Wikis For Dummies®

Chapter 4. Using and Improving the 800-pound Gorilla of Wikis: Wikipedia

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How Wikipedia works

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Adding and editing Wikipedia entries

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What Wikipedia can do for you

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Citing Wikipedia sources in your research

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Deciding whether Wikipedia is reliable

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Once upon a time, encyclopedia dealers came to your door to sell you their multivolume wares so that you and your offspring could truly live among the educated. These tomes, which publishers have groomed and updated over the course of decades (in some cases, centuries) were long ago digitized and put online. Even then, the information maintained the musty, authoritative air of a high school reference bookshelf. Just like book sales, stock trading, and paper mail, the encyclopedia system appeared to be working just fine, thank you.

Then, in 2001, something Wikipedia this way came.

The reasons for the success of Wikipedia — now the largest reference Web site on the Internet — are a direct result of its wiki-ness. In fact, Wikipedia grew directly from an attempt to create a free online encyclopedia (originally called Nupedia) that was peer reviewed. Nupedia was a nonstarter until one of the founders was introduced to Ward Cunningham’s WikiWikiWeb.

Then, pow! The idea for a collaborative, informal, rapidly changing reference Web site blossomed.

Because Wikipedia is the largest publicly accessible ...