Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-05-30/In the news

In the news

Wikipedia featured in Time Magazine

Time talks to Jimmy Wales

Time Magazine this week became the latest prestigious publication to take a look at the wiki phenomenon, and Wikipedia in particular [1]. Jimmy Wales spoke to the magazine, and said that some people were still completely thrown by the concept of an encyclopaedia that anyone can contribute to. He still gets e-mails from people helpfully pointing out the enormous security lapse that has allowed an edit button to appear at the top of every page.

The article described Wikipedia's current total of over 1.5 million articles as "stunning", and said that the success of Wikipedia had encouraged many companies to use Wiki software for project management and collaboration between firms. Socialtext, a company which installs wikis for businesses in Silicon Valley, claim that working the wiki way increases productivity by 25%, and that "wikis foster trust".

The article also looked at the flaws of Wikipedia, and reported Larry Sanger's widely known criticisms of the project on the basis of its lack of deference to expertise. However, the strength of the neutral point of view policy was demonstrated when the article quoted from Wikipedia's article on itself to note the project's "perceived lack of reliability, comprehensiveness and authority".

Wikipedia ideals spread to other fields

Two new projects have been reported this week which, while not using wiki software, are inspired by the Wikipedia ideals of producing open source reference works. ZDNet reported on the recently-launched Rosetta Project [2], which aims to be an open source archive of all human languages. The project has over 2,000 volunteer contributors already, and says that it aims to become an "open source 'Linux of Linguistics'".

At the same time, technology news outlet worldchanging.com reported on the upcoming launch of iFabricate.com, a service in which users will collaborate on various projects related to mechanical engineering [3]. According to iFabricate.com, "Consumer electronics hacks, engineering prototyping, recipes, fine wood-working, and hobby projects are all equally ideal ifabricate projects", and it describes itself as a "Wikipedia for atoms".

Citations this week

Main article: Wikipedia:Wikipedia in the media

Wikipedia continues to be referenced as a source for information on everything from the latest cultural phenomena to ancient Persian mathematicians. This week, the New Jersey Sunbeam reports on the history of Daylight Saving Time [4]; searchengineguide.com warns its readers about the dangers of click fraud with help from Wikipedia [5]; mathematics news site mathforge.net reports on the origins of algorithms, and says Wikipedia's article contains "much more reasonable" information than a recent news piece from MSNBC [6]; and the Daily Times of Pakistan reports on the awful phenomenon of the Crazy Frog, formerly a ring tone and now storming to number one in the UK music charts [7].