Life is a Mystery
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Wikipedia

/ 07 August 2004

Slashdot is carrying a nice little interview with Jimmy Wales, the creator of the Wikipedia. If you’ve not yet discovered this wonderful example of “open content” you should take a peek. The wikipedia’s philosophy of openness not only of access, but also of authorship is an inspiring extension of what libraries have been about. What if we didn’t just share the reference collection, but helped co-author it? Amazingly, the wikipedia organizers consider $50,000 of support a big deal. Libraries regularly attract bigger grants from the feds and organization like Mellon with a whole lot less to show for it. I wonder what the wikipedia could do with a $250,000 Mellon grant?