> Wikipedia shows that having a bit of faith in moral principles and affinity for the good side of humanity can readily turn technology into a force for good.
I think it's more than "faith in principles". The principles of wikipedia wouldn't have mattered at all if it was taken over by trump stans in the early days. What makes Wikipedia great, in my opinion, is the same thing that made early open source great. There is no clout of fame, it's not a high octane competitive environment where people have to constantly posture to appear unmovable. It's a collection of weirdos all nerding out over collecting all the information. It's a bunch of librarians writing stuff for completely internally motivated reasons.
I don't get the impression that the people who edit Wikipedia really care about the readers at all. They allow us to enter the temple they built for themselves, but we aren't guests, we're just onlookers.
Agreed. The temple is built for "all of us", in as much as any public edifice is, but those who maintain it don't think of the readers' whims. The maintainers are too busy with the all-consuming, gradually-complexifying task of building the temple, improving the temple, improving those who improve the temple.
This protects both the temple itself from dabblers, but also the temple's caretakers from those who could be considered to care too little. The best example of this quasi-religious calling, IMO, has got to be the Star Trek Into Darkness thing [0][1], temple-politics which has earned a place in the temple itself.
I think it's more than "faith in principles". The principles of wikipedia wouldn't have mattered at all if it was taken over by trump stans in the early days. What makes Wikipedia great, in my opinion, is the same thing that made early open source great. There is no clout of fame, it's not a high octane competitive environment where people have to constantly posture to appear unmovable. It's a collection of weirdos all nerding out over collecting all the information. It's a bunch of librarians writing stuff for completely internally motivated reasons.
I don't get the impression that the people who edit Wikipedia really care about the readers at all. They allow us to enter the temple they built for themselves, but we aren't guests, we're just onlookers.