"So, picture a moment when a new source of information comes online, turns into a go-to for people everywhere, sometimes to the chagrin of professors and bosses, but becomes a household name and really changes the internet. So we're doing AI again. Actually I am talking about Wikipedia, the online crowdsourced encyclopedia, which for a long time generated a lot of skepticism, but today is actually seen as a pretty trusted source of information. It's an example of an organization that actually created something positive on the internet."
"And I think the point of Wikipedia is that you could have gone in there yourself and corrected the entry about your dad and listed proper citations to prove that your facts were true. And I think Wales makes that point. He created an organization with a defined purpose, where everyone who works on it has clear rules of engagement. And as a result it creates a good product."
Wikipedia grew from skepticism into a widely used, trusted, crowdsourced encyclopedia by enabling open editing, transparent corrections, and community oversight. Users can directly correct entries and add citations, allowing inaccuracies to be fixed more quickly than in static print media. The platform’s reliability depends on a clear purpose, defined rules of engagement, and governance structures that guide contributor behavior. These organizational design elements cultivate accountability, quality control, and scalability. The model demonstrates how participatory systems with explicit norms and purpose can produce durable, trust-based public goods and inform leadership choices for building lasting institutions online.
Read at Harvard Business Review
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