A Wikipedia expert tells the inside story of the trailblazing--and incrediblypopular--open source encyclopedia.
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Oct 05, 2009
Jean-claude
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Anyone with an interest in the Open Anything movement will find this history of Wikipedia useful and interesting. It will encourage people with ideas and passion to get out there and experiment. Although a truly successful project demonstrating the power of crowdsourcing, it highlights the constant struggle by the founders and participant at all levels - ranging from the technical to legal, social and ethical realms. The importance of timing and luck is also made clear. In another ten years
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Feb 12, 2011
Ian
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A well-written and intriguing account on the rise and working of Wikipedia. While at times it seemed a bit disjointed, and repetitious, that in no way takes away from the fascinating accounts Andrew Lih provides.
By looking not only at Wikipedia but its predecessors, as well as looking into the history of internet communities, the reasoning behind and the great success of Wikipedia is made clearer. Lih does not shy away from the various controversies and criticisms of Wikipedia, and i More...
By looking not only at Wikipedia but its predecessors, as well as looking into the history of internet communities, the reasoning behind and the great success of Wikipedia is made clearer. Lih does not shy away from the various controversies and criticisms of Wikipedia, and i More...
Jun 21, 2009
Paige
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Andrew Lih writes for the non-techie, giving a clear overview of how Wikipedia works and how it got started. If you want to focus on the mechanics of Wikipedia - how edit wars are resolved and how vandalism is deterred - you could start reading about halfway through the book. However, I found the early chapters intriguing since they explore the origins of collaborative online culture including Usenets and HyperCard of the early 1980’s and even the “online culture” of amateur radio in the 1960s
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Aug 13, 2009
lisa
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I borrowed this book from the library because the title caught my eye, and I've always been interested in Wikipedia. I thought it was a good overview of how Wikipedia came to be, the decisions that the people involved made, and how those decisions still affect it today. I think Lih was unbiased in his telling, seeming to follow the Wikipedia model.
Jul 28, 2010
Julie
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An interesting historical perspective of the personalities and principles behind Wikipedia. Lih makes a clear argument for why Wikipedia is NOT the World's Greatest Encyclopedia however hard it might be trying. Fascinating information on foreign language Wikis.
Jun 14, 2009
Phil
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If you're a web developer (Marissa!!!) you'll proabably love it. For the avearge person curious about how Wikipedia works, it's too much information, especially about it's early competitors.
Seems well researched. Writing's a bit dry.
Seems well researched. Writing's a bit dry.
May 27, 2009
Bob
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This is an interesting review of the history of wikipedia, but one that is padded with a lot of tables, transcripts, etc.
Told by a semi-insider, it chronicles the leaps and missteps involved in making wikipedia the phenomenon it is today.
Told by a semi-insider, it chronicles the leaps and missteps involved in making wikipedia the phenomenon it is today.
May 01, 2009
Peter
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OK. Not bad.
I did like the comparison of Sanger's mgmt of the early wikipedia/nupedia with Wales'. There's definitely a lesson in there for those trying to herd the 2.0 cats, and keep them interested and contributing.
I did like the comparison of Sanger's mgmt of the early wikipedia/nupedia with Wales'. There's definitely a lesson in there for those trying to herd the 2.0 cats, and keep them interested and contributing.
Sep 07, 2010
Joseph
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Interesting at first, but mostly self-indulgent. Wish they had chosen an audio speaker actually familiar with some technical terms. Each of the times he used the pronunciation Sigh-sop for SysOp I cringed a little. The spelling out of ASCII was equally absurd.
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Jun 04, 2009
Carrie
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Wikipedia is really special the way it works with volunteers and is still standardized. And you really can change anything in it.
Apr 12, 2010
Ken
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I "read" the audiobook edition. Interesting, though it goes too deeply into specific examples in detail of entries and arguments. It was unabridged, but I would have enjoyed an abridged version more.
Aug 10, 2009
Brian
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A really fascinating read that I would recommend to anyone who's interested in Wikipedia. I read this book primarily for professional purposes. However, it was easy to read and provided a lot of useful information about the history of, controversy over, and the technology at work in Wikipedia. Actually, if you use Wikipedia at all, I would recommend reading this book.
Apr 20, 2009
John
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Quick informative read on the history of wikis and wikipedia that also touches on many web content developments in the last decade in an approachable way.
Jul 13, 2009
Claudette
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I'm no programmer. I loved all the wiki-words I learned and I was continually amazed by the clever and gigantic ideas that have brough Wikipedia to where it is today. In this age of fast-paced innovation I realized this "history" of Wikipedia is indeed just that because of what its founders and volunteers have accomplished in only a decade. Also it's worth mentioning that about three years before Wikipedia's launch there weren't even SEARCH ENGINE
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Jan 23, 2012
Widijanto
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menarik dibaca pada bab-bab awal..termasuk sedikit tulisan mengenai si manusia eksentrik pengagas gerakan Free and Open Source Software, Richard Stallman (RMS). Lewat buku ini juga pembaca akan tahu keterkaitan antara gerakan Free and Open Source Software dengan Wikipedia itu spt apa. Jika selama ini orang akan mengeryitkan dahi jika mendengar GNU, Linux, Opensource, maka tidak jika ditanya tentang Wikipedia. Padahal filosofi yang dianut Wikipedia adalah filosofi Free and Open Source Software
Nov 28, 2011
Finished this this weekend and found it quite fascinating. We all, by now, take Wikipedia for granted but it took loads of work and volunters to make it so... and to get it to have the credibility it now has. This book explores all of that.
Jul 18, 2009
Tom
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sounded like a fascinating study--well maybe not fascinating but interesting. it turns out be a detailed history of the development of the wiki idea as well as wikipedia itself.
i'm about a third of the way through the book--since i'm reading it on my kindle it's hard to know the page number.
i also got a copy for the school library here.
i'm about a third of the way through the book--since i'm reading it on my kindle it's hard to know the page number.
i also got a copy for the school library here.
Aug 22, 2011
Deborah
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It was interesting. I liked the beginning the most, as I got closer to the end I knew more of the information and more of it was out of date.
The text ends at the top of page 229, the rest is notes and an index.
The text ends at the top of page 229, the rest is notes and an index.
Jul 06, 2009
Thirsty_Mind
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A reasonably good summary of Wikipedia's evolution, but doesn't offer much novel analysis. I could be biased due to being familiar with a lot of this material beforehand.
Sep 11, 2010
Mimi
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I really got a lot out of this book. It was informative and gave me a new respect for Wikipedia, both as a reference source and as a social experiment.
Apr 09, 2010
Jared
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Everything you could ever want to know about Wikipedia - and more. A thorough overview.
Feb 11, 2012
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