[OSM-talk] Offline Dump of the Wiki

Richard Fairhurst richard at systemed.net
Tue Nov 17 11:28:06 GMT 2009


Tom Hughes wrote:
> I can't for the life of me think what sort of research would require 
> a copy of the wiki though.

I believe the project in question is known as "Infinite Number Of
Crowdsourced Monkeys". The project methodology can be summarised as follows:

Sit 5,000 monkeys in front of typewriters. The typewriters are standard
Olivetti issue, rescued from a landfill in the Alto Adige area, but have
been customised with three extra buttons: "I approve of this proposal", "I
disapprove of this proposal", "This proposal has not been formulated
according to the rules".

Assess how long it takes for the monkeys to do any of the following:

a) break the typewriters due to repeatedly hammering the same page of text
b) throw the typewriters at each other
c) gang up on any monkey who is not using the three extra buttons in the
prescribed fashion
d) demand that the typewriter technology is improved, because clearly that's
what's stopping any useful output from being produced

The original assessment criteria also included e) produce any worthwhile
content, and f) go outside and do something useful.

e) has been removed after a pilot experiment resulted in identical meaning
from a week's worth of monkeys and a 'control' comprising 5,000 pages of
lorem ipsum. Similarly, f) was abandoned after no monkey even made a single
step towards the door during the pilot week, all of them remaining
transfixed on their typewriters. The door has now been firmly bolted from
the outside to stop any of the monkeys escaping.

cheers
Richard
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