Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The emperor has no clothes


When I returned from #Wikimania, I received several requests for friendship. Orkut, Facebook, Plaxo .... no requests for friendship from any WMF projects. As social software goes, Facebook is the top dog, the king, the emperor of social media.

When Wikipedia started, it was truly among the first and the best social software. There was a common goal and, using talk pages, IRC and mailing lists there was a social cohesion that became technically outdated with the advent of social media. Wikimedia is still the top dog, the king, the emperor of open content.

The problem I have with Facebook is simple; there is no reason to trust it, there is nothing there of interest. The people I befriend are people I know in another setting; the Wiki world. I would love to acknowledge my friendship to them there, improve such a relationship in sharing our interest in projects and having group discussions, announcements.

I hope that the Wikimedia Foundation will bring such functionality to Wikipedia; it will bring back much of the social cohesion we had in the early days and, it will show that the emperor has no clothes.
Thanks,
      GerardM

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