Wikipedia:Wikipedia in blogs

This page is for blogs where Wikipedia is discussed. Merely using Wikipedia as a source is not sufficient.

English

Continuous

• Article about Wikipedia in Everything2, an alternative to Wikipedia as encyclopedia mixed with parts of weblogs, wikis and writing boards.

2004

August

• Joi Ito: Wikipedia attacked by ignorant reporter The fact that anyone can edit the pages appears to be why people like Mr. Fasoldt question its authority, but that is that exact reason that it has authority.
• And an awful lot more blogs, mainly about the authority issue. Anyway, more blogs than can be listed here carried it

September

• How Authoritative is Wikipedia September 4th, 2004 Describes how he deliberately planted misinformation on several Wikipedia articles that he claims went undetected for 1 week. Also reported it on Slashdot [1]
• editorsweblog.org Wikipedia as a tool for editors and journalists "Interesting site (if you don't already know it): Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that can help you when you hesitate, for instance, about the use of explosive or fighting words like "terrorists"." Goes on to talk about an article about us in the Washington Post.

October

• PressThink, a blog by Jay Rosen, cites Spiro Agnew in this update

November

• The political importance of the Wikipedia Project: the only true Encyclopedia of our days November 16th, 2004 A rebuttal to The Faith-Based Encyclopedia written by Jean-Baptiste Soufron that is sure to become part of the canon of WikiThought.

2005

January

• Heavy metal umlaut: the movie (Flash-based commentary on the evolution of this page), by Jon Udell
• Apple vs. Windows, Wikipedia and "cage match", by Chad Dickerson. "That's when I thought, "how would one describe a cage match?" Of course, I went straight to Wikipedia, and while a search for "cage match" didn't turn up an exact match for my search, I got something even better when I ran the suggested Google search: a lovingly-annotated page of professional wrestling match types."

February

• CalDAV in Wikipedia by Mitch Kapor. As well as mentioning the CalDAV article, he encouraged adding protocols to Wikipedia.

March

• Clay (pseudonym). "One World, Two Maps (thoughts on the Wikipedia debate)". March 9, 2005. Many-to-Many. [2]

  "You can see the differences in the two worldviews most clearly when we argue across that gap. I literally cannot understand danah’s complaints; I read “The problem that i’m having with the Wikipedia hype is the assumption that it is the panacea for it too has its problems”, and I wonder who she’s talking about. The radialists praising the Wikipedia are not saying it’s perfect, or even good in any absolute sense — we don’t ever talk about absolute quality.

  "Wikipedia interests us because it’s better, and sustainably better, than what went before — it’s a move from a simple product (“Pay us and we’ll write an encyclopedia”) to a complex system, where a million differing, internal motivations of the users and contributors are causing an encyclopedia to coalesce. How cool is that? (The radialist motto…)

  "But danah and Matt cannot understand our enthusiasm. From the Cartesian point of view, the thing that would excite you would be dramatic change to a new state. Radialists never say things like ‘panacea’ or ‘utopia’, but the Cartesians hear us saying those things, or think they do, because otherwise what would the fuss be about? Mere incrementalism is nothing more than a Panglossian fetishization of reality, and excitement about a technological change that doesn’t create a dramatic new equilibrium is simply hype, from the Cartesian point of view.

  "And so, when they see us high-fiving over Wikipedia, the Cartesians think we’ve taken leave of our senses, and, more to the point, they think we’ve misunderstood what is happening. They then launch a corrective set of arguments, pointing out, for example, that Wikipedia still leaves unanswered questions about social exclusion. But this, from a radialist point of view, is no more meaningful than pointing out that Wikipedia doesn’t cure skin cancer — no one ever said it would. Anything that was bad at Point A and is still bad at Point B gets factored out of the radialist critique. Any change where most of the bad things are still bad but a few of the bad things are somewhat less bad seems like a good thing to us, and if it can happen in a way that requires less energy, or better harnesses individual motivation, that seems like a great thing."

• German Spiegel Copied Wikipedia. Oops.
• THIS IS NOT A PAID ENDORSEMENT Wherein I plug Wikipedia on my woefully under-read blog.
• Million Person Search: Wikipedia is the next Google - A well written treatise on the role of Wikipedia in the internet ecosystem

May

• Free Range Librarian on Wikipedia in response to Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-05-23/Radio show
  • Wikipedia, one of many voices but not the only voice to which you should listen is a response to above
    • On Wikipedia, passing on some thoughts. is another response
• Supporting Small Wikipedias Financially - A proposal to pay writers in Wikipedia languages that don't have many articles. Exchange rates may make this very effective financially.
• Wikipedia Rocks - A personal endorsement.

June

• The Uselessness of Wikipedia - Author complained deliberate vandalism took 24 hours to detect instead of minutes.
• Wiki - Comments on Wiki in general and some minor commentary on the accuracy of Wikipedia
• Use of Singapore as examples of nepotism and family dictatorship:
  • S(inga)pore's Nepotism & Legitimised Corruption Defined in Dictionary
  • Singapore an example of Nepotism and Family Dictatorship
  • Wikipedia to get sued
• Intuit Launches Tax Research Site modelled after Wikipedia
• Higher Ground - Deliberate vandalism of Wikipedia
• Librarians and Wikipedia in response to Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-05-23/Librarians project
  • Wikipedia and Libraries
  • Wikipedia and Libraries
  • Subversive gardening - role of librarians as gatekeepers
• "Wikipedia is like a really cool online library"
• PREPARING FOR INFLUENZA PANDEMIC AT WIKIPEDIA - public health official advocates the use of Wikipedia to prepare for pandemics.
  • Wikipedia and the Next Pandemic and [3], [4]
  • Wikipedia Saves the World...Maybe
• Live from WWDC: Steve Jobs keynote: "Steve is now explaining Wikipedia as “one of the most accurate encyclopedias in the world.”"
• WikiProxy: Greasemonkey Edition
• Wikipedia, Authority, and Astroturf - A new way to "hack" your reputation.
• Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Anyone Can Edit
• People with erasers - blogger complaining he's been written out of Wikipedia history on podcasting
• The Challenge of Wikipedia - role of Wikipedia in elementary education
• Wikipedia, the World's Largest and Least Reliable Encyclopedia
• Our Cats Are Now Wikipedians - origin of some cat picture in Wikipedia
• Is Wikipedia the real Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?
• Wikipedia Wars
• Wikipedia and the social construction of knowledge - "For this Jimbo Wales deserves -- and I hope will one day receive -- a Nobel Prize."
• Knowledge is Power- Hide it well - Tribute to the scope of Wikipedia
• wikipedia is fun - Deliberate, obvious, vandalism fixed in "1 min 20 seconds".
• Wiki Wiki Wiki My Head Hurts - "My nomination for word of the year for 2005 is 'Wiki'."
• Open Source = Closed Minds? - "Since anyone can author or edit an article, some writers are cranks, trolls or children whose contributions subtract, not add, knowledge."
• Automating Wikipedia History - Blogger offers $150+Flickr pro account for a tool to animate the history of a given Wikipedia article
• A Manifesto for Taking Wikipedia into the Physical World - Mobile and location senstive access to information about the world around you.
• Free Software has no pirates - "Individuals can participate - leveraging a growing world of free services and technologies, from blogs to Java, wikis to a world of wonderful new services."
• Fact or Fiction, Wikipedia or Books? Reaction to The Los Angeles Times' interactive editorial page, discusses how Wikipedia may be more "truth" than books, despite The LA Times' less favourable ideas of the site.
• Why to view Wikipedia with caution
• Wiki wiki wow
• Wikipedia - challenges - Next Google?
• Wikipedia - "the project has been a huge success. Its free distribution, editable nature and wide range of topics has allowed it to become a people’s encyclopedia."
• What is Wikipedia! - "I thought the premise was noble but that it would never work in a practical sense...Boy was my gut feeling wrong"
• Weinberger Keynote Brain Dump - "In a couple of hundred years, people will point to wikipedia as an "epochal event." "
• Wikipedia tipping point - "It was as though I had reached effortlessly into the collective subconscious and pulled out, not just what I had verbalized, but what I had been thinking."
• My Internet Adventure - "Wikipedia is one of the treasures of the Internet, but ..."
• Potential Future Wikipedia Crisis - "as Wikipedia becomes more popular [entities] might hire a full-time Wikipedia expert"

