- How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia
I recently readjusted my circadian rhythm again this past weekend, so I ended up awakening at the always fun hour of 2am on a Saturday evening (or Sunday twilight if you prefer). So, after washing up, making a sandwich, and deciding whether I wanted to read, get sports highlights online, or watch TV, I chose the latter.
I eventually ended up on C Span-2 for the first time, and I got drawn into this collegiate discussion about the origins and impact of Wikipedia. It was a lecture provided by Author Andrew Lih, with aid and questions added by The Professor, at Harvard University. Although the program was this weekly series called "BookTV", and it was broadcast on C Span, it was an absolutely riveting two-hour explanation of Wikipedia throughout the world. Although I have not yet read the book, I eagerly intend to after the performance I was witness to because of the televised program.
I'll let the Author persuade you as well:
Lih provided great insight into how the community started, spread, sometimes failed, and otherwise revolutionized how a vast portion of the internet population received their information. He compared the original US Wikipedia, which house nearly 3 million articles to date, to the more meticulously-moderated German version's 900,000 articles, which is more respected by higher institutions & universities in Europe because of the integral work by the staff to maintain the integrity of Wikipedia as a "true internet encyclopedia"; it then goes to the story of the heated-outrage that the Spanish Wiki's community took in hearing a subtle rumor that the site might possibly consider advertisements to help pay for the upkeep, and the subsequent abandonment of the site by nearly all top Spanish contributors, to the anonymous playground that is the Japanese site. He also retells the story of
Essjay controversy, why there are
inclusionists & deletionists, and makes quite a handful of candid remarks about Wikipedia's exploding popularity, and how it was known in certain subsects as "The Definitive Guide to Pokémon".
Here is the official youtube introduction to the program,
as I found it was just uploaded yesterday.
from Joho The Blog:
Quote:
"I just read Andrew Lih’s The Wikipedia Revolution, in preparation for an interview I’m doing on March 25 for the Berkman Center. It will be held in Griswold Hall, room 110. (Actually, the actual location hasn’t been announced yet. But somewhere at Harvard.) It’s a terrific book.
Andrew tells the story historically, providing tons of context and background. As the title makes clear, he thinks Wikipedia is epochally important, but the book isn’t about touting Wikipedia and gesticulating towards its implications. Rather, given that Wikipedia is at least rather interesting, how did it get there? The simple story we’ve heard so frequently — it’s the encyclopedia we all wrote in our spare time — masks a complex mix of personality, theory, politics, social interaction, software and hardware. Andrew doesn’t shy away from the controversies and tells the story from a neutral point of view … neutral given that he implicitly thinks Wikipedia is overall pretty awesome. In that he mirrors Wikipedia itself: It is (overall) neutral given that the contributors agree that a group-authored encyclopedia that aims for NPOV is worth working on.
If you want to understand Wikipedia, I highly recommend this book, especially in tandem with How Wikipedia Works by Phoebe Ayers, Charles Matthews, and Ben Yates, a terrific and detailed explanation of the intricacies of Wikipedia’s structure, ethos, rules, and hierarchy."
|
And again, The Professor speaks, and provides recaps for those who might've missed the show:
Quote:
|
"C-SPAN’s monumentally, overwhelmingly, epically popular series, BookTV, this week is broadcasting the Berkman session with Andrew Lih on his The Wikipedia Revolution that I moderated. Andrew speaks for a few minutes, then I interview him, then the audience asks questions. I thought Andrew’s presentation was terrific, and the audience asked good questions. It’s on Sunday, May 3, at 12:30 AM, Sunday, May 24, at 4:30 PM and — for those for whom twice isn’t enough — at Monday, May 25, at 4:30 AM."
|