7 Components: the Function Pages - Developers

Power gradients
in wikis
Problematic
progress
360
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ity. 29 This is no different in wikis, at least not as of yet. According
to Wales, 10% of the users of Wikipedia perform 80%
of the edits, and 5% perform 66% of the edits. Thus, despite
the openness of the system, core groups of authors have crystallized.
Research into this phenomenon is still in its initial
stages, and has yet to be intensified. Under consideration of
these circumstances, it is better to estimate which projects are
operated by which social groups and which attitudes they represent
in the process. What is their social and historical position
from which their actions originate? Using this requirement,
we must clarify to what extent partial or total interest
can be represented. This requires additional knowledge of the
sociology of group processes.
3. As we have already demonstrated in our model of levels in the
first section of this book, wikis, too, are internally not authority-free
zones. There are various power relationships that are
related to access rights, for instance. In addition, real power relationships
(ownership, employment relationships, capitalistic
order structures, etc.) intersect with the functions within the
wiki community. This fact, too, must also be taken into account.
22.2.5
Progress?
In the 20 th century at the latest, progress has transformed into a problematic
term. For example, Walter Benjamin writes: “Marx says the
revolutions are the locomotives of world history. But perhaps they
are something different altogether. Perhaps revolutions are the hand
of humankind riding in the train grabbing for the emergency
brake.” 30 His criticism is directed at estranged lifestyles that bank on
historical change taking place with or without the intervention of
humans. His utopia is very similar to that of many free software developers.
It is about the crystallization of a truly self-determining
lifestyle. This means that the idea of what progress is must continually
be revised and agreed upon. In the process, the emphases of social
labor shift.
29 Regarding the inequality of the social user profile and power relationships
on the Net, see e.g. Rilling 2004.
30 Benjamin GS, I, 1231.
22 Tools with a Future? Technical and Social Outlook with Wikis