July

• Wikipedia - "How many small pleasures there are even in a crummy day; lately Wikipedia is somewhere near the top of that list."
• Connecting wikis - "WikiPedia at the top of the knowledge foodchain?"
• Wikimania 2005 - "how useful the Wikimedia Wikipedia site was to me"
• Independent Variables and the Fourier Transform - "Wikipedia is my online brain"
• Wikipedia, as we all know is brilliant
• ZDNet: Is Wikipedia ripe for PR? - "Companies that want to tell their story (ie, any company that wants to stay in business…) would do well to make sure their voice is heard on Wikipedia entries about their products [...] If the PR folks can leave behind the marketing-speak and contribute just the facts about their company and/or products, it might actually be a benefit to Wikipedia instead of just another form of spam."
• About London Bombings:
  • Londinist (Did key realtime blogging during the aftermath) "Very useful Wikipedia page"
  • Dan Olsen's Weblog - "We are now just over 24 hours since the devastating bombings in London and there is already an article on Wikipedia about the bombings. It is amazing how the internet has become a real time source of information."
  • Nik Cubrilovic Weblog "7 July 2005 London bombings from Wikipedia is another great source of news and information about the event. It is amazing how quickly a page detailing every aspect of the attack forms together on Wikipedia - they have more information than any of the major news providers."
  • O'Reilly Radar (Marc) "I found much better information about today's terrorist attacks in London by looking at the Wikipedia news page and the Flickr photo group than I did by looking at The New York Times and watching CNN."
  • michael parekh on IT "Within minutes, I learned several things that I did not get after almost an hour of watching the news through the TV news channels, and the web-sites of traditional media outlets."
  • Digg blog - just a link, but interesting exchange in comments section
  • Tasty Popsicle "a true testament of the power of independent yet collective jounalism."
  • Gadgetopia "The Wikipedia article on today’s bombings in London is already huge. The bit at the top with the hotline numbers is just evidence of how much of a fantastic resource Wikipedia has become." -- and from the comments on that page: "Xeni Jardin is on CNN right now talking about this exact page. She says it’s been updated 2,800 times. To CNN’s credit, they have run stories today about how bloggers have covered this event better than mainstream news."
  • Rhodarian - library news blog "The power of Wikipedia for documenting current news event is evident in 2005 London bombings. Resources, information and links to news sources are included. I discovered this link to Wikipedia via the NY Times International News, which to my mind gives some indication of the authority this particular entry carries."
  • SFGate.com Culture Blog "I don't know why, but I find it strange that Wikipedia already has an extensive entry on today's London bombings. Doesn't it take more than a few hours for something like a terrorist attack to become history? Not that the entry is in any way offensive; it's thorough and respectful and still a work-in-progress. It's just the notion of an "encyclopedia" article being written on the same day as the event -- no time for the past."
