[LINK] "open content" encyclopedia on the web

Tue, 23 Oct 2001 09:13:33 +1000

Linkers

I wonder if they know this was tried back about 6 years ago. There 
was a news group established to plan it but it sputtered out. This 
seem to be a more credible attempt.

Tony

>
>Date:         Mon, 22 Oct 2001 00:11:57 +0200
>Reply-To: Digital Libraries Research mailing list 
><DIGLIB@INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA>
>Sender: Digital Libraries Research mailing list 
><DIGLIB@INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA>
>From: Lars Aronsson <lars@ARONSSON.SE>
>Subject:      Re: DLs in UK
>Comments: cc: lsanger@nupedia.com, jwales@bomis.com, Roy Tennant
>           <roy.tennant@UCOP.EDU>
>To: DIGLIB@INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA
>
>The Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com/) is a groundbreaking effort
>to establish an "open content" (as in open source / free software)
>encyclopedia on the web.  If "Project Gutenberg" is a digital library,
>then Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia.  How many literature
>scholars does it take to point out that Project Gutenberg has too
>little quality control?  (Nobody knows yet, they keep pouring in.)
>Well, at least PG does have some quality control.  Wikipedia has a web
>page per article, and there is a link that allows any reader to edit
>the article in a simple web form!  This technology is know as "Wiki"
>(hence the name Wikipedia) and was started seven years ago, by one
>Ward Cunningham who has now written a book ("The Wiki Way", Addison
>Wesley) on the topic.  Originally used by object-oriented programmers
>for their own needs of collaboratively edited hypertext documentation,
>Wiki technology is now spreading to new uses.  Including Wikipedia.
>
>Dreams of a publicly available digital encyclopedia are not new.  Both
>Project Gutenberg and UM's highly respected Making of America project
>have nurtured plans to digitize the old 11th edition of Encyclopaedia
>Britannica.  Many projects to compile encyclopedic websites have also
>started, including Ed Zalta's "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy"
>(http://plato.stanford.edu/).  Another project is the "Nupedia"
>(http://www.nupedia.com/), started last year by Larry Sanger and San
>Diego entrepreneur Jimmy Wales.  The Nupedia, publishing only a
>handful of articles every month, might be written off by some as a
>failure, blamed on its overly strict editorial process.  But success
>comes from the ability to learn from one's mistakes.  In February this
>year, Larry and Jimmy started a second project, the Wikipedia, where
>the editorial process is left out in favor of the instant reward of
>seeing your own contribution immediately becoming part of the
>knowledge base.  I joined the Wikipedia project as a volunteer this
>May, when it contained a total of 6,000 articles.  Still, there was no
>article on San Francisco, so I took the opportunity to write a short
>one.  Later, others have improved it substantially
>(http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/San_Francisco).  Today, there are over
>13,000 articles written in the Wikipedia, many of them contain
>substantial information and the collection is starting to become
>useful as a source of knowledge.  Of course there are still
>embarrassing holes (http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/Asia) and some
>articles might contain incorrect information.  Various schemes to add
>quality control or peer review processes to this collection (by
>readers' votes?) are discussed on the Wikipedia mailing list.  This
>upside-down way to publish encyclopedia articles as they are written,
>and maybe apply quality control later, indeed has its parallels in
>current projects for electronic publishing of scientific journals.
>
>Those who need a useful encyclopedia right now, should probably buy a
>subscription to the online Britannica.  Those who want to study how
>unpaid volunteers can self-organize and work together to create a
>collection of 13,000 interlinked articles in less than a year, should
>take a look at Wikipedia right now.  Next year will be too late - it
>might be a useful product by then.  The evolution takes place now.
>
>
>This Friday, Roy Tennant wrote:
>>  This lack of a common understanding of what "digital library" means
>  > manifests itself in any number of ways, not the least being the
>
>The Wikipedia is waiting for your definition:
>
>     http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/Library
>     http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/Digital_library
>
>The Wikipedia project has also spun off a number of "international"
>clones in languages other than English.  All of these are still in
>their infancy.  I'm also starting my own break-out project for a
>Swedish language dictionary (http://susning.nu/), but I intend to link
>it to the English and German versions of the Wikipedia.
>
>
>--
>   Lars Aronsson (lars@aronsson.se)
>   Aronsson Datateknik
>   Teknikringen 1e, SE-583 30 Linköping, Sweden
>   tel +46-70-7891609
>   http://aronsson.se
>
>
>******************************************************************
>Sun Microsystems, Inc. has published the second edition of its
>popular "Digital Library Toolkit", a valuable resource for anyone
>planning a digital collection. To download a free copy, go to:
>
>
>http://www.sun.com/products-n-solutions/edu/libraries/digitaltoolkit.html
>
>
>******************************************************************

-- 
phone  +61 2 6241 7659
mailto:me@Tony-Barry.emu.id.au
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