WEEK5: NGUYEN DUC DUY - Authority Through Respect

 This week’s reading on the “benevolent dictator”  really made me think about leadership in open communities. Even though Wikipedia is built on volunteer contributions and consensus, Jimmy Wales can step in autocratically when necessary, like protecting articles from harmful attacks, what the chapter calls authorial leadership. This form of leadership isn’t about holding an official title but about earning respect through contributions, persuasion, and setting examples. What struck me most was the idea of idiosyncrasy credits: a leader’s reputation allows occasional unilateral decisions, but exceeding that can damage trust and even cause the community to fork. I also found the comparison with Larry Sanger fascinating, how Sanger’s more direct, “bad cop” style led to tension, while Wales’ subtle, “good cop” approach shaped Wikipedia’s collaborative culture. It’s interesting to see how leadership in such a massive volunteer project relies less on rules and more on values like patience, civility, and highlighting the work of others. One question that comes to mind is how new open communities can cultivate this kind of influence without an initial “founder’s authority.” Can respect, mediation, and adherence to norms alone establish effective leadership, or is early authorship essential? This tension between authority and openness seems central to any collaborative project.

Comments

  1. LEE JOOWONApril 5, 2026 at 5:04 AM

    I sympathize with the content of the tension between authority and openness. In this regard, I think the authority of the early founder plays an important role. If there is no clear standard based on authority in the early days of a community, decision-making may take a long time or conflict with standards. Clear standards established at the beginning of a community will eventually serve as an opportunity for the community's authority and openness to be harmonized.

    ReplyDelete
  2. wyyz02April 14, 2026 at 12:00 AM

    I really enjoyed reading your post. Your discussion of “authorial leadership” and the balance between authority and openness in Wikipedia is very thoughtful. I especially found your explanation of how respect and contributions can build influence more convincing than formal authority.
    The comparison between Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger is also very interesting, as it clearly shows how different leadership styles can shape the culture of a community. Your reflection highlights how important values like patience and civility are in maintaining collaboration in large-scale projects like Wikipedia.
    Overall, this is a well-structured and insightful analysis of leadership in open communities.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to the blog

 This blog is a digital forum where students from Collective Intelligence in Practice: Understanding Wikipedia at the Hanyang University in Korea (2026) will discuss their weekly readings and activities. Each week you are expected to post a blog post on our blog and make a comment on another student's post. You can do so on one of the following three topics: a) You can blog about the readings for the next week. As you are expected to do the assigned readings FOR the lectures they are assigned to, you are expected to post your blog and comments BEFORE that lecture. An ideal commentary should be about half a page in length (~200 words), divided into three clearly labeled sections in which you: 1) summarize in your own words of materials you read; 2) mention any new, interesting, or unusual items learned; 3) identify at least one question, concern, or discussion angle that is either problematic in some respect or could have been elaborated more. This question is likely to be...
Read more

WEEK2— WANG SIWEN

During this week, I made 15 edits on Wikipedia and also created a new personal sandbox. Most of my edits focused on adding new content and translating information between different language versions of articles. Through this process, I tried to make the content clearer and more accessible to readers from different language backgrounds. In addition, I created a new sandbox to practice editing and organize my ideas before publishing them on the main article pages. The sandbox allowed me to test formatting and translation structures more carefully, which helped me avoid mistakes in public articles. This week’s editing experience helped me understand that translation on Wikipedia is not simply changing words from one language to another. It also requires attention to accuracy, context, and neutrality so that the information remains reliable and consistent with Wikipedia’s standards. Overall, this week’s work helped me improve my editing and translation skills, and it also gave me a deeper ...
Read more

WEEK2 ——edits on Wikipedia

During this week, I made several edits on Wikipedia. My main work was adding citations to some sentences that lacked sources in order to improve the reliability of the article content. For example, I added citations from gaming media websites for descriptions of the influence of characters in the Resident Evil series, and also supplemented official sources for the feature introduction of the Origin platform. These edits can be seen in my Wikipedia contributions history. User contributions for Wjyy1212 - Wikipedia  While editing these pages, I learned about some content I hadn't noticed before. For instance, how digital gaming platforms like Origin operate—players no longer need physical discs after purchasing a game but can download it directly through their account. This reflects the development trend in the gaming industry from physical distribution to digital distribution.In addition, the influence of game characters should not be underestimated.  I also have questions I wo...
Read more