What's
Next For Wikimania?
By Danny Schechter
09 August, 2005
CommonDreams.org
FRANKFURT, GERMANY AUGUST 9 -- In l995,
Ward Cunningham, a pioneering Portland, Oregon-based software engineer,
had an epiphany and found a name for it. He had used the web to build
a productive community of fellow techies who came up with new ideas
through a unique cooperative way of working, one in which contributors
could edit, revise and upgrade the work of their peers.
They were encouraged
not just to review, comment or criticize the online contributions of
others, but also to actively change them. Cunningham had a hunch, perhaps
even a faith, that if people worked together collaboratively, they could
create a product that was better than the sum of its inputs. He helped
create software with a simple formatting language that anyone with a
web browser can learn and then use to edit a page.
He had been trying
to come up with a distinctive name for this bottom-up democratic methodology
in an industry where the unconventional and idiosyncratic often stuck.
Off-the-beaten-track names such as Yahoo or Linux or even Google are
now household words. Cunningham found what he was looking for when he
visited Hawaii and was told he could get where he wanted to go on a
Wiki-Wiki Bus.
Wiki! How cool.
Wiki it was.
Wiki may sound wacky,
but it works.
A Brainstorm Becomes
a Brand
In just 10 years,
that name has evolved into a phenomenon, spawning a worldwide community
that has created a brand potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars,
an impressive not-for-profit online citizen's global encyclopedia available
in scores of languages, a website now in the top 50 that gets more traffic
than USA Today and The New York Times put together, and with a wide
range of spin-offs "in development" at the grass roots.
And it all happened
through the efforts of volunteers, without a bureaucratic top-down organization,
staff structure or marketing budget. Together, they have created an
international movement led by an international non-profit foundation
-- the Wikimedia Foundation -- to manage the infrastructure, run the
servers and pay the hosting and broad-band bills, which run about $200,000
a quarter.
Jimmy "Jimbo"
Wales, the Wikipedian-in-chief (participants think of themselves as
Wikipedians almost as if they are citizens of their own nation), is
a former commodities trader with a soft-spoken manner and a pragmatic
challenge-the-culture philosophy.
Back in the l960's,
activist Abbie Hoffman wrote under the name "Free" and encouraged
his readers to steal his books. In the 21st Century, stealing is no
longer necessary. All Wikipedia content is available under a free license
that also allows readers to copy, distribute, sell and modify the content
as long as the author is credited and no one monopolizes it.
A Revolution in
Consciousness and Content
As became clear
at the first-ever Wikimedia conference, held last weekend in Frankfurt
am Main, Germany, the Wikepedians see themselves leading a revolution
of content and consciousness that could easily become part of an emerging
citizens' journalism movement to transform mainstream media. In fact,
there is a now a Wiki news service enhanced with links to background
articles offering what most news lacks: context. The alternative and
independent media can learn a lot from its success, even though part
of its appeal is based on avoiding advocacy and writing with a neutral
point of view.
The Wiki conference
was not an academic affair or one of those industry confabs held in
a fancy hotel. It took place at a youth hostel, with more than 400 participants
from 52 countries, representing every continent except Antarctica. It
drew a brave editor from China, software executives from Jerusalem and
Palo Alto, and a fisheries expert from Mozambique who now also contributes
articles on the history of decolonization. It was a multi-generational
global gathering.
The event offered
65 lectures, workshops and tutorials to a crowd that had first met online
and knew each other initially only by their user names. Some participants
found it hard at first to put down their laptops and actually talk in
person, but soon -- thanks to the intimacy of the event and all the
German beer -- it seemed as if people had known each other for years.
Most of the "delegates" were men but, increasingly, women
are leading the movement.
It was hard not
to marvel at Wiki's achievements. The encyclopedia is growing in readership
and offerings. The English-language version started only in 2001 but
now includes 672,848 often-changing articles. What's even more exciting
is the Wikipedians' hope to encourage the creation of similar encyclopedias
in every language in the world. The articles themselves often offer
a level of depth and dimension not available anywhere else. An entry
on the Tsunami, for example, contained 5,000 edits from 508 authors.
You can learn more and see what they do at http://www.wikipedia.org/
Founder Jimbo Wales
-- whose first attempt at creating an encyclopedia as a for-profit company
failed because it lacked the kind of community passion that drives the
Wikipedia -- has become a voice for a broader culture of freedom that
is also free for all.
His 10-point "program"
was up to 23 points by the time his keynote session finished, and included
calls to:
1. Free the Encyclopedia
2. Free the Dictionary (An "ultimate wictionary" is underway)
3 Free the Curriculum
4. Free the Music
5. Free the Art
6. Free the File Formats
7. Free the Maps
8. Free the Product Identifiers
9. Free the TV Listings
Free the Media may
be next, as the Wikimedia community decides what change-oriented goals
to direct its energy and formidable intellectual firepower at. Our media
company, Globalvision, documented the conference and is considering
releasing a film on the movement as a "Wiki-mentary," with
multiple versions open to editing by the community.
Knowledge is said
to be power and the "Wiki way" of sharing knowledge is very
powerful. Perhaps its time for those who would change the world consider
adopting the participatory process that the Wikipedians are using to
great effect and with a measurable impact.
News Dissector Danny
Schechter is the blogger-in-chief of Mediachannel.org and the director
of WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception) a film on the media role in the Iraq
War. See wmdthefilm.com for more. Comments to [email protected]