<CPOV> The Wikipedia Cult

[Athina Karatzogianni]

Dear All

Regarding the cabal, cult etc, I have used the term cryptohierarchies (like
a true Greek) to describe leadership emergence of this style, in this
article with George Michaelides
Cyberconflict at the edge of chaos: Cryptohierarchies and self-organisation
in the open-source
movement<http://cnc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/33/1/143>It
is a strange paper admittedly, but if anyone is interested I can email you
an electronic copy

Cheers

Athina




On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 5:15 PM, Jon Awbrey <jawbrey at att.net> wrote:

>
> Juliana & All,
>
> The topic of "dysfunction" is another one with a long record of
> discussion at The Wikipedia Review.  The first thing to know
> about dysfunction is that it is relative to a function,
> that is, a goal, ideal, objective, purpose, or value.
>
> That brings us to the issue of "espoused values" versus "actual values",
> as emphasized, for instance, by systems thinkers like Argyris and Schön.
> One of the first questions to ask about a group project like Wikipedia
> is whthere the values that are "actually" actualized by it are consistent
> with the values that group members are constantly espousing.  When we see
> a wide divergence between the two, as most long-term observe in Wikipedia,
> we have the task of explaining that difference.  The complex of activities
> associated with Wikipedia may be perfectly functional with respect to
> certain
> goals -- the fact that these activities persist in spite of every attempt
> to
> modify them should give us a clue -- the question is, "What are those
> goals?"
>
> Jon Awbrey
>
> JA = Jon Awbrey
> JB = Juliana Brunello
>
> JB: I believe that the word 'cult' works more as a catchy title than a real
>
>   concept. What I find important in this discussion is that it all points
>>  out to a disfunction in the WP community, and this, I believe, is worth
>>  analyzing.
>>
>
> JA: Ye Who Would Be C In Thy POV,
>
>
>>> Wikipedia's cabalism, cultishness, groupthinkitude, whatever you want to
>>> call it, is very real, and Vaknin's article describes it quite
>>> accurately.
>>> I frankly wish we could be discussing the future of knowledge work on the
>>> Web, relative to which Wikipedia furnishes a wealth of data about how
>>> badly
>>> a naive idea can can wrong, but other people keep bringing it up, so
>>> those
>>> who know are forced to say what they know.
>>>
>>> This is of course a hoary old topic at The Wikipedia Review.
>>> I once began a "meta-thread" in the Meta-Discussion Forum to
>>> collect various reflections on the subject.  It appears to be
>>> something of a dead horse over there, but here it is, FWIW:
>>>
>>>
>>> http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=17187&view=findpost&p=90830
>>>
>>> I am slightly incited to resuscitate the jockey if not the horse.
>>>
>>
> --
>
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>
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-- 
Dr Athina Karatzogianni
Lecturer in Media, Culture and Society
The Dean's Representative (Chinese Partnerships)
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
The University of Hull
United Kingdom
HU6 7RX
T: ++44 (0) 1482 46 5790
F: ++44 (0) 1482 466107
http://www2.hull.ac.uk/FASS/humanities/media,_culture_and_society/staff/karatzogianni,_dr_athina.aspx

Check out Athina's work
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3AAthina%20Karatzogianni&page=1

China-Google article: http://www.e-ir.info/?p=3420
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