The World and Wikipedia: How We Are Editing Reality
Look at any article on Wikipedia. Who wrote it? Where did it come from? Now look more closely, at those unconvincing, badly written sentences in the middle. Why did someone add them? How long will it be before someone else deletes them? And how many people will have read them before they are removed?\ Five years ago such questions didn't matter, because Wikipedia was one source among many, and no one took it very seriously. Two years ago they hardly mattered, because the newspapers said...
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Take any article on Wikipedia. Who wrote it? Where did it come from? Now take a closer look at those unconvincing, badly written sentences in the middle. Why did someone add them? How long will it be before someone else deletes them? And how many people will have read them before they are removed? Five years ago such questions didn't matter; Wikipedia was one source among many, and no one took it very seriously. Two years ago they hardly mattered, because the newspapers said Wikipedia couldn't be trusted, and there was always a more 'reliable' source to check later. But suddenly, these questions really do matter. With all its nonsense, its illiteracy and its unreliability, Wikipedia is currently the eighth most visited site on the web. Whatever they say, most people rely on it most of the time. Those other sources won't be around much longer, and Wikipedia will be the best there is. But is it good enough to rule the world of knowledge? And how big will it be ten years from now?
Prologue 7Chapter 1 Wikipedians at work 8Chapter 2 Where it came from 19Chapter 3 Why they hate it 50Chapter 4 Why you use it 82Chapter 5 Why we love it 114Chapter 6 Chaos and beyond; or Why we love it version 2.5 148Chapter 7 Why you don't trust Wikipedia 174Chapter 8 Why you will trust Wikipedia 196Authors note 226Endnotes 228Bibliography 241Index of usernames 247General index 250
