Wikipedia Revolution

Thursday, March 26, 2009

How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World’s Greatest Encyclopedia

Wikipedia revolution A book released today by Andrew Lih chronicles the story of Wikipedia. The timing is great - it seems more and more like Wikipedia is almost “finished”. Not that it will stop changing and growing, but the bulk of steady content it needs to be great is there. It’s the 9th most visited web site on the Internet (thanks in large part to Google bumping it to the top of most search results) and there’s talk of publishing sections of it with real paper.

A write-up in the Baltimore Sun summarizes Andrew Ratner’s review:

The Wikipedia Revolution is a bit geeky in stretches, but overall is a fascinating reminder that the Web tools we depend on now as if they’ve always been around were hatched in anonymity not long ago by people not looking to turn a quick buck. Too bad they weren’t running some of our mortgage lenders, too.

I look forward to reading it. The book can be purchased at Amazon.