Tout commence par un constat chiffré. Depuis 2007, le nombre des éditeurs est en baisse constante. Et la tendance se confirme. Sur les trois premiers mois de l’année, la version anglaise de Wikipedia a perdu 49.000 contributeurs, dix fois plus que sur la même période en 2008, selon les calculs du chercheur espagnol Felipe Ortega. Deux explications sont apportées :
- Wikipedia a atteint sa maturité. Avec plus de 3 millions d’articles en langue anglaise, le champ possible pour les nouvelles rédactions s’est réduit. Les internautes sont moins enclins à s’inscrire et à participer pour ne réaliser que des modifications mineures.
- Wikipedia est devenu un monde hostile. Avec la floraison de règles pour éviter que les pages soient vandalisées par des spameurs, écrire un article ou réaliser une modification est devenu trop complexe.
Technotes, Benjamin Ferran : “Wikipedia en crise de croissance”.
BLDGBLOG: “California City”.
Google Sightseeing: “California City”.
California City had its origins in 1958 when real estate developer and sociology professor Nat Mendelsohn purchased 80,000 acres (320 km2) of Mojave Desert land with the aim of master-planning California’s next great city. He designed his model city, which he hoped would one day rival Los Angeles in size, around a Central Park with a 26-acre (11 ha) artificial lake. Growth did not happen anywhere close to what he expected. To this day a vast grid of crumbling paved roads, scarring vast stretches of the Mojave desert, intended to lay out residential blocks, extends well beyond the developed area of the city. A single look at satellite photos shows the extent of the scarred desert and how it stakes its claim to being California’s 3rd largest geographic city, 34th largest in the US. California City was incorporated in 1965.
Wikipedia: “California City, California”.
From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 16 November 2009 5.27pm
To: Simon Edhouse
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Logo Design
Dear Simon,
You are correct and I apologise. Your last project was actually both commercially viable and original. Unfortunately the part that was commercially viable was not original, and the part that was original was not commercially viable.
I would no doubt find your ideas more ‘cutting edge’ and original if I had traveled forward in time from the 1950’s but as it stands, your ideas for technology based projects, that have already been put into application by other people several years before you thought of them, fail to generate the enthusiasm they possibly deserve. Having said that though, if I had traveled forward in time, my time machine would probably put your peer to peer networking technology to shame as not only would it have commercial viability, but also an awesome logo and accompanying pie charts.
Regardless, I have, as requested, attached a logo that represents not only the peer to peer networking project you are currently working on, but working with you in general.
Regards, David.
David Thorne: “Please design a logo for me. With pie charts.”
—
From: Simon Edhouse
Date: Tuesday 17 November 2009 11.07am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Logo Design
You just crossed the line. You have no idea about the potential this project has. The technology allows users to network peer to peer, add contacts, share information and is potentially worth many millions of dollars and your short sightedness just cost you any chance of being involved.
—
NOTE: to all those who might have visited here in relation to a posting by David Thorne on his website, David’s story is of course quite untrue, the emails fraudulent, and we will take appropriate legal action, with the Police and through the Courts. - David is a very angry man, and has many problems. Its quite ironic actually, because we would be very happy to pay David well for his graphic design, (if he would just do that, but the difficulties working with him outweigh the benefits) He is an excellent designer and we certainly have the funds to pay him. However, David would prefer to slander and defame and make up this kind of silly nonsense than conduct himself in a professional way. - I have always liked David, but as I said, he has some serious personal issues. (To all other victims of David’s vicious pranks… shall we form a support group?) - Cheers, Simon.
Naymz: “Mr. Simon Edhouse - CEO, Virtusoft Pty. Ltd. - Australia”.
—
Gee, some people are very twisted and sad… Quite interesting to be cyber-defamed. I hope most people realise this guy has mental problems.
Twitter: SimonEdhouse.
notafish
Une analyse intéressante de ces résultats et quelques pistes différentes sur leur interprétation sur cet article du Guardian. Notamment sur le fait que l’analyse de Felipe Ortega, si elle apporte des éclairages très intéressants sur l’évolution des contributeurs à Wikipédia, peut aussi ouvrir la porte à des interprétations moins catastrophistes.
Les questions d’hostilité sont en revanche une réalité. Avec le temps, il y a de moins en moins d’articles sur des sujets “simples” à créer et les contributeurs patentés ont développé des routines et des automatismes qui rendent l’intégration de nouveaux contributeurs qui ne les maîtrisent pas beaucoup plus difficile.
Blah ? Touitter !