Here Comes Everybody Chapter 5

Yea!  Wikipedia is one of the best examples of the collaborative creation made possible in the wired world, that Shirky is writing about.  I think wikis in general are a step towards something else big, but I don't know what it is.  I hope Wikipedia is not the only, or the  highest example of this sort of distributed production.  It seems nonprofit or shared ownership might work as a structure for these organizations, because big chunks of cash might be less necessary from a single owner or investors, to get an operation off the ground.  A smaller amount of money, and a larger amount of time might suffice, if the organization's resource is its workers or volunteers, time, and if its product in the digital fruit of that time.

On page 118, I think Shirky's initial description of Wikipedia gives the impression that it is a little less structured than it really is.  The hierarchy from bottom to top includes: unregistered users, registered users/editors, administrators, bureaucrats, stewards, and a board of trustees.  Shirky does address some of the organizational structure of Wikipedia later in the chapter.

I wonder if the constant, ongoing process described on page 119 is a common trait of collaborative online efforts.  Certainly MySpace or Flickr will never be "finished."  Many open source software projects are updated to at least keep the software working with new versions of operating systems, unless too few people take part in the project, and it becomes abandoned.  They don't really end.  They are like a shark that must keep swimming, (or recruiting new volunteers) to stay alive.

This is an interesting observation on the few users who contribute the majority of the images on Flickr from page 124:

This pattern is general to social media:  on mailing lists with more than a couple of dozen participants, the most active writer is generally much more active than the person in the number-two slot, and far more active than the average.  The longest conversation goes on much longer than the second-longest one, and much longer than average, and so on.

Ahem, a_hot_mess...?  But seriously, I wonder if there are any common traits shared by the high producers in social media, and the high income earners in the real world?  Perhaps they are both likely to be leaders in their communities (whether online or physical)?

I also like Shirky's description of Wikipedia as a Shinto shrine, which is constantly rebuilt, in a slightly different place, on a regular basis.  Perhaps the analogy breaks down on content, however:  The monks use the same plan, but Wikipedia's articles constantly change, and presumably drift over time.  Shirky is right to say that vandals could quickly destroy either one.