Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-10-17/In the news

In the news

Wikipedia is top reference site

A news release from Nielsen//NetRatings (a division of Nielsen Ratings) notes "Wikipedia, the group-edited Web encyclopedia, ranked as the No. 1 fastest growing educational reference site, attracting nearly 13 million unique Web users in September 2005. The free online tool hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, grew 289 percent in year-over-year growth" (see related story). The story was carried in ZDNet and numerous other technology-oriented news outlets. [1]

TIME mentions Wikipedia in cover story

The October 16 cover story for TIME magazine, "The Road Ahead" (newsstand date October 24), is a round table discussion with publisher Tim O'Reilly, author Mark Dery, musician Moby, CNET editor Esther Dyson, New York Times columnist David Brooks, technology consultant Clay Shirky, and author Malcolm Gladwell.

In the opening paragraph, TIME asks "What innovation will most alter how we live in the next few years?" O'Reilly answers, "Collective intelligence. Think of how Wikipedia works, how Amazon harnesses user annotation on its site, the way photo-sharing sites like Flickr are bleeding out into other applications. I think we're at the first stages of something that will be profoundly different from anything we have seen before, in terms of the ability of connected computers to deliver results. We're entering an era in which software learns from its users and all of the users are connected."

Ward Cunningham discusses wikis in speech

Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki, discussed the future of the technology in his keynote speech at the WikiSym conference on October 17.

Cunningham said, "The web has been an experiment in anonymity, conscious design of low level protocols. Lots of identity infrastructure has been created to make it an online shopping mall, which makes it unpleasant for all of us because the machinery isn’t that great. Result: people can and do trust works produced by people they don’t know. The real world is still trying to figure out how Wikipedia works. A fantastic resource. Open source is produced by people that you can’t track down, but you can trust it in very deep ways. People can trust works by people they don’t know in this low communication cost environment." (Rough transcription, WikiSym site)

Jimbo Wales will also be giving a talk at the symposium on October 18.

Edit war draws media attention

A minor row on the Wright Amendment article is reported on by the Associated Press (see related story). [2]

Brief mentions

The British Columbian alternative newspaper The Tyee (named for the tyee salmon) published "A Neo-Techie's Morning" on October 11, describing how contributing to Wikipedia is a part of one person's daily online routine.

InformationWeek published "Wikipedia Meets Google Maps In Web Site" and Search Engine Watch published "Mapping Places in Wikipedia" on October 13. Both noted the growth of Placeopedia, a mapping application using Wikipedia as a source (see archived story).