Whence Cometh Wikipedia?
Did you ever wonder where Wikipedia came from? How it *bang!* appeared on the internets as a trusted source for knowledge varied and, relative to much of what you'll find in your average web-search, comprehensive and relevant, not to mention linked to the gills?
Well New Scientist just posted an interview with the founder of the online encyclopedia, Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales. The following is a snippet about his background and you can click this post's title, "Profile" or the blue insert (from the NS site) for the brief but very interesting interview.
ProfileAfter attending a tiny school run by his mother and grandmother in Huntsville, Alabama, Jimmy Wales took a degree in finance at Auburn University and completed part of a PhD in finance at the University of Alabama. From 1994 to 2000, he was a research director with a futures and options trader in Chicago. He soon noticed that computer programming was making megabucks for outfits like Netscape, and after making some money of his own he jacked his job in to work on internet ventures.
I did a post last year on the Colbert-term "wikiality", defined as reality based on majority rule, or an item being factual as long as not disputed. I do think it is as accurate as the Encyclopaedia Britannica, whatever that is worth, especially if you had last year's set! (do they even bother to print encyclopedias anymore?).
ReplyDeleteIts frightening what possibilities for fraud are out there for wikipedia, but for the most part, I have found it to be accurate. How long that will last....who knows.
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