad a mistake they have made.
    * Duplicate comments can't be pared down and merged together.
    * Moderation and trust metrics create an atmosphere of distrust by
      implying that visitors must first earn the trust of the community.
    * It frequently becomes a game to get around technical limitations.
      For every limitation, there is usually a way around it.

Wikis work better because they rely on the community, rather than
technology, to police itself. If someone comes along and deletes text or
posts spam, someone else can just as easily fix the problem. Since an
open environment encourages participation and a strong sense of
community, the ratio of fixers to breakers tends to be very high, so the
wiki stays stable.

There are technological protections, too -- they're just less obtrusive
than having to "log in" or "rate" something. Most wikis store old
versions of each page for at least a short period of time, allowing
damage to be easily recovered. Many wikis provide a means to limit how
quickly someone may edit a large number of pages. Most wikis also
provide a means to lock out particularly abusive visitors without
disturbing other visitors. UseModWiki
<http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?UseModWiki>, the software running
MeatballWiki <http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?MeatballWiki>,
provides all of these features.

In short, wikis work because of the community.

----



--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
300 West North Avenue #1105
Chicago IL 60610 USA
(312) 280-7838

http://www.michaelherman.com - consulting & publications
http://www.globalchicago.net - laboratory & playground
http://www.openspaceworld.org - worldwide open space

...inviting organization into movement

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