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WhyWikiDeterrants

A few deterrants for wikiUse ...

By BobTrower The fact is, to enter stuff on to the wiki with respect to Ada; one needs a whole bunch of capabilities and proclivities. To whit:

  1. Had to know Ada well enough to say something.
  2. Have to be inclined to ‘speak up’ (for instance, to not be too ‘shy’ to write).
  3. Have to know what this wiki is.
  4. Have to know where this wiki is.
  5. Have to know a little about using wiki.
  6. Have to have the confidence to use this environment.
  7. Have to be reasonably comfortable typing.
  8. Have to be reasonably comfortable composing prose.
  9. Need to have time or make time to do it.

If my math is correct, all things being equal, one would expect that roughly (0.5^9*100)% of your correspondents will make it to the 50% threshold on all items. That is, about 1 in 500. Naturally, the population is somewhat selected (all things aren’t quite equal), so one would realistically expect to see perhaps (holds thumb out and closes one eye) 1 in 10 or 1 in 20 people respond to an initial invitation.

I am particularly concerned about ‘shyness’ as informed by the combination of comfort with the environment plus comfort with keyboarding plus comfort composing. The grim reality is that only a small fraction of the population can meet basic requirements for producing written work. My experience is that people don’t even know their limitations in this regard, they just feel a vague sense of discomfort. Mark Twain is credited with the following quote:

I expect that whether they think about it consciously or not, most people (like, really, the vast majority) have some sense that the above is true either by divination or selection.

The bottom line is that there is no sense in us expecting more from people than they have to give.

Meantime, we would still like to get something from people. I think that the idea of emailing people directly and asking them to respond via Email to your note is likely your best course. You will probably have to do this more than once and may have to drag stuff out with Q&A.

BobTrower


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