New Clues to Wikipedia's Shared Super Mind
34 views
Skip to first unread message
Roger
Apr 1, 2013, 12:18:20 PM4/1/13
to dis...@sfcomplex.org
Holy moly, the Santa Fe Reporter gets picked up as the source for an ACM TechNews item. Will wonders never cease?
-- rec --
The cooperative nature of Wikipedia is critical to its high level of accuracy and usefulness, according to a study by Santa Fe Institute research fellow Simon DeDeo. The study found that Wikipedia is the product of an extremely cooperative human social system, which has proven as accurate as traditional encyclopedias. Wikipedia's entry on former President George W. Bush underscores the value of having many people contribute to each entry, because it "reads as if it was written by aliens who didn't care [about Bush]--although we know it was written by people who cared a lot,” DeDeo says. Wikipedia can be studied as a social system because each Wikipedia edit is recorded. “It's almost like you had closed-circuit cameras running as a society is creating itself, so every move could be studied and watched,” DeDeo says. The behavior patterns create what can be seen as a historical grammar, like that of a language or bird song. The historical language that develops and maintains Wikipedia might be expected to follow a constricted grammar as well, but Wikipedia behavior is constantly generating new patterns of behavior, possibly because it is the product of many minds.
From "New Clues to Wikipedia's Shared Super Mind"
Santa Fe Reporter (03/27/13) John German
View Full Article
-- rec --
Sent to you by Roger via Google Reader:
via ACM TechNews on 4/1/13
Santa Fe ReporterThe cooperative nature of Wikipedia is critical to its high level of accuracy and usefulness, according to a study by Santa Fe Institute research fellow Simon DeDeo. The study found that Wikipedia is the product of an extremely cooperative human social system, which has proven as accurate as traditional encyclopedias. Wikipedia's entry on former President George W. Bush underscores the value of having many people contribute to each entry, because it "reads as if it was written by aliens who didn't care [about Bush]--although we know it was written by people who cared a lot,” DeDeo says. Wikipedia can be studied as a social system because each Wikipedia edit is recorded. “It's almost like you had closed-circuit cameras running as a society is creating itself, so every move could be studied and watched,” DeDeo says. The behavior patterns create what can be seen as a historical grammar, like that of a language or bird song. The historical language that develops and maintains Wikipedia might be expected to follow a constricted grammar as well, but Wikipedia behavior is constantly generating new patterns of behavior, possibly because it is the product of many minds.
From "New Clues to Wikipedia's Shared Super Mind"
Santa Fe Reporter (03/27/13) John German
View Full Article
Things you can do from here:
- Subscribe to ACM TechNews using Google Reader
- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages