The Wikipedia Revolution

Points

Since its founding, Wikipedia grew quickly. As of 2009, more than half of Wikipedia's traffic came from Google. As Lih says, by 2003,The English edition had more than 100,000 articles, putting it on par with commercial online encyclopedias. It was clear Wikipedia had joined the big leagues.Lih explains thatWikipedia became an instant phenomenon because of both supply and demand. . . . Balanced and reliable content is a rare commodity, in high demand. The Internet has a deep supply of volunteers willing to share a deep pool of knowledge, but they are widely dispersed geographically and logistically. Provide an online agora for these two elements to come together, and you have Wikipedia.Founder Wales has said that, "We make the Internet not suck." Still Lih says that some "pranksters" insert "sophomoric chunks of text."

Reception

According to The Wall Street Journal, Until just a couple of years ago, the largest reference work ever published was something called the Yongle Encyclopedia. A vast project consisting of thousands of volumes, it brought together the knowledge of some 2,000 scholars and was published, in China, in 1408. Roughly 600 years later, Wikipedia surpassed its size and scope with fewer than 25 employees and no official editor.The Wall Street Journal also says Lih's book is somewhat like Wikipedia itself.

The Telegraph said that the author "conveys a vivid sense of Wikipedian talent and provides a useful primer on the computing culture that gave it birth."

Publication

• Lih, Andrew (March 17, 2009). The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia. Hyperion. .
• Lih, Andrew (March 19, 2009). The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia. Aurum. .

References

References

1. Lih, Andrew. "About Me". Website of Andrew Lih.
2. Lih, Andrew. (2009). "The Wikipedia Revolution". [[Disney Hyperion.
3. Cohen, Noam. (March 28, 2009). "Wikipedia: Exploring Fact City". [[The New York Times]].
4. Philips, Jeremy. (2009-03-18). "Everybody Knows Everything". Wall Street Journal.
5. (15 April 2009). "The Wikipedia Revolution by Andrew Lih: review". [[The Daily Telegraph.