Public Side of Wiki

Wiki is by nature public. Wiki, you might think is all about sharing freely, and loving the limelight, praising the openess. But this is not so. Wiki has a private side.

More than that the Private Side of Wiki is essential to the way wiki works. It is not just an add-on. It is not an accessory to be discarded or only worn on special occasions. Privacy rather, is the soul of wiki.

True what we write in wiki is licensed openly. She is a free culture agent. And we are proud when our writing swims through the federation, possibly never to return. These are public things you may argue. This is the internet after all.

Nor are we talking about the political notion (however vital) regarding decentralisation, and the ability to run wiki locally behind firewalls and using server-less protected protocols. All very good. But that is not the way in which wiki is public, nor how she is private.

She is not private because she is insecure. She is not private because she demands the right to personal space. Wiki is private precisely because she needs to share something important.

Indeed wiki is public. It is designed to be as public as possible, but here we need to be careful. The emphasis is on "as possible". For what happens when we pour our souls into an anonymous public sphere?

Wiki understands the danger of public good. She cannot abide selling her insights to the highest bidder. Her children are not for sale. And out there in the free market, everything is for sale.

Wiki has instead a different understanding of public. She is strategic.

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Interesting (I have to think more about this).