An Interview with Wikipedia's Jimbo Wales

Raul654 writes "The Wikipedia Signpost, Wikipedia's weekly in-house publication, is this week featuring an interview with Jimbo Wales. The questions, which were submitted by Wikipedia regulars, hit on subjects related to the Foundation, the budgeting and legal issues, the blocking of Wikipedia in China, as well as where Jimbo sees Wikipedia in the future."

Comments

Re:Balkanization Risk as Wiki Grows

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, Wikipedia has had policies that strive to prevent this for a long time. So far, they seem to be working very well. Here are some of them:

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral point of view
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_personal _attacks
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Civility
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiabili ty
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Assume_good _faith
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipe dia_is_not

There is no indication that Wikipedia is turning into a trollfest. Of course, some subjects like the Muhammad cartoons cause a great deal of debate, but for the most part it is focused on writing an Encyclopedia, not a debate club. As it should be.

Re:Why Wikipedia isn't working

[tpgp]

Here's a tidbit for you concerning the food crisis in the Horn of Africa: drought is caused by high prices, overpopulation, and conflict. From the Horn of Africa Food Crisis article on Wikipedia: "This shortage, along with other factors including high cereal prices, overpopulation in the region, and conflict, have led to severe drought conditions." (1/11/06)

Is that the best example you can come up with?

A six month old problem, that was fixed on the day you blogged about it. It now reads

These conditions of drought, together with other factors including high cereal prices, overpopulation in the region, and conflict, are leading to conditions of famine.

Look at the page's history and you see

21:31, 11 January 2006 Boud (summary: drought vs famine; +several cosmetic corrections)

OK - Wikipedia isn't perfect, but to completely dismiss it is....somewhat shortsighted of you.

After all - it's the only (decent) game in town when it comes to free, online information.