Collaborative Encyclopedia

What am I doing here? Deciding what to write in this blog and trying not to sound self-conscious about it all. Adding to myriad links to the same thing like the Wikipedia controversy but then feeling like it’s just more of the same so why am I going to link to it now or even mention it especially as NO ONE SEEMS TO BE READING THIS THING ANYWAY.

But maybe someone does stumble by and I mentioned that controversy and maybe they haven’t heard about it. So start here with Robert McHenry’s The Faith-Based Encyclopedia, a caustic review of the Wikipedia, then link to Tim Bray’s response, Sad. Finally read Ross Mayfield’s Wikipedia Reputation and the Wemedia Project which summarizes much of the controversy around the ‘pedia. And of course, browse the Wikipedia itself!

I really like what Tim Bray had to say about Wikipedia:

The Wikipedia is beautiful. It’s an unexpected and unexplainable triumph of collective creativity and of order over entropy. I hope it lasts a long time, and those who criticize it Just Don’t Get It.

Exactly.

Flash! Mary and I did some minor editing of the ASL page at ‘pedia. Mary, the more beautiful half of our relationship, is an ASL interpreter.