The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia

Generally, we find most people out there on the Internet are good, says Jimmy Wales. It's one of the wonderful humanitarian discoveries in Wikipedia, that most people only want to help us build this free nonprofit, charitable resource.

Unlike other encyclopedias throughout history, Wikipedia has no physical limit on how many pages it can contain.... also, in the age of Google search and hypertext, people can come across Wikipedia's content through any number of avenues... The idea of a volume or alphabetical order is completely irrelevant to a modern Internet encyclopedia. Althou... See more

Larry Sanger said: "wikis don't work if people aren't bold" Wikipedia says: "be bold in editing, moving, and modifying articles, because the joy of editing is that, although it should aim for, perfection is not required. And do not worry about messing up. All prior versions of articles are kept, so there is no way that you can accidentally damage W... See more

Wikipedia survives and retains its passionate community also becuase it is social. You never know whom you will meet, strike up a conversation with, and as a consequence, learn from. Every Wikipedia article has a discussion page, to encourage debate and the exchange of ideas with others in the community. Imagine taking an online bulletin board, dis... See more

Wikipedia can allow anyone to edit because any action can be easily undone by anyone else in the community. Only in the digital realm is it easier to repair things than to do harm. If Alice incorrectly changes a fate, Bob can notice and change it back with the click of a button. If a vandal attempts to insert incorrect information en masse, other u... See more

The lack of top down editorial oversight resulted in uneven development of Wikipedia's articles, oftentimes with stark examples: The biography of Britney Spears takes up nearly twice the space as the one for Socrates.

Being free has unexpected advantages. Wikipedia has evolves from being a no-cost alternative into being a superior resource in its own right. Over the years, it has become deeper, broader, and more up-to-date than its traditional rivals. Because of its mission to stay free, it encourages participation-volunteers choose to donate their time and effo... See more

A core idea Wikipedia embraced, borrowed from the original MeatballWiki, was to assume good faith (AGF) when interacting with others. The guidelined promoted optimistic production rather than pessimistic nay-saying, and reds, "unless there is strong evidence to the contrary, assume that people who work on the project are trying to help it, not hurt... See more

For many wikipedians, the act of participating in article making is also an act of learning. This is a dynamic most outside readers don't often see or experience. Writing about subjects while abiding by Wikipedia's neutral point of view requires research, critical thinking, and weighing the facts. Contributors often find themselves learning by edit... See more