For those of you who can't wait for the next Quarto (
http://tinyurl.com/4clcg ) to come out, here is a quick rundown of
some media highlights from December:
========
Forbes had one of their encyclopedia editors (they manage American
Heritage these days) half-heartedly compare WP to Britannica Online :
checking Haydn, Millard Fillmore, warblers, King James II.
"...Frederick Allen, Managing Editor of American Heritage admitted,
'it looks as if Wikipedia's gotten a lot better, more thorough and
more accurate.'...Even the Wikipedia's James II of Britain article
beat Britannica in size, reach and outside references..."
http://www.forbes.com/home/technology/best/2004/1213/bow001.html
We should introduce Mr. Allen to Lord Emsworth; I wonder what he would
think then.
http://tinyurl.com/453e7
(For those of you keeping score at home, it is James II of "England",
if you please.)
========
Meanwhile, Tim Bray sat down and wrote a delightfully thoughtful piece
on the emerging properties of Wikipedia.
"...the proposition that the Wikipedia is a misguided waste of time is
boring. Something poorly-understood is happening here, and the
observed results are immensely better than intuition from first
principles would suggest. This is interesting; it seems obvious to me
that there are lessons to learn here, about reference publishing in
particular and knowledge husbandry in general."
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2004/12/06/Trustipedia
========
Journalists continue to get heated up about collaborative journalism:
Mark Glaser wrote a passionate piece on the collaborative news org he
wants to work for, almost a community Wikiproject :
http://tinyurl.com/62nu4
( See also his earlier notes on Wiki and journalism:
http://tinyurl.com/5cxzu )
Then Mitch Ratcliffe spun a long editorial on Wikinews itself (
http://tinyurl.com/5bm9z )
And some local citizen journalism enterprises are starting to take shape:
... from the fully-realized Baristanet (
http://www.baristanet.com ,
serving Montclair, Glen Ridge, and Bloomfield, NJ ), and the entire
town of Greensboro, NC (
http://tinyurl.com/432ea )
... to Pegasus News, "launching in Dallas in late 2005, but with a
cool blog up now," which plans to eventually expand to "every major
U.S. city with a monopoly newspaper"
http://shapeofdays.typepad.com/pegasus_news/
...to Dan Gillmor's "jumping out of a window, and building a parachute
in midair"
departure from the SJ Merc to start his own venture that enables and
illustrates the kind of grassroots journalism he has been writing
about.
http://tinyurl.com/66rag
========
Elsehwere, Wikiquote picks up a few admirers on Bill Hicks' birthday :
http://maisonneuve.org/blog/index.php?itemid=718
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/features/2952532
And Wikimedia gets another quick plug in the Indian press, in a review of
reference desks and online dictionaries:
http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20041213/market06.shtml
========
Finally, a question for our style gurus: is it "Wikipedia" or "the
Wikipedia"?
We had better start presenting clear guidance for our loving referers.
A quick score sheet from recent pubs:
- Frederick Allen, American Heritage editor : "Wikipedia"
- Dr. 'Alfaso' Gizmo, semi-anonymous journalist : "graffiti"
- Matt Rand, /Forbes/ writer : "the Wikipedia"
- Mitch Ratcliffe, veteran journalist : "Wikipedia"
- Robert McHenry, Former /Britannica/ editor : [unintelligible]
- Tim Bray, Encyclophile : "the Wikipedia"
- Val Souza, Express Computer columnist, India : "the Wikipedia"
- Wired Magazine, various writers : "Wikipedia"
--
+sj+ + + + - + - + -- || -- + - + - + Happy Holidays to all!