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The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of…
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The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia (original 2009; edition 2008)

by Andrew Lih (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
23412114,078 (3.65)18
If you are like me, you have your web browser homepage set at the Google homepage and 8 times out of 10, when you do a Google search for something, a Wikipedia article is one of the top hits in the search results list. Describing Wikipedia in Lih's own words,
"Wikipedia is a human-centered endeavor that invites participation on a massive scale. It usurps top-down authority, empowers individuals, and harnesses previously untapped labor of individuals previously isolated kin separate social networks, but brought together by the Internet."
Lih examines the idea of Wikipedia as an open information resource and the grassroots community of volunteer writers, editors and administrators who have built Wikipedia into the extensive online information resource it is to this day. Lih does a good job pointing out the teething/growing pains of Wikipedia over time, including personality/culture clashes between members as well as the difficulties of containing the ever growing throngs of vandals, trolls and sock puppets that are attracted to successful online sites that allow users edit/post capabilities, as we have noticed here on Librarything. The book was published in 2009 so it is not surprising that the next chapter of Wikipedia's life has already occurred outside of the pages of this book. While Lih does attempt to balance the social/cultural/community aspects of Wikipedia with the more technical, software geek side of software code and wiki structure, I can see where this may come across as rather dry reading for someone, especially if they are looking for more of the world end-user reaction to Wikipedia as a social phenomenon of the Internet age. ( )
  lkernagh | Jan 10, 2016 |
English (12)  Yiddish (1)  All languages (13)
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If you are like me, you have your web browser homepage set at the Google homepage and 8 times out of 10, when you do a Google search for something, a Wikipedia article is one of the top hits in the search results list. Describing Wikipedia in Lih's own words,
"Wikipedia is a human-centered endeavor that invites participation on a massive scale. It usurps top-down authority, empowers individuals, and harnesses previously untapped labor of individuals previously isolated kin separate social networks, but brought together by the Internet."
Lih examines the idea of Wikipedia as an open information resource and the grassroots community of volunteer writers, editors and administrators who have built Wikipedia into the extensive online information resource it is to this day. Lih does a good job pointing out the teething/growing pains of Wikipedia over time, including personality/culture clashes between members as well as the difficulties of containing the ever growing throngs of vandals, trolls and sock puppets that are attracted to successful online sites that allow users edit/post capabilities, as we have noticed here on Librarything. The book was published in 2009 so it is not surprising that the next chapter of Wikipedia's life has already occurred outside of the pages of this book. While Lih does attempt to balance the social/cultural/community aspects of Wikipedia with the more technical, software geek side of software code and wiki structure, I can see where this may come across as rather dry reading for someone, especially if they are looking for more of the world end-user reaction to Wikipedia as a social phenomenon of the Internet age. ( )
  lkernagh | Jan 10, 2016 |
well written and very interesting. ( )
  petrolpetal | Jan 30, 2011 |
I rather enjoyed this story of the development of Wikipedia. In some areas, such as entertainment, is the best and easiest resource to use for up-to-date information. As a collaborative effort, the structure of some articles is uneven, and there have been disputations. Of areas of interest to me, the Enneagram and some aspects of bus transportation service, there are some remarkable holes, and biased ideas of what should or should not be included. But as a whole, Wikipedia is very commendable. I think the author, Andrew Lih, has been even-handed. The story itself is engrossing. It is remarkable that so many people will volunteer their expertise in developing articles, and I have done minor edits myself. ( )
  vpfluke | Nov 14, 2010 |
If you’ve ever searched for content on the Internet, chances are you’ve seen a link to Wikipedia article near the top of your results list. Do you click on the Wikipedia link or ignore it? This book may help you decide. You might expect a book written by a Wikipedia insider with a foreword written by Wikipedia’s founder to be nothing more than an extended promotion of the site. However, author Andrew Lih doesn’t shy away from the controversial aspects of the site, and he recounts its failures as well as its successes. Librarians and educators with responsibility for teaching students how to evaluate Web content will benefit from reading this history of Wikipedia’s development and analysis of its ethos. ( )
1 vote cbl_tn | Aug 31, 2010 |
This audio book is a fascinating look at the resource we have all come to know. How does a resource that anyone can modify at any time work at all? The philosophy, technology, history and future of Wikipedia are all discussed in a knowledgeable and thoughtful way. Four stars. ( )
  mpontius | Apr 3, 2010 |
This is a fairly decent book about an important topic: Wikipedia. As an academic, I'm almost finished with my Ph.D. in history, I'm supposed to shun the encyclopedia that "anyone can edit." But, I find that attitude supremely elitist. Wikipedia is no different, to me, than skimming through Britannica or World Book to confirm a fact, or just plain have fun. In fact, it is better. You can't find information about the Black Crowes in Britannica, or something as arcane as "I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords." (Go ahead, put it in the Wikipedia search box.)

