How the Virginia Tech killings reveal the perplexing success of Wikipedia
– posted April 23rd, 2007 by Brian Donohue No comments
An article from today’s New York Times uncovers how Wikipedia’s entry on the recent Virginia Tech killings “has emerged as the clearinghouse for detailed information on the event”.
I’ve never really understood how Wikipedia has become so reliable, but after reading this I can finally begin to understand it. It is baffling that a totally decentralised, unplanned, and uncoordinated group editing effort can actually work. One interviewee summed it up nicely, “As the popular joke goes, ‘The problem with Wikipedia is that it only works in practice. In theory, it can never work.’”
It’s a short article, and well worth the read.
The YouTube clip below shows a timelapse of the first 12 hours of the article being created. (Thanks to Dave Davis for pointing this out.)
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