Adventures with Skip-ipedia

Arguably the most profound result of the growth of the internet, and by extension, that of on-line journalism, is our ability to immediately connect to any “whats” or “whos” that we seek.  And

 

 

 

 

 

 

 (this piece is excerpted from my column in LostRemote)

more and more often, the availability all of this information comes courtesy of collaborations, such as Crowdsourcing.

Jeff Howe apparently coined that term in Wired in 2006, writing that the access to technology now means  “the gap between professionals and amateurs has been diminished.”

How do I know this? I read it on Wikipedia.

Wikkipedia is now the 7th ranked website in the world, that one-stop source for term papers everywhere, the bastion of on-line collaboration.

Except when certain facts are left out.                                        

My small-time, local, perhaps pathetic story has me wondering where else in our universe of information other more important holes exist.

As owner of a hyperlocal that’s big on local news, two years ago I  checked Wikipedia to see if we were listed on the Wiki page of one of the towns that we serve here in New York. I found a list of external links to all of of the legacy media sites. So being the Promotion Director, as well as the Editrix, Publisher and cleaning staff on theLoop, I registered and added a link to the site.

The next day it was gone.

  More