Wikipedia and Citizendium

I ran across a Harvard Business School case study on Wikipedia and “Enterprise 2.0”. It’s a good read. Don’t expect an earth shattering conclusion about the term if you read the article. It’s a case study discussion piece.

I still found the article interesting for a general perspective on Wikipedia and its problems. Personally, I like Wikipedia. It’s not a conclusive information source, but often it’s a reasonable place to start when looking for information. Like anything on the web, you can’t always assume it’s 100% accurate. Just go in with eyes wide open. The site illustrates both the power of collective intelligence and also the ugly side of folks that try to spoil the collective intelligence. I have found some strange articles and some heated content discussions. The HBS article outlines perhaps why those issues are showing up on Wikipedia.

That case study led me to read a bit about Sanger’s new effort labeled Citizendium (a Citizen’s Compendium). In brief, it’s trying to be a better, more authoritative Wikipedia. You can read more about the philosophy behind the effort and there is information about the organization behind the new wiki. The main Citizendium pilot page has more information about participation. Any authors or editors out there? It sounds like an ambitious, but worthy goal. However, it’s sad to see that the ‘bad apples’ are still there trying to spoil the development rather than applying their effort for the collective good. I guess some kids never did learn to play nicely in the sandbox.