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The Sum Total of all Human Knowledge

The idea that the Internet might be the cauldron to hold all human knowledge isn’t really a novel concept, at least in Internet guru circles. There’s a reason they call it the Information Revolution. The ability for us, as individuals, to reach out and find even the smallest bit of information using just one computer linked to billions of other computers, strains even the most fervent of imaginations with its possibilities. And yet, something comprehensive, something that doesn’t require hours of searching, failed to materialize in the first ten years of the Web. Sure there were very good Web sites, many that could lay claim to “best and most comprehensive site” about X subject. But no one site, no one place, held all the information like an encyclopedia. Was it even possible?

Jimmy Wales thought it was possible. But first, Wales took the old route. He developed a free encyclopedia in 2000 called Nupedia. Designed as a Web-based encyclopedia that would be distributed for free, Nupedia was to be written by so-called experts. It would have the features of a great encyclopedia, with all the benefits of an online presence, including quick and easy search and hyperlinking. But while the concept was grand in idea, it was limited in execution. To build a comprehensive database, even to rival book style encyclopedias would take years, if not decades. To expand it to something that more properly represented the scope of the Internet could take centuries, and it would be an enormous organizational task. Even with an innovative peer-to-peer design, Nupedia failed to draw major support, and Wales was stuck looking for a better way to grab and hold information. In the end, Nupedia created only 24 articles that passed though its rigorous peer-to-peer review system. It was too laborious, and it taxed too much the people charged to create.

Sometime in late 2000, Wales was introduced to the concept of Wiki. As originally designed, wiki was a way to create large public and private databases. The name derives from one of the first collaborative software programs called WikiWikiWeb. The name for that program came from the developer, Ward Cunningham, who said he remembered a trip to Hawaii in which he was directed to take the Wiki Wiki shuttlebus from the airport. He said he thought it sounded better than his second choice, quick web.

Wales liked the idea behind the Wiki as a way to cheaply supplement Nupedia. But, because he didn’t want to pollute the peer reviewed Nupedia with just anyone’s input, they created a new site and Wikipedia was born. Wikipedia launched on January 15, 2001 with little fanfare. But within six years, more than 1.5 million articles have been posted to Wikipedia, almost exclusively by people who have never met Wales. While the road hasn’t always been smooth, the result may be the most successful collaborative process since the Great Wall of China.



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