Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research (Jun 2014)
Wikipedia
Abstract
Above my desk is a quote by Albert Einstein: “Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics; I can assure you that mine are still greater.” One of Einstein’s problems, of course, was that since he was a pioneer, there were not many who could give him the correct answers. Wikipedia is in some ways in the same position. It is presently the 6th most visited website in the world (Alexa 2014), it is the only donor-supported website in the top 50 list, and Mozilla is the only other non-profit in the top 25 list (Gardner 2013). Few other very large websites use only copyright-free material, written and maintained by anyone, with a decision system that has been described as consensus-driven. Even the five-year strategic plan for the Wikimedia Foundation was crowd-sourced (Wikimedia 2011b).
