One of the main aspects of my research about Wikipedia as an emergent system consists in detecting the parallelisms between its wiki peer-production model and the way developers and software interact and evolve in collaborative Open Source environments.

If we consider, for example, that the first Wiki Wiki was conceived by an expert in extreme programming (and not for creating an encyclopaedia, but a repository for programming design patterns), we could begin to wonder until what extent is that tool determined by some kind of hacker’s philosophy (still 12 years after being appropriated and adapted for collaborative work in many different informational contexts). In fact, Jimmy Wales himself recognizes some Eric Raymond’s The cathedral and the bazaar influence.

With this aim, I created the following table in order to detect and validate similar features, routines, proceedings and characteristics between Wikipedia and some OS projects. The dark-orange backgrounds and the right column were added for some feedback I managed to get during a presentation I had the opportunity to give at Wikimania 2007.

If you’re familiar with FLOSS development and wikis, I will appreciate if you can leave some feedback (rather than here, at the same table prepared for open research purposes at Wikiversity).