Anyway, Lih has written a fairly good, and even-handed, history of Wikipedia. The history is good, though I feel he falls a bit flat towards the end. For instance, I would have thrown in some examples from the Nature article; I would have had a chapter on its usefulness in academe; etc. But, it is a good first start. Telling Wikipedia's story through the various lenses of other technological innovations was brilliant.

Lastly, I wish Lih would have taken a bit more time to describe "flagged revisions" or "sighted revisions," and explained how it is an abomination to the whole Wikipedia concept; or tried to reconcile Jimmy Wales's glowing description of the wiki ethos in his intro and his seeming love affair with the idea of a stable "sighted" flagged Wikipedia. A flagged, sighted "stable" Wikipedia is not what Wikipedia is about. Historians know that there is no such thing as stable knowledge, otherwise there wouldn't be a new biography of Lincoln every two years. Right?

One peeve: Lih uses the amorphous phrase "hacker ethos" at least eight times in the book, and it irked me every damn time. One, because it just sounds pretentiously silly, a high-brow, low-brow affect; second, because it is never really defined; and lastly because he seems to equate hacker with good, when hacker to me conjures up images of DOS attacks, bank theft, and the like. So what is a "hacker ethos"? ( )
  tuckerresearch | Dec 8, 2009 |
If you wonder where things come from, this is an explainer book. It is not especially short and sometimes the audio version may induce sleep. I also went for the print book for comparison; audio has to leave out some things like tables or pictures. The author has been a contributor to Wikipedia for 4 yrs and does try to maintain journalistic neutrality, just as the online information source he is documenting. I found many parts interesting but some areas over-techinated. Overall, I enjoyed the writing and would like to see more about the important area of free access to all human knowledge, maybe sometimes scaled down so as to include those who aren't as well-educated but still want to know about things. ( )
  indigo7 | Oct 12, 2009 |
4600. The Wikipedia Revolution How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia, by Andrew Lih (read 26 Jul 2009) This tells about Wikipedia, which began in 2001 and is now one of the best sites on the Internet. I have Wikipedia on my toolbar, and visit the site often, and like it so much that once a year I contribute to keeping it alive and ad-free.. The book has some computer jargon which went over my head, but anyone interested in Wikipedia will find things of interest in the book. ( )
  Schmerguls | Jul 26, 2009 |
Very good history of the online encyclopedia, with a balanced view of its pros and cons. Good to read if you are trying to develop an idea into reality - it shows the various iterations Wikipedia took before it was fully formed. Also excellent discussion of community-based work - when it works, and when it presents challenges. ( )
  peggybr | May 3, 2009 |
Neatly covering Wikipedia - history, controversies, future issues with Wikipedian "standards" such as Essjay, Seigenthaler, Cunningham and the Spanish Fork but also more technical matters such as the historic development of the wiki-software and matters of internationalization. ( )
  fnielsen | Apr 24, 2009 |
The Wikipedia Revolution (2009) is probably the first serious attempt at a book-length history of Wikipedia. Unfortunately Andrew Lih is not a trained historian, it is a journalistic account with more reporting and synthesis than original interpretation. However it is still a quick and interesting read, even if Lih is a devout Wikipedian. Certain sections stand out: the history of Ward Cunningham who invented the Wiki software; the history of Larry Sanger and his role as "co-founder" (or not, depending, but it is not resolved here). The role of Usenet, Hypercard, Slashdot and MeatballWiki in the formation of early Wikipedia. A glimpse into the vastly different cultures of Japanese, Chinese, German and other foreign language Wikipedias. An overview of some (in)famous incidents such as Seigenthaler and Essjay. Lih appears to have researched the book mostly using archival sources - I was disappointed not to find new interviews with Wales, Sanger or any number of others - it takes away from the books value in the long term as a primary source, a missed opportunity to add to the historical record.

There is a short Introduction by Jimmy Wales which is a standard stump speech heard many times before. The Afterword contains a crowd-sourced essay on the future of Wikipedia and it does contain a meaty examination of the difficult issues facing Wikipedia now and in the future. I found it to be surprisingly good. The Afterword is released under a Creative Commons BY license so it's freely available to copy - it's odd Lih did not point to where it can be found online.

I would recommend this book for anyone who has been a long time member of Wikipedia and wants to learn more about 'a history experienced' over the past 8 years or so. There is so much that could be said about Wikipedia this book just grazes the surface but it's a good entry into what will certainly becoming a growing library of books about Wikipedia in the future.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd ( )
1 vote Stbalbach | Mar 22, 2009 |
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13556101 ( )
  Lunapilot | Jul 19, 2016 |
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