  • eSchool News: Why Wikipedia...or Not
  • Chicken foot stew "This online collaborative encyclopedia has given me the information I've been trying to understand by watching network and cable news for the last three hours."
  • Minimal "I’m impressed. Though I’ve not used it much in the past, I think I’ll be turning to Wikipedia a lot more in the future."
• Wikipedia - " As a librarian I am skeptical."
• The power of Wikipedia - "I must say that I’m impressed."
• Wikipedia vs. Google - "Wikipedia is an open source attack on Google".
• The Wikipedia Question - "As a librarian and a faculty member, I would not recommend preventing people from using Wikipedia"
• Andy Carvin: Turning Wikipedia into an Asset for Schools "the more I think about it, the more I think Wikipedia's flaws actually make it an ideal learning tool for students."
• Wiki Contributions Breakdown - "about the proportions and distributions of contributions to the WikiPedia"
• Progressive Bloggers Wikipedia Victory - "Helping build Wikipedia is addictive."
• Cruising Wikipedia - "a number of approaches to developing trust that will allow for interesting extrusions of the wikipedia."
• Trusting Wikipedia
• A Wiki Way To Waste Time - "My only criticism is the search engine; it’s not quite up to Google standard."
• Pumpkinification - "I love Wikipedia so hard it hurts me sometimes."
• Wikipedia - "This site probably contains more information than any other site on the web. It's astounding, really. "
• About Roberts' nomination to Supreme Court:
  • The Observer blog "A good one stop shop for background on John Roberts Jr, nominee for the Supreme Court, is the fast-changing Wikipedia entry under his name. It has all the key data, although there is a delicate liberal tilt in the way some facts are presented in juxtaposition with the man's record on court judgements."
• Wikipedia, Prices, and Hayek - "Wikipedia does aggregate dispersed information -- amazingly so"
  • Wikipedia v. Hayek - "Is Sunstein imagining some sort of Wiki-polity?"
  • Hayek/Wikipedia vs Sunstein - "Contra Sunstein, the success of Wikipedia demonstrates the validity of Hayek’s insights."
• Wikipedia improves Britannica - "Encyclopedia Britannica's response to Wikipedia and other online resources. It seems to be primarily a PR effort"
• Forking Wikipedia - "how forking is going to play out around Wikipedia content "
• Should You Trust the Wikipedia? - "Many academics dismiss the Wikipedia as a prank perpetuated by amateurs and geeks."
• wikipedia interlude - "Go ahead, ask it a question. It will answer it in astonishing depth."
• Encyclopedia Britannica Fights Back? - "The folk putting together Wikipedia don’t sit around making stuff up "
• Fast Fixes. - " A few minutes later, the page was fixed back again by a random stranger"
• Wandering Wikipedia - " Wikipedia (which in my opinion is one of the greatest Internet resources out there)"
• Old vs New - "wikis have the potential to substantially transform the way we produce reference tools"
• Dangerous waters - "Wikipedia. The word that makes many librarians (and teachers and academics) tremble, or snort, or turn up their noses."

