The edition I encountered by the roadside was in suspiciously good shape. Although the covers were a little wilted, the spines were uncracked and the pages immaculate—telltale signs of 50 years of infrequent use. And as I learned when I retrieved as many volumes as I could carry home, the contents are an antidote for anyone waxing nostalgic. I found the articles in my '65 Britannica mostly high quality and high minded, but the tone of breezy acumen could become imprecise.
You can pretty much forget about television. Lord Byron, meanwhile, commands four whole pages. This conservative tendency wasn't limited to Britannica. Growing up, I remember reading the entry on dating in a hand-me-down World Book and being baffled by its emphasis on sharing milkshakes.
The worthies who wrote these entries, moreover, didn't come cheap. According to an article in The Atlantic from , Britannica contributors earned 10 cents per word, on average—about 50 cents in today's money. Sometimes they got a full encyclopedia set as a bonus. They apparently didn't show much gratitude for this compensation; the editors complained of missed deadlines, petulant behavior, lazy mistakes, and outright bias.
There was another seldom remembered limitation to these gospel tomes: They were, in a way, shrinking. The total length of paper encyclopedias remained relatively finite, but the number of facts in the universe kept growing, leading to attrition and abbreviation. It was a zero-sum game in which adding new articles meant deleting or curtailing incumbent information. Even the most noteworthy were not immune; between and , Bach's Britannica entry shrank by two pages.
By the time the internet came into being, a limitless encyclopedia was not just a natural idea but an obvious one. Yet there was still a sense—even among the pioneers of the web—that, although the substrate was new, the top-down, expert-driven Britannica model should remain in place. In , 10 months before Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger cofounded Wikipedia, the pair started a site called Nupedia, planning to source articles from noted scholars and put them through seven rounds of editorial oversight.
But the site never got off the ground; after a year, there were fewer than two dozen entries. They assumed nothing good would come of it, but within a year Wikipedia had 20, articles. By the time Nupedia's servers went down a year later, the original site had become a husk, and the seed it carried had grown beyond any expectation. The same year, another influential Wikipedia editor, Eugene Izhikevich, launched Scholarpedia, an invitation-only, peer-reviewed online encyclopedia with a focus on the sciences.
Citizendium struggled to attract both funding and contributors and is now moribund; Scholarpedia, which started out with less lofty ambitions, has fewer than 2, articles. But more notable was why these sites languished. They came up against a simple and apparently insoluble problem, the same one that Nupedia encountered and Wikipedia surmounted: Most experts do not want to contribute to a free online encyclopedia.
This barrier to entry exists even in places where there are many experts and large volumes of material to draw from. Napoleon Bonaparte, for instance, is the subject of tens of thousands of books.
There are probably more dedicated historians of the Corsican general than of almost any other historical figure, but so far these scholars, even the retired or especially enthusiastic ones, have been disinclined to share their bounty.
Citizendium's entry on Napoleon, around 5, words long and unedited for the past six years, is missing events as major as the decisive Battle of Borodino, which claimed 70, casualties, and the succession of Napoleon II.
By contrast, Wikipedia's article on Napoleon sits at around 18, words long and runs to more than sources. The Wikipedia replacement products revealed another problem with the top-down model: With so few contributors, coverage was spotty and gaps were hard to fill. Scholarpedia's entry on neuroscience makes no mention of serotonin or the frontal lobes. No matter how politically touchy or intellectually abstruse the topic, the crowd develops consensus.
On the English-language Wikipedia, particularly controversial entries, like those on George W. Bush or Jesus Christ, have edit counts in the thousands.
Wikipedia, in other words, isn't raised up wholesale, like a barn; it's assembled grain by grain, like a termite mound.
The smallness of the grains, and of the workers carrying them, makes the project's scale seem impossible. But it is exactly this incrementalism that puts immensity within reach. The heroes of Wikipedia are not giants in their fields but so-called WikiGnomes—editors who sweep up typos, arrange articles in neatly categorized piles, and scrub away vandalism.
This work is often thankless, but it does not seem to be joyless. It is a common starting point for Wikipedians, and many are content to stay there.
According to a paper in the journal Management Science , the median edit length on Wikipedia is just 37 characters, an effort that might take a few seconds. From there, though, many volunteers are drawn deeper into the site's culture. They discuss their edits on Talk pages; they display their interests and abilities on User pages; some vie to reach the top of the edit-count leaderboard.
