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Wikimania and WikiIndex in the local news

2. August 2006 • MarkDilley
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Our own Larry Kestenbaum’s picture graces the pages of the Detroit Freepress. The article is about this weekends Wikimania conference in Boston (which I will be attending, anyone else?).

He compares Wikipedia to “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” the often-flippant, always-friendly electronic encyclopedia from the Douglas Adams novel of the same name. That too was compiled by correspondents from all over the universe.

What is also really exciting is the mention in the sidebar of a project I work on, WikiIndex. Yea!

>Check out other Michigan wiki



  1. Wikepedia is great! Did you know that the population of elephants in Africa has tripled in the last six months?


       —Terence    Aug. 2 '06 - 07:24PM    #

  2. Funny how one TV show mention can insite hundreds of internet users to jokingly alter a serious site such as Wiki. Great theory in concept, but how will it pan out as it grows?

    Lesser visited topics can easily be left with wrong or irrelevent information.


       —Ross J    Aug. 3 '06 - 12:58AM    #

  3. Yes, but the entry moderators clamped down on it right away and prevented senseless changes; I think it shows the strength of the system.


       —Dale    Aug. 3 '06 - 01:38AM    #

  4. I agree, with the growth it will get stronger and stronger. However, in the mean time there is still chance for incorrect information by lesser searched topics.

    For example, earlier this year I made a page for a friend of mine who used to be a famous ice skater on wikipedia. Now the entry is quite out of date in terms of his career choices – yet it still lists the (now) incorrect information because I havnt’ had time to re-write it.


       —Ross J    Aug. 6 '06 - 08:50PM    #

  5. At Wikimania right now, and a big theme is to start adding quality to Wikipedia, thus moving away from quantity.


       —Mark    Aug. 6 '06 - 11:12PM    #