online encyclopedia

8 Stories

Wikipedia's New Headache: Admin Problems

Barely anyone is being promoted to admin these days

(Newser) - While attending Wikimania last Friday in DC, the Atlantic's Robinson Meyer came across three charts that made him worry about Wikipedia's future. He acknowledges it's not new news that the number of Wikipedia editors has been on the decline for the last five years. Here's what...

Contributors Flee Wikipedia's Stricter Rules

Effort to combat bias, vandalism has thinned ranks by 49K

(Newser) - In an attempt to rein in the lawlessness and veiled opinion running rampant among its volunteer editors, Wikipedia may have shot itself in the foot. In the first 3 months of this year, there's been something of a stampede of contributors exiting the crowdsourced online encyclopedia, leading to a net...

Wikipedia Adds Editor Review for Some Articles

(Newser) - After riding its users to popularity, Wikipedia is now moving to rein them in, the New York Times reports, by mandating editorial review for articles about living people. The feature, called “flagged revisions,” means an experienced editor will check updates to the free, user-generated online encyclopedia. The change...

Europe's Culture Gets Virtual Backup

EU plans to digitize 10,000 artifacts

(Newser) - European culture is going digital. Priceless items such as the Magna Carta, the Mona Lisa, and the Gutenberg Bible will eventually be accessible worldwide for free on “Europeana,” an online encyclopedia funded by the European Union. It plans to match Google Library Project’s 10 million artifacts by...

Author Shares a Bit of 'Knol' on Google

Writers finds system 'intuitive,' but pages look 'dull'

(Newser) - Now that Google has launched its "Knol" option to Wikipedia that allows people to pen articles on topics, CNET writer Elinor Mills takes a stab at being one of the site's experts. Google's offering has a key difference to Wikipedia: the writer of a Knol entry has near total...

Google Unveils Wikipedia Rival
Google Unveils Wikipedia Rival
Jul 24, 2008 4:30 AM CDT

Google Unveils Wikipedia Rival

Experts replace anonymous writers in search king's online encylopedia

(Newser) - Could Wikipedia's assassin be lurking behind a Knol? Google opened up its online encyclopedia with articles—or "units of knowledge" Google calls "Knols"—to the public today, featuring major differences from its well-established rival. The  pieces are written by experts and their names are highlighted, in marked...

New Site Wants Your Wikipedia Rejected Bio

Biographicon invites the real average Joes to tell their tales

(Newser) - While Wikipedia may promote itself as an encyclopedia of, for, and by the people, anybody who's had his stint as autobiographer cut short by the infamous "notability" requirement knows the site to be otherwise. Or so hope the creators of startup Biographicon, a website that invites the nobodies of...

Google Takes On Wikipedia
Google Takes On Wikipedia
Dec 14, 2007 4:40 PM CST

Google Takes On Wikipedia

Online encyclopedia is in beta testing

(Newser) - The company is developing a collaborative online encyclopedia, called the "knol project," that will allow contributors to earn money by including Google ads on their pages. Google won't edit content, but will give high search ranking to entries it considers high quality, reports CNET. Users will also be...

8 Stories