August

• Wikipedia... sucks - "There are far more editors who "excel" at correcting spelling and deleting articles. . . So you have more destroyers than creators. Hence, the problem."

September

• Wiki-whacked - "Wikipedia users make thousands of changes to entries every hour. While most of these are constructive, others (...) are anything but. This requires Wikipedia’s volunteer gatekeepers to constantly seek out and fix violated entries—purging them of bad grammar, unsubstantiated claims, outright bias, and references to gerbils in the bum."
• Make the Largest Encyclopedia in the World Better. - " It relies partly on the "wisdom of crowds": we all, together, probably know more than even the best individual scholar."
• Wikipedia...Wikiwhatia? - "Not since the advent of AskJeeves has an Internet reference source been so popular"
• Wikimedia Foundation Vows to “Slaughter” Textbook Companies - "Finally some fire power in the favor of students in the battle ground of textbooks"
• Wikipedia - "Most teachers do NOT trust it as a source and I am uncomfortable with it being the ONLY source"
• The New Cliche: "It's the Wikipedia of..." - "You know something [i.e. Wikipedia] has arrived when it’s used to describe a phenomenon"

October

• The amorality of Web 2.0 - "It is, unfortunately, representative of the slipshod quality of much of Wikipedia."
• Wikipedia is the encyclopaedia of the future? - "I would still use my old faithful Encyclopaedia Britannica as a main source".
• Beginning of history - "Wikipedia will take generations to pan out".
• I have lost my wiki-virginity - "I just edited a page at Wikipedia . . . gosh, it was fun."
• The Death of Google… - "No, the death of Google will come from Wikipedia"
• When will wikipedia grow up? - "I doubt that Wikipedia can make the leap from quantity of information to quality of articles"
• Wikipedia: Growing Pains or “Quality Problem”? - "It is in this depth and quality that we see what power the potential of the open source movement has."
• Wikipedians on Quality - "Uncharacteristicly self-critical responses from Wikipedians"
• What’s the story? - "I was actually surprised at the overwhelming amount of articles returned that were perfectly fine."
• Help in the Battle against Wikipedia - "'Edit page', click on it, and change whatever you want on it. They can't block all of us!"
• Register says Wikipedia is Crap - "If Wikipedia had strived to be an editable-by-anyone collection of links to the best information and annotations of those links, it would be much more useful than it is now."
• Can you trust Wikipedia? - "Methinks the Guardian journalist is trying to damn by faint praise."
• wikipoetry and the wikinovel - "Wikipedia ... is successful because there is a sufficient mass of well-meaning users to compensate for the casual vandalism of passing idiots."
• Wikiplosion. - "But I can't help but feel this is the beginning of the end for Wikipedia."
• Wiki Wednesdays. - "Wikipedia ..., last I looked, its in the top 10 most visited websites in the world" Editor's note: Not true, Wikipedia is currently only top 40.
• I can’t sleep till I Wiki - "You have to admire the structure, if not the content."
• wikipedia and Encyclopædia Britannica - "does he consider Encyclopædia Britannica a masterpiece?"
• Wikipedia - "I have always been annoyed with Wikipedia"
• Expertise Isn't Democratic - "That the Wikipedia has been taken so seriously has always surprised me."
• Wikipedia gets poor grades from experts - "[Wikipedia] need[s] a structure that attempts to put such obscurities on an equal playing field with more important items"
• Long-armed Law of the Wiki - "It's that the community process that once wondered about quantity continues to raise the bar with quality."
• Wikipedia founder admits to serious quality problems - "An amazing experiment! I hope it'll get better even if I'm skeptical."
• Geek to Live: How to contribute to Wikipedia - "So began my love affair with editing Wikipedia."
• How to Contribute to Wikipedia - "My general advice for PR pros is to tread lightly" [when editting Wikipedia.]
• wiki or won’t he - "I want to hear from more of you. Is Wikipedia an acceptable source?"

November

• Why Wikipedians Hate Micronationalists - "The micronations article on wikipedia was once one of the better articles on wikipedia"
• Wikipedia is king of the wikis - "It’s time for another Website of the Week and this time I would like to turn the spotlight on Wikipedia."
• Yellowikis - A Case Study of a Web 2.0 Business, Part 1 - "It all started when Paul's 14 year old daughter . . . Wikipedia editors because it was "non-encyclopedic"
• Ten Wikipedia Hacks - "Here are 10 hacks that will help you get more out of your favorite reference site and mine - Wikipedia!"
• Wikipedia and the Public Library of Science - "Accountability and authority, however, are likely the most serious hurdle to widespread acceptance and use of Wikipedia in academic environments."
• Wikipedia: the dawn of democratic media? - "Has the internet fulfilled its promise of becoming a democratic tool for sharing knowledge across the globe?"
• Weird, Wonderful Wikipedia - "Is there no limit to the wonders of Wikipedia? Is there anything it does not know?"
• Authority - "Authority derives from the information architecture, visual design, governance, and brand of the Wikipedia."

