untangling_the_web

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fourteen thousand hits per second."n Just what is the Wikipedia itself and the wiki
concept in general that have led to a level of success that is nothing short of
astounding? For an excellent overview, I turn to my colleague Diane White's article
from an internal publication many of you read, The WorthWhile Web. In the May
2006 edition, Diane wrote:
"In true Ouroborosian fashion, the Wikipedia defines itself as a 'multilingual Webbased
free-content encyclopedia ...written collaboratively by volunteers, allowing
most articles to be changed by anyone with access to a web browser and an Internet
connection.' It exists as a wiki, which again Wikipedia self-defines as 'a type of
website that allows anyone visiting the site to add, remove or otherwise edit all
content very quickly and easily, often without the need for registration.' Truly
collaboration to the extreme, wikis are the latest trend in open-ended community
involvement and public debate. But it also conjures fears of authority and validity run
amok, and general mischief and vandalism. Wikis are popping up everywhere; but
just what are they , and how did they become so ubiquitous? More to the point, can
they be trusted, or are they just the work of a few people with big egos and lots of
time? ..The term wiki is a shortened form of the Hawaiian language term wiki wiki,
which is commonly used as an adjective to denote something quick or fast. It is also
sometimes interpreted as the backronym for What I Know Is. The invention of the
wiki is credited to Ward Cunningham, author of the book, The Wiki Way (Addison­
Wesley Longman, March 2001 , ISBN 0-201-71499-X). The first wiki, WikiWikiWeb,
was created in 1994 and installed on the web by Cunningham in 1995. 73
"Once begun, almost anyone can edit a wiki, often without actually registering to do
so. Wikis can be on any subject, on every subject, and in multiple languages. The
most famous wiki, Wikipedia , was begun in 2001, initially as part of a broader, peerreviewed
project and later as a stand-alone, 'neutral point of view' product. Guided
from the beginning by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales, today it is available in over
100 languages, with over 1 million articles in the English edition alone ...
"Questions of Validity and Reliability
"But can Wikis be trusted? From almost the beginning, people have questioned the
wiki's seemingly radical departure from traditional methods of scholarship; that is,
the use of a community of interested parties instead of the work of appointed
experts. In the December 2005 issue of Nature , there began a major debate over
which site was more 'right,' Wikipedia or the fee-based ($85/year) Britannica Online;
with the conclusion being that 'Wikipedia comes close to Britannica in terms of the
72 Stacy Shiff, "Can Wikipedia Conquer Expertise?" The New Yorker, 24 July 2006,
(14 November 2006) .
73 "Wikipedia," Wikipedia: The Free Encycloped ia, (23
August 2006).
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