This postYesterday I watched Jimmy Wales’ TEDTalk (he’s on August 21, 2006), and my interest was piqued. Now, I’ve used Wikipedia often (who hasn’t? :)), but I hadn’t looked too closely at the other Wikimedia projects. Some of them are quite interesting, so here’s a brief little runthrough:
Wiktionary is a “wiki-based Open Content dictionary.” So if you’ve ever wanted to feel like Sir James Murray and the OED editors, here’s your chance. :) (Yes, it’s different, but it is kind of similar, too.) The advantage an open dictionary has is it can be updated far faster and easier than something like the OED. Make no mistake — I heart the OED and use it often — but this is an easy way for budding lexicographers to get some experience. They have 100,000+ articles for English so far. (Oh, the other really cool thing is its multilingual aspect, which the OED can’t even touch.)
Wikibooks is an “open content textbooks collection.” Wikipedia’s great for articles and small nuggets of knowledge, but if you’re trying to master a topic, it’s helpful to have things laid out in order for you. (A before B before C.) And Wikibooks does that. There’s some pretty cool stuff, like the Movie Making Manual (which is the Book of the Month this month) and the Reverse Engineering book. It’s a brilliant way to make more knowledge available to more people, especially third world countries. And, as always, anyone can contribute.
Wikiversity is an extension of Wikibooks, aiming at creating an open university, with courses and lectures and the like. I still don’t quite understand it, but I can tell that it’s really cool. In fact, it gives me goosebumps. A college-level education will eventually be available to anyone with an Internet connection. Wow.
Wikispecies is an “open, free directory of species.” They have almost 64,000 articles so far, so if you’re interested in biology or botany, this is the place for you.
Wikinews is, as it sounds, a free-content news source. I don’t know the quality level is, but it’s a cool idea. Journalists take note!
Wikimedia Commons is “a database of media files,” including images, sound, and video. They’ve got almost 800,000 files so far, and it looks like everything is under either a Creative Commons license, the GNU Free Documentation License, or in the public domain, which means you can use them. Not bad. :)
Wikiquote is “a free online compendium of quotations,” and it looks pretty well stocked. For example, they have a good-sized collection of Helen Keller quotes. This is cool because anyone can contribute, which opens it up to a huge community who can do far more than a single individual ever could.
Wikisource is “an online library of free content publications” — fiction, non-fiction, biography, poetry, speeches, and so on. It seems like a small version of Project Gutenberg, but it also hooks into biographies on Wikipedia, quotes on Wikiquote, and media on Wikicommons. There are also some items of interest like the JonBenét Ramsey ransom note.
For me, the exciting thing is the democratization of information, making it available to everyone and giving everyone rights to add to it. The sum of human knowledge. That is what it’s becoming, by golly. (And yes, I know that not everything will be accounted for, but a substantial amount has and will be gathered.) This is the kind of thing that makes us librarian-types giddy. :)
And have I mentioned that all of the material in all of these projects is free for use? ~more goosebumps~ :)
