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 all public things you may argue. This is the internet after all. But the internet was not always so.
Nor are we talking about the political notion (however vital) regarding decentralisation, and our ability to run wiki locally behind firewalls, 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.
It goes without saying that wiki is public. Wiki 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, or a global market of attention? What values then enter the 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 our free market, everything is for sale.
Wiki has instead a different understanding of public. She is strategic. For wiki to be public means to take what she values in the private sphere, to protect it, and to create a public space where these ideas can flourish.
She federates her value. She protects and flatters her authors, and she encourages and gently incentives the free flow of ideas.
Wiki loves diversity. She cannot abide a monolith. Her pubic space is not one of consensus, nor will she flatter the vain. It is respectful, thoughtful dialogue that she promotes and encourages.
To write publicly in wiki is not like any form of writing you have experienced before. Writing with Strangers is not familiar. In the history of human writing we have lost the art of conversation. Stories that were once told, and spread orally have turned into enterprises. An author has become a brand.
If blogging is self-promotion, then shared collaborative writing is the commune, then wiki is neither of those, or perhaps a bit of both. Vibrant and at times antagonistic, Wikipedia competes with her authors to produce a commons - a common good where the author is lost, sitting on the periphery of the wisdom of crowds. But wiki is not Wikipedia.
Communal writing, though the most familiar, is not the only form wiki takes. Wiki can and should be federated. There are many ways to reach consensus, and consensus is not the base for all forms of decision making. Instead why not protect the base - the core values of the author striving to find creative dialogue with others. From this base many forms of collaboration can evolve.
There are many publics out their. Some still to be born. Many fragile, unnoticed. In the clamour for scale, much value is lost. To filter and select the finest ingredients, a supermarket is not always the wisest choice.