To take advantage, or even respect the content of wiki, you need effort. It is not designed to be immediately accessible, and through continued puzzled use, I have come to think that this aspect of wiki may strangely be a core social feature.
Let's look at some of the qualities you need when coming to a wiki page for the first time. You need to: - trust or otherwise judge the source - dismiss the informality - seek to question and explore - feel unthreatened by doubt
This is demanding stuff. It is also interesting because it reframes the notion of elitism, not based on position and privilege, but on a willingness to spend time, while remaining in a position of uncomfortable questioning.
The ease of use of wiki, and the dynamic concepts of neighbourhood, and data from multiple origins - these ideas are woven together. Is it incidental that this attracts certain types of writer? Is it desirable that others are (without any hint of force), repelled?
When thinking about social groups, or the Social life of text, we often refer to biological metaphors - of semi-permeable membranes, and cells, or pods. This thought soup excludes certain chemicals, while allowing others to pass through unhindered.
Do we remove commercial incentives in order to write more truthfully? Do we encourage forms of accreditation to make the writing more sociable? In wiki we write text and software to juggle these conflicting forces. We are cooking with complex social ingredients, and different groups will create their own cultures in code and in content.