Wikimedia Foundation Gets $3 Million Grant
The News Review:
- Wikimedia Foundation Gets $3 Million Grant
- The McDonaldization f The Internet
- The power of many
Wikimedia Foundation Gets $3 Million Grant
InformationWeek – Mar 27, 2008
“Wikipedia represents a quantum leap in collecting human knowledge from diverse sources organizing it without commercial or other bias and making it freely available to people everywhere” Weber said in a statement. The grant will help support a new software feature that will allow experienced editors to grade the quality of articles. Wikimedia said the labels or “Flagged Revisions” would be akin to nutrition labeling.
The McDonaldization f The Internet
WebProNews – Mar 27, 2008
) utside of those parenthetical whispers it looks like a bit has changed in two years. What hasn’t changed: Google sends Wikipedia over half of its traffic but this is down three percent from two years ago and surfers continue on to authority sites afterward either by returning to Google or by floating on to computers-and-internet-focused sites entertainment authority sites or to social networks. In fact by category where users go after Wikipedia appears unchanged except that they go to computers-and-internet-focused sites with a bit more frequency. Though the peek at user behavior in 2006 focused on UK users and this current one focuses on US users their downstream visits are similar. After Wikipedia they go to Google IMDB Google Images MySpace and Amazon. However here’s one big difference in 2008: YouTube… ) utside of those parenthetical whispers it looks like a bit has changed in two years. What hasn’t changed: Google sends Wikipedia over half of its traffic but this is down three percent from two years ago and surfers continue on to authority sites afterward either by returning to Google or by floating on to computers-and-internet-focused sites entertainment authority sites or to social networks. In fact by category where users go after Wikipedia appears unchanged except that they go to computers-and-internet-focused sites with a bit more frequency. Though the peek at user behavior in 2006 focused on UK users and this current one focuses on US users their downstream visits are similar. After Wikipedia they go to Google IMDB Google Images MySpace and Amazon. However here’s one big difference in 2008: YouTube. YouTube is the fourth most visited site after Wikipedia these days.
The power of many
The Age – Mar 27, 2008
It is now possible for serious complex work to be taken on with(little or no) institutional direction”. Take the Encyclopedia of Life for example. It demonstrateslike Wikipedia before it that complicated projects can be achievedby a mass of volunteers. “It just wouldn’t have been possible fiveyears ago” says Jesse Ausubel chair of the steering committeeattempting to organise the collective knowledge of the world’s lifescientists. Professor Shirky quotes examples of the rise in collaborativeaction due to the ease of communication and falling costs: frommillions of Americans raising funds for Barack bama’s presidentialbid to Tibetan bloggers highlighting China’s brutality. The encyclopedia is just the latest example of masscollaboration and innovation outside the usual formal structures. It may have the backing of big research institutions such asHarvard and technical help from Microsoft but most of itsconstruction is farmed out to thousands of volunteers… But these forms of organisation might mosteffectively take root elsewhere. “Many of the most radical innovations will come in the rapidlydeveloping world – China and India and Asia Africa South America- where people will need to innovate low-cost collaborativesolutions (yet still) they have strong rural traditions” hesays. So the real question is how far can it go? Professor Shirkychampions the fact that Wikipedia is the 11th-biggest website inthe US and Britain. But that still leaves 10 corporations with moretraditional hierarchies and management structures above it. He also admits that if a car company ran along the same lines asWikipedia it would quickly go out of business. thers such asNicholas Carr through his blog Rough Type (roughtype. com) arguethat the freedoms championed by the likes of Professor Shirky andMr Leadbeater only displace more expensive professionalalternatives to the detriment of the greater common good.
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