If you spend any time on the internet at all, I'm guessing it's been, at most, a day or two since you last visited Wikipedia. Once synonymous with "unreliable," the site in recent years has been on a real redemption tour. It's finally getting the recognition it deserves as, in the words of one recent WIRED headline, "the last best place on the internet." It's expansive, accessible, and delightfully strange. Case in point: my personal favorite entry on the site, which recounts the events of the marathon at the 1936 Olympics. You'll have to read it for yourself to see what I mean. As Daniel H. Pink wrote in his 2005 feature about the internet's encyclopedia, its contributors are often as strange, specific, and varied as their contributions. What's the kookiest Wikipedia entry you've encountered? Tell me about it in the comments below his story.
Pink profiled Wikipedia just four years after its founding, but by then it had already become the largest encyclopedia on the planet, offering 500,000 English-language articles compared to Britannica's measly 80,000. It was created in 2001 by a wealthy options trader named Jimmy Wales, who wanted to create a free online encyclopedia. But arguably the most radical part of Wales' idea was that the entries would be written by whoever wanted to participate, not just paid experts and editors. "Encyclopedias aspire to be infallible," Pink wrote. "But Wikipedia requires that the perfect never be the enemy of the good." The site's editors don't believe their entries are flawless, but that's not the point. After all, new information is always coming to light. Someone else can always go in and make an edit.
The result, Pink observed presciently, is that "Wikipedia has an innate capacity to heal itself." The years since have certainly proven this to be true. As WIRED has documented, Wikipedians have used the site to right historical wrongs and prevent misinformation in real time. It seems the rest of the internet could stand to learn a thing or two from the free online encyclopedia. Do you agree? I'd love to hear what you think.
See you next week!
Eve
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حبيبي ليس يعدله حبيب *** ولا لسواه في قلبي نصيب حبيب غاب عن بصري وسمعي *** ولكن في فؤادي ما يغيب يا حبيب ...
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