User:UninvitedCompany/Essay2004

Farewell, farewell to you who will hear You lonely travelers all The cold north wind will blow again The winding road does call

(Excerpt from poem by Richard Thompson)

The real world beckons. I have recommitted myself to my music and to various other responsibilities. No room remains in my days for Wikipedia, and so I must go.

It is with considerable pleasure that I look back upon my participation. During the time I was here (March 2003-December 2004), Wikipedia grew from a geeky experiment to a widely-known Internet resource. The Alexa ranking has improved from 2653 to 173 during that time, and the depth of the content here now arguably exceeds that of any other single editorial project ever undertaken.

I am particularly proud of my advocacy for the creation of the arbitration committee and my role in establishing its procedures and handling its initial cases. It reflects one of the first steps in devolving power to the community. I also believe that matters of adminship are vital to the project and am proud of my involvement in this area as well.

I admonish all of you who remain to prepare for the future. As of today, MSN.COM has 30 billion page views per day - about 100 times as many as Wikipedia. There is the potential for our page views to someday exceed that. For that to happen, we will need 100 times as many servers and 100 times the bandwidth. Recent Changes will scroll 100 times faster. There will be 100 times as many administrators, more than 100 times as many POV warriors, 100 times as many page move vandals, 100 times as many trolls, and 100 times as many libel accusations.

Think big. It is sometimes said that the biggest problem most people have with thinking big is that they have no idea what "big" really is. Wikipedia is international, cross-cultural, and multilingual, more so than sites like MSN.COM can ever hope to be. Wikipedia could, in a few short years, come to have more traffic and greater prominence than any English-only site does today.

I leave you with this general advice:


 * 1) Get a workable mechanism in place for policymaking.  The recent 3RR, "managed deletion," and "troll" discussions are just a warm-up.  Tough questions are going to come up over the next few years, ones that can’t just be ignored.  Be ready.
 * 2) Someone is going to write a book called, "How to use Wikipedia for Publicity."  Seasoned, trained, well-paid marketeers, lobbyists, and political operatives are going to come here, with the benefit of the experience of others in subverting Wikipedia for personal gain.  Don’t let them get away with it.  So far, there are only a few, and they are poorly organized.  That will change when the stakes become higher.
 * 3) Continue to devolve power, yet look to Jimbo for leadership.  The board and the AC are important steps.  Plan for the project to pay all expenses presently paid by Jimbo.  Have money in the bank.
 * 4) While Wikipedia is unique in what it does, its governance challenges are not unique.  Take lessons in governance from other nonprofit, volunteer efforts.  Look at how they handle decision making, fundraising, PR, and the balance between volunteer and paid staff.  Think big.
 * 5) Do something to improve institutional memory.  Lack of this is the bane of many volunteer-run organizations.  Respect old decisions and do not revisit them without reason, and do not start from square one with returning troublemakers.

And these more specific recommendations:


 * 1) Now that the 3rr is being enforced, creation and abuse of serial identities (sockpuppets), previously a minor nuisance, is about to become a much greater problem.  Do not let the cryptonauts among you keep you from doing something about it.  In the entire history of computer-mediated communications media, all fora that have lacked a positive means of identifying actions that all originate with the same user have failed.
 * 2) Take technical measures to protect widely-viewed pages from vandalism.  Have available a moderation queue instead of or in addition to protected pages.  Make it possible to protect included content (images, templates) quickly.  Make the long-discussed improvements to Recent Changes.
 * 3) Retain competent legal counsel now and get them up to speed on the way Wikipedia works.  Sooner or later, there will be a libel suit or a copyright infringement suit that we won’t be willing to cave in to.
 * 4) Pay greater attention to adminship matters as new admins are the future of the project.

Finally, never lose sight of principle of first trust and the founding premise that "you can edit any page right now." Preserve this even as measures are taken to deal with socks and vandalism.

I have enjoyed working with all of you, and will particularly miss:
 * Martin
 * Anthere
 * Jimbo Wales
 * Jwrosenzweig
 * Angela
 * Fred Bauder
 * 172
 * Camembert
 * Hyacinth
 * Grunt
 * Tuf-Kat
 * Michal Snow
 * Sam Spade
 * Hephaestos

Be well, and very kindest regards to all.

Someday, I shall return.

The Uninvited Co., Inc. 22:13, 13 Dec 2004 (UTC)