WikiWay

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: Leuf, B. and Cunningham, W. (2001). The Wiki way: Quick collaboration on the Web. Boston: Addison-Wesley Longman. ISBN 0-201-71499-X (alternate, search)

The Wiki Way is a book written by Ward Cunningham and Bo Leuf. See Wiki:TheWikiWay.

The book doesn't really talk about the Wiki Way, except at its fringes. A wiki, at its most efficient and most stunning, is not a category. It is not a technology. It is not a notebook. It is not a website. It is not a medium. It is not a community. It is not a place. Rather, it is the sum totality of everything, including all those things; and all those things centre around the dynamic of its essential parts and dimensions: community, content, code, network, atemporal, place.

The single and total goal of the Wiki Way is the cohesion, coherence, preservation, and advancement of the wiki itself. Every other goal is a distraction. Not AnIndividual participating on a wiki is important. No dollar, no reputation, no relationship, no line of code, no paragraph means a thing if it hampers the advancement of the wiki itself. We must strive constantly to ensure the wiki, in its whole, remain functioning.

The wiki acts as a centre, and we come to it for IncidentalCollaboration. But we will all eventually leave, and so we must practice PersonalDetachment? lest the wiki become an anchor that destroys us (ergo ForgiveAndForgetInSoftware, DissuadeReputation). Yet the wiki continues. We adopt practices to enable this practice of coming and going while still advancing the wiki itself.

This is non-trivial. CommunityLore requires a community to sustain it, and writing it down has no defense against a FirstReading that never happens. But the wiki is also the script, and so we can encode practices as GuidePosts if necessary. All things work in concert over time to keep things going. The trick, and the hardest part, is always being mindful of what TheWikiWay is at its fundamental: the preservation of the wiki itself. All decisions can be made in GoodFaith as long as we all maintain this SuperordinateGoal. All those who do not agree to this goal are asked to reconsider, or failing that, to exercise their RightToLeave.

This philosophy is not bizarre or obscene. It is only the SocialContract we are all born into as part of a wider society. We must all strive and struggle to advance society as a whole. Descending into anything less is the ruin of us all. It is clear from history there are personal rewards for even SelfishVolunteers as long as we all maintain this goal beyond ourselves. TheWikiWay is no more and no less than maturity.

The WikiWay was about the QualityWithoutAName?.

It's a way of working that relies on trust, courage, faith, honesty, integrity, action, reflection, construction, and fun. It's beyond professionalism. WikiWikiWeb was a moment.

The experience that was the Wiki Way was about Peak. It was about people building something together that was high quality, and knowing everyone was there for the same reason.

The WikiWay is the ideal I strive towards. -- SunirShah

Wikimania (2005) was the first time I've seen the WikiWay in a very long time, and for that I am very grateful, impressed, and encouraged. -- SunirShah

So the wiki way is both a book and a concept. The wiki way seems to relate to the first instinct of survival. Without it doesn't a wiki die out into a GhostTown? It merges aspects of the PresentMoment?, survival and altruism. Is the wiki way altruism practically applied? -- AaronPoeze

Une traduction en LangueFrançaise est à remanier sur LaVoieDuWiki.

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