WK 6.2 Reading "A Globe in Accord" - Hanane Ben Abdeslam

The reading discusses if Wikipedia can only work in practice and not in theory. There is a metaphor by using a puzzle. At the Wikipedia event back in 2007, each contributor received a spherical puzzle, like any other jigsaw, the pieces must fit together. But in this case, they form a glove much like the one seen near the top of every Wikipedia article (The Wikipedia logo). The author uses the metaphor of a puzzle to explain the ways in which neutral point of view and good faith complement each other in the collaborative production of an encyclopedia. However, the puzzle was not to be given as a natural gift, it was not as a description of the encyclopedia but as an aspiration and intentional stance of its contributors. Moreover, we often see the world in the terms of ‘us versus them’, and we tend to be less favorable in judging others than we judge ourselves, and then we are amazingly dept at justifying and rationalizing our own mistakes. Giving the lack of social context in online interactions, it is not surprising that people sometimes end up calling each other names with a bad meaning. This is why when Wikipedia began to experience its first serious growing pains, and dedicated to be a higher good. However, there are times when we can surprise ourselves, such as when thousands of strangers come together to build a encyclopedia. As the author says “To build a universal encyclopedia one doesn’t need faith in the possibility of knowledge but in human beings being able to work together.

What I find interesting in the reading that it is not anything magic about Wikipedia that makes the work doing good. Wikis and Wikipedia are one way to enable strong collaboration, but they are not only one way. I believe that if the community disappeared and all that was left of a snapshot of its content, Wikipedia still would have been an amazing phenomenon.

I quoted a sentence from the author that says “To build a universal encyclopedia one doesn’t need faith in the possibility of knowledge but in human beings being able to work together”. My question for you is, how is this possible?

Hanane Ben Abdeslam

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