All I really knew was that I had found the perfect place on the perfect wave, and I had remained there endlessly. Forever.
Allan Weisbecker, from In Search of Captain Zero: A Surfer’s Road Trip Beyond the End of the Road.
The Times tells us today that swathes of Wikipedia’s editors are going ‘dead’ – i.e., abandoning the site. Worse, they’re not being replaced, for it seems that the Wikipedia bubble may have burst. As the Times puts it: “Research reveals that the volunteers who create the pages, check facts and adapt the site are abandoning the site in unprecedented numbers.”
Do Wikipedia’s troubles herald a new phase for the interent? Will the free online encyclopaedia live to fight another day? No one can say, for social media changes in the blink of an eye, but here at Swordplay we’ve always been fans of Wikipedia. We are heartened to note, again from the Times, that a “recent study suggested that its pieces were just as accurate as those in the Encyclopaedia Britannica“, and will continue to commend Wikipedia. Its collaborative, democratic essence still speaks of all that is estimable in the Web 2.0 world.
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Posted: Nov 25th, 2009 at 9:00 pm |
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Wikipedia, with a 97% share of the online encyclopedia market, has forced Microsoft to shut down Encarta. How long will it be before Wikipedia claims the prize scalp of Encyclopaedia Britannica? Over the next year or so we will see the continued demise of Britannica as it becomes ever less relevant in a free market, Wikipedia-dominated landscape. |
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