An elect few become administrators; while around a quarter of a million people edit Wikipedia daily, only around 1, accounts have admin privileges.
The site is deep and complex enough—by one count, its policy directives and suggestions run to more than , words—that its most committed adherents must become almost like lawyers, appealing to precedent and arguing their case.
As with the law, there are different schools of interpretation; the two largest of these are deletionists and inclusionists. Deletionists favor quality over quantity, and notability over utility. Inclusionists are the opposite. The easiest way to start adding content to your wiki is to edit the home page and add placeholder links to pages that you will create later.
Note: To edit wiki pages, people need permission to contribute to a wiki. On the wiki page that you want to edit, click Page , and then click Edit. Use the buttons on the ribbon to format text, and insert other content, such as pictures, tables, hyperlinks, and Web Parts.
To add wiki links to other pages, type the name of the page surrounded by double square brackets: [[Page Name]]. For example, to add a wiki link to a page named "Project Dates," type: [[Project Dates]]. When you start to type [[ , if the page exists, you'll be able to select it from the list. If the page that you are linking to does not exist yet, you can create a link to the page anyway. After you save the edited page, the placeholder link you just created will have a dotted line beneath it.
The actual page will be created later when someone else clicks the link to the page. When you are finished editing the page, click Page and then click Save. Tip: You can add more content later or change content that you have entered by clicking Edit.
If you created a placeholder link, you can later click the link to create and edit the page. From the wiki page that you want to add users, click Share. Enter the names, email addresses, or the alias 'Everyone'. If you have team email aliases such as 'Engineering', or any other group alias, you can also enter those here. As you enter the names, the server verifies the existence of the user account or alias.
To set permissions for the new users, click Show Options. Under Select a group or permission level or Select a permission level , select one of the groups or permission level such as Read, Edit, or Full control.
To see the list of all users who are already sharing the site, click Shared with. When you check out a wiki page, you ensure that others cannot make changes to the page while you edit it. While the page is checked out, you can edit and save it, close it, and reopen it. Other users cannot change the page or see your changes until you check it in. From the wiki page that you want to edit, click Page and then click Check Out.
Note: When you check a page out, you are only reserving it for yourself, it doesn't save, download, or edit. You need to choose what you want to do. Note: To check in the wiki page after editing, click the Check In button. You can add a picture from your computer, web address or from your SharePoint site directly to your wiki page.
If you are not already editing the wiki page, click Edit. Click where you want to insert the picture, and then click the Insert tab on the ribbon. Browse to the picture on your computer, select the library that you want to upload the picture to, and then click OK.
You may need to fill in additional information about the picture you are uploading. In the Alternative Text box, type some text to describe the picture. Alternative text or Alt text appears as tooltip text when readers point to the picture. Alt text also helps people using screen readers understand the content of pictures. In the Select an Asset box, select a library or folder containing the picture you want to insert, Then click the picture, and then click Insert.
You may need to fill in additional information about the picture you are inserting. You can use the commands on the Image tab to add Alt Text for your image, change its appearance, and position it on the page. Wiki pages support the placement of links to other web or SharePoint sites outside the wiki across the top of the page and on the Quick Launch bar. These links differ from wiki links placed directly on the wiki page by users as they are specifically managed by the wiki administrator.
You can also drag and drop links to rearrange them. On the wiki page that you want to edit, click Edit Links at the top of the page, or Edit Links in the Quick Launch bar. Click the Link gadget. Enter the text for the Text to Display field for the link. This determines how the link appears on the page. Enter the URL address in the Address field. To rearrange links in the Quick Launch bar or at the top of the wiki page, click Edit Links , select any link, and drag it to a new position in its section.
To edit links in the Quick Launch bar or at the top of the wiki page, click Edit Links , select any link, and then click to place the cursor in any location of the link text. Click the Edit a Link tool to edit the contents of the link, including its address. You can use wiki links to link pages together by simply using the page name surrounded by double square brackets. You create wiki links the same way whether you are linking to existing wiki pages or pages that do not exist yet.
