Wikipedia Is Designed from Trust

Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia curated by volunteers, is the easiest story to tell when explaining Design from Trust.

Much of this story revolves around openness, one of the key aspects of trustworthy behavior. For example, the content in Wikipedia is open: anyone is free to reuse it. The software that runs Wikipedia is open source: volunteers have improved it over time, and anyone can use it to start their own wiki.

Perhaps most importantly, Wikipedia’s process involves collaboration, wiki style. That means many different people can edit the pages on Wikipedia, without requesting prior consent, or even being given authority to make changes. Wikis are an organized free-for-all.

That’s why Wikipedia often provokes a pretty visceral reaction when people first realize how it works.

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