The journal Nature: “…the Wiki community has mutated since 2001 from an oligarchy to a democracy. The percentage of edits made by the Wikipedia ‘élite’ of administrators increased steadily up to 2004, when it reached around 50%. But since then it has steadily declined, and is now just 10% (and falling).”

Truth In Numbers is a documentary about Wikipedia (currently in production). Here’s the first trailer:

It looks like it’s going to be really good — the crew is crisscrossing asia right now (you can follow their progress here), which is where the real Wikipedia esprit de corps is.

The Walking City was an idea proposed by British architect Ron Herron in 1964. In an article in avant-garde architecture journal Archigram, Ron Herron proposed building massive mobile robotic structures, with their own intelligence, that could freely roam the world, moving to wherever their resources or manufacturing abilities were needed. Various walking cities could interconnect with each other to form larger ‘walking metropolises’ when needed, and then disperse when their concentrated power was no longer necessary.

Slate magazine: “Wikipedia’s notability policy resembles U.S. immigration policy before 9/11: stringent rules, spotty enforcement.”

Same topic: Scott McCloud, patron saint of webcomics (and comics in general) is “fed up with Wikipedia”.

There’s a lot to be said about notability guidelines, but it’s all been said so many times. (Google inclusionist deletionist.) It’s clear, at this point, that something should be done. But that’s like writing “americans shouldn’t vote for republicans” — easier said than done. Wikipedia is now a complex society and culture, with its own internal dynamics and inertia.

Too, there’s a balance to be walked, and nobody knows quite how to walk it. How do you keep major webcomics in, but still make sure Flat-Earthers and guru-come-con-artists can’t finesse their way into exuberant coverage?

Good quote from the Slate article:

When people go to this much trouble to maintain a distinction rendered irrelevant by technological change, the search for an explanation usually leads to Thorstein Veblen’s 1899 book, The Theory of the Leisure Class. This extended sociological essay argues that the pursuit of status based on outmoded social codes takes precedence over, and frequently undermines, the rational pursuit of wealth and, more broadly, common sense. Hierarchical distinctions among people and things remain in force not because they retain practical value, but because they have become pleasurable in themselves. Wikipedia’s stubborn enforcement of its notability standard suggests Veblen was right. We limit entry to the club not because we need to, but because we want to.

I’m cherrypicking wiki-related posts from my reader — check the left sidebar (or this page, if you want all of them).

A gravity train is a theoretical means of transportation intended to go between two points on the surface of a sphere, following a straight tunnel that goes directly from one point to the other through the interior of the sphere.

Hello Wiki

I came up with this while working on merchandise for the store — it’s a parody of Hello Kitty, obviously, and technically fair use but way too risky to sell (I thought it was funny enough to post here as a Private Citizen, thought).

What will Wikipedia be like in 5 years? Great blog post.
via

I’m pretty sure all this stuff will come true — if it doesn’t happen on the main site, it’ll happen via greasemonkey-style mashups. Interesting digression:

In general, scientists (especially in the “harder” fields) and mathematicians have shown a great deal more enthusiasm than humanists, with social scientists somewhere between. (I find this ironic, because humanities fields have so much more to gain from an integrated and cross-linked ecology of knowledge; despite constant flux and discipline genesis at the borders and the current rhetorical vogue of “interdisciplinary” research, science topics are relatively self-contained compared to humanities topics.)

Rumors of Wikimedia’s Death Greatly Exaggerated

Did I mention that I like Wikiworld? It’s exactly like this blog, only a comic.