For example, if your team will be creating a link later for Training Issues, you can go ahead and insert the link to the page now by typing [[Training Issues]]. After you save the page, the link to your future page appears with a dotted line under it. To create the page later, someone can click the underlined placeholder link and then click Create. Type [[ and then begin typing the name of the page. The wiki will suggest page names that start with what you are typing.
Type a new page name followed by ]]. If you type a new page name, you will create a link to a page which has not yet been created.
Your finished page name should be surrounded by double square brackets, like this: [[Page Name]]. Tips: To quickly add a link from a wiki page back to the home page for your wiki, type [[Home]]. You can link to many objects in SharePoint, not just pages.
Here are some examples of links:. To display double opening or closing brackets without making a link, type a backslash before the two brackets. You can create wiki placeholder links to pages that do not exist yet. Creating placeholder links helps people create the wiki in smaller pieces without worrying about creating every page in the wiki all at once.
A placeholder wiki link has a dotted line beneath it. You can edit wiki links, as well as the display text that someone sees when they click the link.
Wiki links are different from hyperlinks to pages or websites outside of the wiki. To edit or change hyperlinks, use the Format tab on the Link Tools contextual tab of the ribbon instead.
You might need to edit the display text for a wiki link if the name of the page you want to link to is not clear in the context of the page where you are inserting the link. For example, if the page for brainstorming ideas about the first chapter of a book is named CH1, you might want "Chapter One" as the display text for the link, so that the purpose of the page is clearer. To edit the path of the link so that it points to a different page, click between the two sets of double-square brackets [[ and ]] , and then replace the current link with the name of the page that you want to link to.
Click Insert , then click Link , and then click From Address. In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, type the text to display and the web address for the link. In the Select an Asset dialog box, browse to the file that you want to create a link to, and then click Insert. You can add other items to a wiki page, such as a tasks list to track action items or tasks related to the wiki.
Later, you can choose whether or not the list or library appears on the Quick Launch navigation for the wiki. If you are not already editing the wiki page, click Page , and then click Edit. On the pane that appears on top of the page, under Categories click Apps , and then under Parts , select the name of the list or library, and then click Add. To create a library, see Create a document library in SharePoint.
By default, a team site is a wiki. Therefore, you can start from your team site or another type of site and begin creating wiki pages there. If you use this method, each new page is created in the Site Pages library. If you prefer to manage your wiki separately, you can create a wiki library that is separate from the Site Pages library. On the site where you want to create the wiki page library, click Site Actions , and then click More Options. In the Name box, type a name for the library, such as Wiki Pages.
Note: You can configure the settings for the wiki page library, such as permissions, page history, and incoming links, from the Page tab on the ribbon.
Before you create an Enterprise wiki, you must determine whether it is the most appropriate solution for the organization and ensure that other services that it depends on are enabled at the Central Administration and site collection administration levels.
For more information about planning and creating an Enterprise wiki site, see Enterprise wiki planning SharePoint Server on TechNet. To enable publishing with correct permissions , see Enable publishing features in SharePoint On the site where you want to create an Enterprise wiki, click Site Actions , and then click New Site. To set unique permission or the navigation inheritance for the site, click More Options.
Note: You can configure the site permissions and other site settings for the Enterprise wiki site, from the Site Actions menu. Find links to more information about managing access to a wiki in the See Also section. Note: If the page that you are linking to does not exist yet, a placeholder link with a dotted underline will appear on the page after you save the edited page.
With the page in edit mode, click where you want to insert the picture, and then click the Insert tab on the ribbon. Click the Picture button, and then click From Computer.
Click the arrow beneath the Picture button, and then click From Address. In the Alternative Text box, type alternative text to describe the picture. Alternative text appears as tooltip text when readers point to the picture. Billions of people have yet to access Wikipedia — or even the internet. Efforts to spread disinformation and misinformation and enforce censorship online are increasingly sophisticated and prevalent.
Lubbock points to a drive to even out diversity in Wikipedia entries and editing, to encourage more involvement from women and non-white communities. There is also increasing commercial shenanigans, with companies and enterprising public relations people sweeping through Wikipedia to pepper pages with mentions of corporate entities and specific brands, which all provides extra work for the volunteer editors. The general message with Wikipedia is that here, on the face of it, is what we know.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Some mischievous rewriting of history is inevitable, but editors are vigilant when it comes to party political grime artists.
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