Jimmy Wales's Open Source Collaboration Tips

destinyland writes "In a new interview Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales acknowledges his debt to Richard Stallman's Free Software Foundation and discusses his new open source search project. He applauds the way Open Source developers work around their ideological differences, acknowledges that he's an Ayn Rand objectivist who's skeptical of the wisdom of crowds, and blames Slashdot for his grandstanding comment that Wikipedia would bury Encyclopedia Brittanica within five years."

Comments

Re:Ayn Rand? The fan dancer?

[nuzak]

If you're one of those Reality-Denoying Looters who doesn't want to pay for a book, the gist is also in Michael Shermer's essay, The Unlikeliest Cult in History. Shermer's name and reputation might be familiar to folks who travel in Objectivist circles too.

Re:If you don't have the time, don't do it

[Anonymous Coward]

"If you don't have the time and the resources to fully support what you put on the internet, don't do it, or plan on a huge legal bill."

Based on what legal theory?

"You will be sued for negligence."

What did I "neglect" to do?

"You're obligated to support what you put on the internet, whether or not the GPL says "no warranty"."

Bullshit. I'm not 'obliged' (that's the word you are searching for) to provide anything for free) to do anything unless you pay me. That is called a 'contract'. You provide me something in 'consideration' for something else. If I give you something for nothing, that is all you expect to get in return.

Re:Ayn Rand? The fan dancer?

[udderly]

Atlas Shrugged is a melodramatic joke of a book with such a childish storyline that I'm surprised that anyone takes her "philosophy" seriously. As other posters have indicated, her "serious" philosophical work is regarded with derision by most in the field. Her so-called ethical system had been demolished by others more rigorous and of greater intellect (Kant, Hume, Hobbes, Kierkegaard) before she was even born.

Like you, I have to admit to a experiential distaste for her adherents. I have found that those espousing her philosophy are usually just selfish creatures trying to justify their own selfishness. Bleh...

Two more

[Apotsy]

Here's a couple you won't see mentioned:

• Oust your co-founder and start claiming that you are the sole founder. It's okay if your organization's own past press releases contradict what you are now saying. No one will notice!
• Claim that the majority of work is done by a group of people who actually don't really contribute that much.

I'm sure there's more.

Claim that anyone who isn't in the groupthink

[Moryath]

is a "troll."

Advocate banning "trolls" whenever possible, especially when they threaten to expose malfeasance on the part of your worst employees.

Call one of your detractors a "disease" in your IRC channels, then deny you said it (even though it was logged) and create an entire "biography" on the person devoted solely to libeling them, in violation of publication laws and your own "standards" for biographical entries.

Suggest in your logged, publicly available email lists for the project that "lone wolves" should start filing dishonest "complaints" with the hosting ISP against a site critical of your behavior.

Take the money donated for "the project" and build a new house with it.

Re:Ayn Rand? The fan dancer?

[nuzak]

> They're building a storehouse of knowledge to make factual information available to everyone

Why would Rand care about something done for this nebulous "everyone", especially when no one pays for it?

Re:Ayn Rand? The fan dancer?

[WilliamSChips]

Altruism is doing something that benefits other people when you only indirectly benefit from it. That describes 90% of Wikipedia contributions. Personal pleasure doesn't even enter into it, and can't, because unless you're under coercion you are always doing things for some sort of personal pleasure. Actually even if you're under coercion it's usually the pleasure of a lack of pain.

One project too many?

[pfafrich]

It seems like Wales is on a project creation frenzy, it seems like every month theres yet another project launched from Wales and Beesley. Actually I exaggerate but the previous big announcement http://campaigns.wikia.com/ seems to be pretty inactive now. I fear the same will happen for the new search engine. Does jimbo have the time to dedicate to making this happen, or is it vapor-ware?

Collectivism can be dangerous too

[FallLine]

Collectivism allows the individual to persue his goals. Without the support of others, people are very limited in what they can do. Without collectivism, we would each be at the mercy of the strong and amoral, as well as nature. There's an old African proverb that peaks to the reciprocal nature of individual freedom and social responsibility: Only free individuals can make a strong tribe. Only a strong tribe can make free individuals.

Individualism allows the group to pursue its goals. Without the hard work and insights of the individual, groups are very limited in what they can do. Without individualism, we would each be at the mercy of the collective. There's an old saying that goes something like: First they came for the X, I remained silent, I was not X. Then they came from Y, I remained silent, I was not a Y.... When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.

Another quote: Pure democracy is kind of like three wolves and two chickens voting on what to have for dinner.

Most of us can agree that it is proper and even critical role of government to secure basic freedom. However, to move from securing basic freedom to redistributing assets, excessively controlling consumer choice, etc is a very dangerous and slippery slope. You totally ignore that there are many collectivist organizations in 20th century that have done great harm to the individual (e.g., Naziism, Communist Russia, Communist China, etc). There is no guarantee that a simple majority vote, even an overwhelming ones, delivers justice or freedom.

Re:Ayn Rand? The fan dancer?

[nuzak]

If you love science, reasoning, don't hate yourself, like trading the things that you create for things of value created by others, and generally find that your own happiness is important to you, it's likely that you'll love Ayn Rand's writings.

I love all those things up til you get to Ayn Rand. She's a poor writer, a hateful polemicist, and a shoddy philosopher. I don't find it the least bit inconsistent that her vile bilge is inconsistent with my own philosophies, even if they overlap halfway.

If you can't stand logical thought, think that every blade of grass on earth is more important than your own life, want a handout from the government, and think that all that counts is serving others, well, there's always Jesus or Karl Marx for you ...

Well hey, congratulations on your, uh, rational analysis.