Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

Virtual communitiesand co-creation of knowledge

Florence Devouardfdevouard@anthere.org

Under otherwise mentionned, all images under cc-by-sa/GFDL, from Wikimedia Commons

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

Wikipediaradical idea

Imagine a world…

in which everysingle person

is given access tothe sum of humanknowledge

My daughter, unknown artist,before I bought her a real computer

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

Classroom in an agricultural community near Livingstone (Zambia), 2007

Parents do not speak English.But professor teaches English to the kids

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

“Everyone loses if one language islost because then a nationand culture lose their memory,and so does the complextapestry from which the worldis woven and which makes theworld an exciting place.”

Vigdis FinnbogadottirUNESCO Goodwill Ambassador forLanguages

Cher and his turayaSouthern Algeria, 2006

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

Wikipedia, the basics

1) 10,000,000+ articles in 250+ languages2) Free as in free beer3) Free to read, to study, to modify and

redistribute4) Created by thousands of volunteers5) Runs on a wiki

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

© IBM

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard© IBM

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

Global top 10 website(Alexa, ComScore, Nielsen) Latin America -- 34% reach

North America -- 31% reachMiddle East/Africa -- 25% reachAsia Pacific -- 17% reachEurope – 32% reach

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

Evolutions, revolutions AuthorReader

Writing Printing

Electronic media Internet

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

Global trends

• Open doors attract members of the globaltalent pool

• Creation (or re-creation of tribes)• Open systems make bounderies porous to

external ideas• Openness allows to share successes with

others• Community united by goals, rules and values• An economy based on hope and trust

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

Keep it simple, but focused

+++ Fun

+++ Communion (ideology, values),

++ Anticipated Reciprocity

++ Feeling of worthiness

+ Increased Recognition

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

Governance in a peer-network: case of Wikipedia

2001 2003 2005 2007

Anarchy

Meritocracy

Precedent

Monarchy

Democracy

Technocracy

Republic

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

Wish list / Concerns

Governance and regulation on Internet: the Wild West

Need for a global scale economic assessment of open source

Reworking the IP laws, inadapted to XXI century

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

Developing sustainable models where

Creators can make a livingDissemination and remix of worksis facilitated

Access to knowledge and educationto all is made possible

Emergence of new creatorsis facilitated

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

“The mass is not always right, especially when thatmass is like a conformist herd of sheep thatquestions nothing. That is why initiatives towardcollective intelligence aim to capitalize on the wholediversity of knowledge, skills and ideas within a groupand to organize that diversity in a creative andproductive dialog».

Pierre Lévy

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

Virtual communities and co-creation of knowledge Florence Devouard

• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Dew_on_spider_web_Luc_Viatour.jpg (cc-by-sa/GFDL)

• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Endive_p1160063.jpg (cc-by-sa 2.0 /GFDL)

• http://www.xkcd.com/256/• http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Image:Merton_College_library_hall.jpg (cc-by-sa 2.0 /GFDL)