December

• A Different Take on Wikipedia - "Wikipedia is a good opportunity to teach information literacy for the 21st Century"
• Wikipedia Will Fail Within 5 Years - "Wikipedia inevitably will be overtaken by the gamers and the marketers to the point where it will lose all credibility"
• Taking the Wiki Out of Wikipedia - "Prediction: By this time next year, Wikipedia won’t be Wikipedia anymore."
• What Wikipedia doesn't want you to know... - "Wikipedia should not be cited in the media nor anywhere for support because it is no different than quoting various anonymous sources who have no knowledge of the topic or who have fibs to spread about the topic."
• Wikipedia - "It's a good idea to support really promising experiments like wikipedia..."
• Wikipedia - "...the folk at this place seem to think that the entries will somehow asymptotically become definitive as opposed to just decomposing into nonsense."
• Seigenthaler and Wikipedia - "Seigenthaler's method of dealing with this situation, once he discovered it, illustrates an emerging digital divide - between the "get its" and the "clueless"."
• More on Wikipedia - "What’s so interesting about this whole Wikipedia brouhaha is how it exposes our conflicted ideals about authority and collaboration."
• Wikipedia Woes - "That does it for Wikipedia for us then. We won't be able to allow our students to use the resource when there are photos like that available."
• Wikipedia: 3 Views - ". . . take an article in Wikipedia and do the research necessary to verify every statement."
• Vandals, Administrators, and Sockpuppets, Oh My! An Ethnographic Study of Wikipedia’s Handling of Problem Behavior - "However, this study was limited in scope and was unable to determine if the system in place for abuse reporting is truly able to vouch for the status of Wikipedia as an authoritative resource."
• Povandals Killing Wikipedia - "Wikipedia is a noble and important experiment, it also has to decide "whether it is an encyclopedia by wiki" or "a wiki pretending to be an encyclopedia"".
• Wikipedia Part II: It is time to pay up - "It's time for a series of substantial NEH grants. Private foundations should step up."
• Wikipedia is dead, long live wikipedia - "Well actually I think quite the opposite."
• Wikipedia and the alterable state of things - "I would imagine libraries would be able to afford a subscription service to Wikipedia . . ."
• Wikipedia Sued? - "I just hope that the knee-jerk response isn’t to block Wikipedia."
• Freedom of Anonymous Speech - ". . . the evolving nature of Wikipedia needs to be recognized and celebrated for what it is."
• Wikipedia - On the Wikipedia class-action suit: "As soon as we legally define an entity as being responsible, then we give them power over the content, and when we do that, it isn’t our content anymore."
• wikipedia scandal is almost laughable - "What is the difference between Wikipedia, the New York Times and Fox News?"
• Wikipedia and the Law - "I have started to use Wikipedia more and more over the last year. "
• Self-Help information gathering in a flat world - "I am among those who hope that Wikipedia's founder improves the quality control regarding the review of information that gets posted. But, I'm less concerned about the current state of affairs than many people. "
• Wikipedia vs Britannica. Apples vs Oranges- "They do different things well, and different things badly. Shouldn’t we just vive la difference?"

2006

January

• Chris' Education Blog: Resource Based Learning - "WOW, this was my exact first impression when I saw the entry"
• Giving smart people stuff to do - "I think this is the real secret to Wikipedia's success...just by existing and giving people something interesting to contribute to"

February

• Seth Godin's Blog: Organic Web Growth The beginning of a series by marketing guru Seth Godin on organic web growth. That is, how to grow your web traffic naturally by having a good product instead of buying Super Bowl ads and the like.
• Webby's World: At Least Our Government Don’t Vandalise the Wikipedia. An article about UK government edits.

March

• Wikipedia > Google "Whoa. I just realized I use Wikipedia more than Google now."
• Nature mag cooked Wikipedia study -- The Register
• Wikigasm - "A directory of my favorite pages over at Wikipedia"

April

• User Friendly More commentary on Nature v Brittanica.
• Wikipedia: Inclusionists vs. Deletionists
• Someone Doesn’t Understand NPOV. - "Wikipedia does not seek to be the voice of the masses."

May

• Wikipedia grows up - "How can we devote ourselves to making information accessible to all, and then scorn these devoted amateurs who delight in building with the bricks we give them?"
• Wikivolution - "And as a general reference source in practice, Wikipedia is actually substantially superior to any other general reference."

June

• [5] - Warren Kinsella, whose article has been the source of problems in the past (including, apparently, a lawsuit that was settled), is apparently planning a piece on Wikipedia and its shortcomings. He's asked for stories to be e-mailed to him, and in the most recent update says there's a lot more "Wiki-hate" going on than he thought.

• Fost, Dan (2006-06-22). "Ah - twins!". sfgate.com. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2006-06-26. {{cite web}}: More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help) – a blog entry commenting on the edit controversy in the article about the Carlson Twins (and subsequently on Wikipedia talk:Fair Use) where Wikimedia Foundation interim executive director Bradford Patrick interceded to remove an allegedly Fair Use image at the behest of legal representatives of the Carlson twins.

• Fost, Dan (2006-06-22). "Maybe they should look on Craigslist". sfgate.com. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2006-06-26. {{cite web}}: More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help) – About Wikipedia's size and the need for professional staff, quotes from Wikimedia Foundation interim executive director Brad Patrick

August

• Sanger, Larry (31--July--2006). "The New Politics of Knowledge". www.dufoundation.org. Digital Univerisy. Retrieved 2006-08-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help) – Blog essay outlining the need for experts in a revolution of user-submitted content.

See also

• meta:Wikipedians who blog