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Wikipedia Is the Last Best Place on the Internet
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Wikipedia Is the Last Best Place on the Internet

People used to think the crowdsourced encyclopedia represented all that was wrong with the web. Now it’s a beacon of so much that’s right.

Wired, 2020


Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Comprehensive
  • Background
  • Engaging

Recommendation

In this article for Wired, cultural correspondent Richard Clarke tracks the origins, the day-to-day functioning and the likely future of Wikipedia. He discusses how its founders first regarded it as an adjunct to another site; how “Wikignomes” keep the site up and running; how Alexa and Siri depend on Wikipedia for answers and will depend on it even more in the future; and why everyone who uses Wikipedia still remains slightly reluctant to cite it as a source. Clarke’s lively writing and lucid insights will captivate anyone who uses Wikipedia – that is, pretty much everyone.

Take-Aways

  • Wikipedia has become today’s foremost knowledge source.
  • At its launch, Wikipedia was – and still is today – compared with Encyclopedia Britannica.
  • Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger launched Wikipedia after trying to make a go of Nupedia, a scholarly article site.

About the Author

Richard Cooke has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Paris Review and The New Republic. He is the author of On Robyn Davidson.


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