This page is part of the Proceedings of Wikimania 2006 (Index of presentations)

Consensus as a Governing Principle: Does Consensus Scale?

Author Kelly Martin
Track Projects and Content
License GNU Free Documentation License (details)
About the author
Kelly Martin is currently an editor and administrator for the English Wikipedia. See also her userpage. She served as an Arbitrator for the English Wikipedia from October 2005 to January 2006. She has been involved in Wikimedia projects, primarily the English Wikipedia, since 2004.
Abstract
A discussion on the difficulties faced by large projects (e.g. English Wikipedia, Deutsche Wikipedia) in trying to use "consensus" as a governing principle in managing the community. Is the trend to interpret "consensus" as a requirement for a supermajority of those expressing an opinion healthy? Should major policy decisions be made by all interested persons or by selected leadership? Does the lack of an explicit social hierarchy lead to cabalism? What can be done about this? What should be done about this?
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