On 18/11/2007, at 9:13 PM, John Elliot wrote:
So... the question to ask isn't "How can I take advantage?" but "How can I help!?"
The "question" you speak of needs to incorporate both.Any successful system needs to "take advantage" (heh) of the base human desire to acquire (eg. information on Wikipedia). An even more successful system will trivialise the process of contribution, such that it can get even more people on board, of which a small percentage of them will selflessly contribute. As much as it would be nice, not all people are altruistic. Unless a system recognises this and factors it into how that system operates, it will less successful than one which does.
What percentage of people contribute articles to Wikipedia, and torrents to Bittorrent trackers? My guess is bugger all. But by giving *everyone else* the ability to "take advantage" of the contributed material, you end up with a peer review process for Wikipedia and a peering network for Bittorrent.
So despite people being selfish, everyone wins. Cheers, -- Nathan de Vries
Attachment:
smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME cryptographic signature