The Wikipedia Revolution

The Wikipedia Revolution: How A Bunch of Nobodies Created The World's Greatest Encyclopedia is a 2009 popular history book by new media researcher and writer Andrew Lih.[1][2][3][4]

Not to be confused with La Révolution Wikipédia, a French-language study.
The Wikipedia Revolution: How A Bunch of Nobodies Created The World's Greatest Encyclopedia
First edition cover
AuthorAndrew Lih
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectWikipedia
GenreNonfiction
PublisherHyperion (US Version)
Aurum Press (UK Version)
Publication date
March 17, 2009
ISBN978-1-4013-0371-6
OCLC232977686
031 22
LC ClassZA4482 .L54 2009

At the time of its publication it was "the only narrative account" of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia (in English).[5] It covers the period from Wikipedia's founding in early 2000 up to early 2008. Written as a popular history, the text ranges from short biographies of Jimmy Wales, Larry Sanger and Ward Cunningham, to brief accounts of infamous events in Wikipedia's history such as the Essjay controversy and the Seigenthaler incident.

Lih describes the importance of early influences on Wikipedia including Usenet, HyperCard, Slashdot, and MeatballWiki. He also explores the cultural differences found within sister projects such as the German Wikipedia, the Chinese Wikipedia, and the Japanese Wikipedia. The book also covers the Citizendium project, originally a fork of Wikipedia by co-founder Larry Sanger.

There is a foreword by Wales, and an afterword partially created by volunteers through an online wiki detailing the problems and opportunities of Wikipedia's future.[6]

Points

Since its founding, Wikipedia grew quickly. More than half of Wikipedia's traffic comes from Google.[7] 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.[2]

Lih explains that

Wikipedia 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.[2]

Founder Wales has said that, "We make the Internet not suck."[7] Still Lih says that some "pranksters"[7] insert "sophomoric chunks of text."[2]

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.[7]

The Wall Street Journal also says Lih's book is somewhat like Wikipedia itself.[7]

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."[8]

Publication
  • Andrew Lih. The Wikipedia Revolution: How A Bunch of Nobodies Created The World's Greatest Encyclopedia. Hyperion, March 17, 2009. ISBN 978-1-4013-0371-6
  • Andrew Lih. The Wikipedia Revolution: How A Bunch of Nobodies Created The World's Greatest Encyclopedia. Aurum, March 19, 2009. ISBN 978-1-84513-473-0

See also

References
  1. Andrew Lih. "About Me". Website of Andrew Lih. Archived from the original on 2016-08-12.
  2. Andrew Lih (2009). The Wikipedia Revolution. Hyperion. ISBN 978-1-4013-0371-6.
  3. Jeremy Philips (March 18, 2009). "Everybody Knows Everything". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  4. Noam Cohen (March 28, 2009). "Wikipedia: Exploring Fact City". The New York Times. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  5. Andrew Lih. "About Andrew Lih". The Wikipedia Revolution website. Archived from the original on February 9, 2013.
  6. "The Wikipedia Revolution Wiki". The Wikipedia Revolution website. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012.
  7. Philips, Jeremy (2009-03-18). "Everybody Knows Everything". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2019-06-14.
  8. Robins, Peter (15 April 2009). "The Wikipedia Revolution by Andrew Lih: review". Retrieved 5 April 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.