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There are many complaints about how biased Wikipedia it is. Many of them are well-founded. Yet it cannot be denied that it is living proof that capricious rule is not a prerequisite for successful government. Nearly all decision are taken by consensus: such as whether an article should be deleted, whether a policy should be amended or revised, and whether other needful changes should be made. The community is moderated and its decisions enforced by an elite caste of bureaucrats known as administrators. Promotion to this class is strictly merit-based and notoriously difficult. They close all "requests for comment" and other community discussions, and interpret the sense of the community so that they can become law. Problem users and particularly intractable disputes are handled by an elected committee known as the Arbitration Committee, who has the power to impose binding sanctions on users and pages. | There are many complaints about how biased Wikipedia it is. Many of them are well-founded. Yet it cannot be denied that it is living proof that capricious rule is not a prerequisite for successful government. Nearly all decision are taken by consensus: such as whether an article should be deleted, whether a policy should be amended or revised, and whether other needful changes should be made. The community is moderated and its decisions enforced by an elite caste of bureaucrats known as administrators. Promotion to this class is strictly merit-based and notoriously difficult. They close all "requests for comment" and other community discussions, and interpret the sense of the community so that they can become law. Problem users and particularly intractable disputes are handled by an elected committee known as the Arbitration Committee, who has the power to impose binding sanctions on users and pages. | ||
Although neither model truly gives content creators a voice in their own government, both have their advantages. Absolute monarchy provides for a bureaucracy of moderators of which there is no question whose orders they take and to whom they are responsible. Feudal crowdsourcing allows for a limited degree of autonomy, though revocable at any time. The tribal model does not scale well; the only reason the example just given does is because of a high level of civic virtue among the users at large and elements of absolute monarchy. | Although neither model truly gives content creators a voice in their own government, both have their advantages. Absolute monarchy provides for a bureaucracy of moderators of which there is no question whose orders they take and to whom they are responsible. Feudal crowdsourcing allows for a limited degree of autonomy, though revocable at any time. The tribal model does not scale well; the only reason the example just given does is because of a high level of civic virtue among the users at large and elements of absolute monarchy. | ||
The idea of corporate personhood, though it may be taken too far in certain cases, is fundamentally good. Corporate personhood gives recognition to people working together, and vests them with legal rights and duties that extend beyond death. The only problem with this is that it is too narrow. It recognizes shareholders - those who have contributed money - only, and not stakeholders - all those who have invested in and therefore have an interest in the success of the common project. | The idea of corporate personhood, though it may be taken too far in certain cases, is fundamentally good. Corporate personhood gives recognition to people working together, and vests them with legal rights and duties that extend beyond death. The only problem with this is that it is too narrow. It recognizes shareholders - those who have contributed money - only, and not stakeholders - all those who have invested in and therefore have an interest in the success of the common project. | ||
It is past time to devise a frame of government that will be responsive to the concerns of stakeholders, not just shareholders; that will allow both those who invest time and those who invest money to control the site to which they have contributed. This new model must not throw out the baby with the bathwater and reject all elements of the three preexisting models. Rather, it must take the parts of them that conduce to fair, efficient, and representative government and combine them with new institutions of its own so as to produce a workable model. An emphasis of substantive over procedural fairness, where the two are mutually exclusive, must be had. It must be practical and suited to the particular conditions of the community for which it is being made; copying constitutions does not work well, either in real life or online. | It is past time to devise a frame of government that will be responsive to the concerns of stakeholders, not just shareholders; that will allow both those who invest time and those who invest money to control the site to which they have contributed. This new model must not throw out the baby with the bathwater and reject all elements of the three preexisting models. Rather, it must take the parts of them that conduce to fair, efficient, and representative government and combine them with new institutions of its own so as to produce a workable model. An emphasis of substantive over procedural fairness, where the two are mutually exclusive, must be had. It must be practical and suited to the particular conditions of the community for which it is being made; copying constitutions does not work well, either in real life or online. | ||