Sunday, August 06, 2006

Wikipedia pushes for quality

This past weekend, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society co-sponsored Wikimania 2006, the International Wikimedia Conference at Harvard Law School. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales delivered the keynote address where he stated:

"Although we've always had this goal of Britannica quality or better, we're not there yet," ... "We can no longer feel satisfied and happy when we see these (article) numbers going up.... We should continue to turn our attention away from growth and towards quality."

Mr. Wales began his presentation with a clip of the Colbert Report, where Stephen Colbert does a piece on his love of Wikipedia and "wikiality". It is worth a moment of your time if you have never seen it.

All kidding aside, This three day conference included discussions on everything from validating information to how the Wikipedia fits into broader efforts in open-source, "free culture." Interesting stuff.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

No comments: