EvanProdromou

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Uh... just a guy. One of the co-founders, with MicheleAnnJenkins?, of WikiTravel. My home page is http://evan.prodromou.name/ .

AKAs:

Not really much of a WikiExpert?, but I did write these inexpert and pontificating articles about Wikitravel, so I might be on my way.

I'm primarily interested in wiki as a tool to create content. For this reason, I'm also interested in some Wiki (anti-)motivational issues, such as:

I've also become kinda caught up with how to do Wiki-style collaboration for non-text media (images, sounds, etc.). I've been whacking at CategoryCollaboration, trying to capture some ideas and concepts and such.

I suppose you mean the process of making maps, not necessarily the type of map, right? For WikiTravel? -- SunirShah

: Yes, absolutely. It's all about process, baby! I've updated the CollaborativeCartography page with more deetz. --EvanProdromou

(cf. DevolvePower; also see the bottom of PeerPrivilege for a better name of that page.)

: Thanks for the pointers. Actually, DiffusionOfResponsibility isn't closely related to DevolvePower. Diffusion of responsibility is the psychological term for when a member of a large group fails to correct a problem because they assume someone else in the group will. An example in WikiSpace? would be reading a page and not correcting a grammatical mistake. --EvanProdromou

They are critically related. I'll leave the integration of the below to you, assuming it may spark further inquiry.

One option to getting things done is to have a BenevolentDictator mother hen, who concentrates power to enact responsibility, but this does not scale very well. Consequently, DevolvePower, but that assumes people will take responsibility, which does not happen due to DiffusionOfResponsibility. Therefore, DelegateResponsibility to ensure someone does the dirty work by explicitly assigning the work to an individual.

There are many alternatives to delegating responsibility, like GuidePosts, CommunityExpectations, PeerReview, AuditTrails, market forces (e.g. OpenMeatballWiki's attempt to get people to rework more content), etc. -- SunirShah

Welcome! -- SunirShah

Welcome, and have some StartingPoints.

I wonder if we can convince the MediaWiki developers to set up TwinPages between EnglishWikipedia and WikiTravel - would be a nice feature - and help Wikipedians to say "Wikipedia is not a travel guide". --MartinHarper

: Yes, I'd like that. I didn't know the TwinPages name -- in MediaWiki, it's just implemented for InterlanguageLinks?. We've got the WikiPedia InterWiki link set up so they work like twin pages. The language issue gets a little hairy, of course. I'd like it so InterWiki links go to the correct language page on the other wiki automagically. --EvanProdromou

Welcome, Evan! --SebPaquet

We have spent a lot of time discussing that problem, but to no avail. The simplest solution so far is to use InterWiki links (or NearLinks or TwinPages) between pages in different languages as ultimately the human has to do the translation.

: It's not really all that big of a problem, I don't think. All that I'm saing is that a TwinPage link like "WikiPedia:France" on the English-language Wikitravel would go to the English-language Wikipedia, but the same twin-page link on the French-language Wikitravel would go to the French-language Wikipedia. I think it's just a case of modifying the entry named "WikiPedia" in the interwiki table for a different URL for each Wikitravel database. Anyways, we're just starting to deal with multiple languages. So. --EvanProdromou

The magic part would be automatic machine translation, but maybe PartialTranslation as a LinkSuggester? would be helpful. Maybe PartialTranslation of the individual words in the title coupled with title searching/LikePages? The translation could even be liberal. You take the set of all words W in the title. For each word w of W, you find the set T(w) of all possible known translations of that word. Define the set of search keywords K as the union over T(w), w of W. Then simply suggest the five or ten pages on the target wiki with the most number of keywords in them. You could try being more magical later by playing with plurals, conjugations, "slants" (don't know the term; but different forms of a word spelt wildly differently, like spell spelt spelled, child children, person people), but that's dicey. (cf. Wiki:WikiNamePluralProblem) -- SunirShah

Hey Evan. Hello. I'm pleased to see the translation problem mentioned here as it seems important to me. -- MattisManzel.

Evan, I understand your objection to what is a real name. In fact, so well that I wrote "What is a real name?" on RealName. Please add comments there, but what you wrote is already covered in some detail there. -- SunirShah

: Yeah, so, I find UseRealNames really lame. I've been participating in online communities for more than 15 years, and I've always steered away from communities where given names are required. To me, it's a sign that the community doesn't get it. It's a sign of fear, of rigidity, and of mutual distrust. It's also a concession to RealLife standards of seriousness and respectability, and a humorless rejection of the fluidity of identity.

herrlich! -s-

: I don't think that that's the kind of community I want to be involved in. So, I think I'll be exercising my RightToLeave now. --EvanProdromou

Just to be clear, our argument is that PenNames are fearful, rigid, and mutually distrustful (vs. our need for AssumeGoodFaith, PrincipleOfFirstTrust), and that we aim for the humourless rejection of identity in its entirety, qua Wiki:EgolessWiki (vs. DramaticIdentity). Further, we do not separate RealLife from online life; rather the wire is just another modality.

Thank you for what you have contributed. Good luck with WikiTravel. -- SunirShah

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