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BobbyBombastic

edit: topic title should be Shared Knowing

I think we may have discussed this before, but Larry started a new mailing list that is not Citizendium specific--instead it's meant to be a discussion of internet communities and web 2.0 in general. Here is Larry's blog post from October announcing it and explaining its purpose.

QUOTE

This unmoderated (or semi-moderated) list will be devoted to well-reasoned, polite discussion and announcements about the nature of online knowledge production communities. It is open to everyone. I hope it might become a central clearing-house of general information and free, open, yet polite discussion about a cluster of issues that are of great interest to many people, and of growing importance to society at large.

The archives are here.

This long message from Larry (titled No Membership without Ownership!) may be of interest here.

QUOTE(Larry Sanger)

I have long held that there is something unseemly about a for-profit company
getting money from volunteer contributions.
[...]
I am finally throwing down the gauntlet. The business models of YouTube,
MySpace, FaceBook, craigslist, Yahoo Groups, and up-and-comers like Mahalo
and Wikia -- to name just a few -- are all resting on morally questionable
grounds.

[continues]

I thought it was an interesting email. The small discussion that follows is also pretty good. Larry is a little verbose at times but he is also exact in his writing, which I enjoy. That said, I have to be in the right mood to read Larry in all his exactness.

Looks like it might be a pretty good list. As an aside, it seems like there may be an increase in sites that critisize Wikipedia and its model...not that this is the purpose of Larry's list, but probably a good bit of time will be spent on that.

thekohser

Sanger sounds a little bit nuts:

QUOTE

Citizens of the world, we can do better than our Silicon Valley exploiters.

I support a participation boycott of for-profit companies that gain their
own filthy lucre on the backs of volunteers, and a popular digital revolt: a
transfer to democratic, constitutional self-rule. As credible non-profit
replacements come into existence, I would urge us all to transfer to them.

Where are we going?

Planet Ten!!

When are we going?

REAL SOON!!

Amarkov

You can not build a good organization with no power structure. If you just say "okay, now everyone is equal, and nobody is going to dictate anything", you aren't going to magically get a perfectly harmonious society. You're going to get people who play politics to create a power structure, and they will be much more evil than any corporate owner would be.

If companies systematically repress their community, then the community will quite justifiably get mad and leave. Then the company stops making profit and dies. But in a "community-based" project as Sanger proposes, that incentive is not there. Those who have the power lack a reason to care what everyone else thinks. The organizing non-profit has given up their right to step in. And the community won't get fed up and quit, because they're too blinded by the principles that are constantly espoused to see the actual situation.

Jonny Cache

As most of you know, Larry Sanger has initiated an untold number of idea sharing projects.

Some of them have been rather active and productive of ideas, right up until someone besides Larry Sanger has anything significant to share, at which point he invariably shuts them down.

BTDT, And I Can Make You A List â€¦

Jon Awbrey

Miltopia

I bet I can make it moderated, and more than just "semi".

After all, that's what I did to his wiki ;-) His list shouldn't be much harder.

I don't buy into "enemy of the enemy is my friend", especially not with the incompetent Sanger, who is much more an lol-cow than anyone on Wikipedia.

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