The September 2006, Atlantic Monthly has an interesting article by Marshall Poe about the evolution of wikipedia. It spends a lot of time on the two main people that helped shape it, how it has grown (the Polish version has more articles than the Spanish version!) and of course the process of discussing wikipedia philosophy and which articles are appropriate.
In particular there is an interesting section on the flame wars between Sanger, one of the key figures and a volunteer with a lot of time on his hands. It reminds me of countless other online fora where the fights have detracted from the original goal of the list or discussion. In this case it concerned a work that has become very important, perhaps too important if the users who rely on it don't consider other sources as worth consulting.
I say this as a librarian who keeps meeting people who think everything is online and if it isn't it's marginal in importance and not worth consulting. As a side issue, the convenience of wikipedia is in contrast to the effort needed to consult a print source or even stay online and register to use specialty databases that may be free to use in many library systems: school, public, corporate, and academic. Relying on wikipedia alone is like counting on one strain of rice or wheat to provide a population with nourisment.
Sadly most of the population under 20 seems to believe google +wikipedia is the sum total of human knowledge.
Posted by: steve | September 27, 2006 at 08:00 PM