prasad1
Active member
[h=2]Wikipedia, which will turn 15 next year, can attribute its success to the unique way in which it combines free information with user convenience[/h]
In 2000, Encyclopaedia Britannica recorded its largest annual sales. A mere 12 years later, the brand had decided to stop printing copies of its eponymous product. Its audience had not only moved online, but moved to other sources altogether. It was an astonishingly rapid decline for a brand that held pride of place in intellectual traditions of the English-speaking world for nearly 250 years. Behind this change in consumer preference were the usual suspects: affordable PCs and broadband Internet access in homes. There was also an additional, if much less celebrated, technology that did Britannica in — the humble Wiki, which is the technology that powers Wikipedia, the open encyclopedia that anyone with an Internet connection can edit and improve.
A Wiki is a webpage (or application, if you are a purist) that makes editing and managing the page’s content easy. By having just a few simple rules to format text and link pages, Wikis are highly effective at allowing even novice users to quickly build on any topic with neatly organised collections of information. The very first Wiki was launched in 1994 by Howard G. Cunningham in the U.S. for storing his company’s technical knowledge base. When released to the outside world, Wikis were an instant hit among technologists as they were an easy way of creating and maintaining documentation. Through the 90s, their use remained limited to geeks. Then, in 2001, Wikipedia happened.
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By devolving editorial responsibility to the community, Wikipedia has hit upon an inclusive and scalable operating model. But Wikipedia is no intellectual utopia. With openness, freedom and success comes the need for ever more vigilance. Vandals are everywhere, and Wikipedia is not immune from them. To provide a layer of oversight, Wikipedia has over the years evolved an elaborate hierarchy of roles with varying administrative privilege. Trust is earned by actions over time, and is rewarded with more responsibility and power. But, as we learnt recently in the astonishing case of a user named ‘Wifione’ with alleged links to the much discussed Indian Institute of Planning and Management, highly motivated users with vested interests can still compromise the integrity of the site. This is one of the complaints Wikipedia’s critics have against it. Does that mean Wikipedia is doomed? I think not.
Information wants to be free. And users choose convenience over everything else, all the time. Wikipedia, warts and all, represents the dizzying cocktail that comes from combining these two factors. As long as the core team ensures fairness and stays true to its democratic principles, Wikipedia will continue to thrive.
Open encyclopedia Wikipedia turns 15 Encyclopaedia Britannica - The Hindu
