wikipedia news

Publishing the Wiki Way* Wired has a long feature from Daniel Pink on the making of the Wikipedia, the online "open source" encyclopedia that taps the unpaid efforts of thousands to create (and continuously refine) a comprehensive encyclopedia that now has over 1 million articles (built for a total cost of about $500,000). As Pink notes, "The One for All model has delivered solid results in a remarkably short time. Look up any topic you know something about...and you'll probably find that the Wikipedia entry is, if not perfect, not bad.... And among the nearly half-million articles are tens of thousands whose quality easily rivals that of Britannica or Encarta."Inherently self-correcting, the it's structured so that "making changes is so simple that who prevails often comes down to who cares more. And hardcore Wikipedians care. A lot." While even some of the creators it may not quite measure up to vetted traditional products, it's free, constantly refreshed, and always improving.As the enterprise grows (much like Craig's List), there are spin-offs and more commercial iterations, including WikiCities for people to share particular passions. It's easy to envision other subject areas--like travel or food, for which you can already find disparate but interesting collections of user reviews--adapting to a similar model over time.Wired