Micro Persuasion

Newsrooms Struggle with Wikipedia Citations

The Editors Weblog reports on the mixed attitudes of newspaper editors citing Wikipedia articles. Some, like the LA Times, are liberal. Others, like the Journal, use it for research. The American Journalism Review goes into more depth. A Google News search shows the practice is rampant.

The big question in my mind is this: when journalists cite Wikipedia articles, what happens when the facts they reference from the wiki entries change (assuming they do)? Do the reporters go back and update their articles? The news reports call more attention to the articles, potentially opening up a can of worms each time they source WIkipedia.

Seems like a big vicious cycle. Perhaps in the future these stories will carry some of the same disclaimers that WIkipedia lists.

Purported Steve Jobs Keynote Leaked on Wikipedia

I have been an Apple watcher for years. I freelanced for Mac pubs in the mid 1990s. Now that doesn't make me more of an expert than anyone else. However, I am inclined to believe this alleged Steve Jobs keynote leak. It sounds real. Jobs' keynote is tomorrow at the Macworld Expo.

Don't take my word for it. There's additional soft evidence from Twitter's co-founders here, here, here and above all - here. Twitter is reportedly part of the iPhone SDK and part of the keynote, the Wikipedia leak says.

We'll find for sure out tomorrow if this all true, but I bet it is. Go read it and you will pretty much get a rumored run down of everything Steve Jobs is announcing tomorrow at Macworld - widgets for iPhones, new Macbooks, candy canes and lollipops.

The reason I believe it's real is because it leaked on Wikipedia. And Wikipedia promotes anonymity. So it's very hard to trace who placed the item and his/her motives. I could be wrong. But my gut is, this is the real deal and it's a big moment in the history of public relations.

How big? Very big. This is like Fort Knox getting unlocked. Apple has long operated under a universal code of silence. And this event - again if it is true - shows that those days are gone.

So come back tomorrow and then either a) we'll talk more about what this all means or b) ya'll make fun of me for being gullible and believing stuff on Wikipedia. (Note: Apple competes with several Edelman clients.)

Wikipedia and Wikia are Dead. Google Just Killed Them

Google announced last night they are starting a project called knol that will allow anyone to create wiki-like pages on topics. In particular, Google is encouraging people who know a particular subject to write an "authoritative" article about it. The search engine will not vet any of the content, however, they will prioritize the most credible entries and rank them first in search results. It remains unclear how Google is measuring credibility - a scary thought.

Still, with this move Google is clearly targeting Wikipedia (which is perhaps their biggest rival) and quite possibly is trying to ensure that Jimmy Wales' forthcoming social search engine, Wikia, is dead on arrival. Consider the timing of this announcement. It comes just days before Wikia is set to launch in beta and when Google doesn't even have any site we can poke at.

My initial take on this is that knols are going to kill Wikipedia - but it will take time. This theory, however, hinges on whether people actually start creating knols, but I believe they will. Here are several reasons why Wikipedia and Wikia are dead ...

1) The fame factor - Google prioritizes knols over Wikipedia

In theory, Google no longer needs to rely on Wikipedia for fresh content. The search engine will prioritize content from its own system and rank the most credible articles more highly than anything in the open source encyclopedia. This alone will encourage people to add to the commons. It will take time though for Google to reach a critical mass with its knols. Do not underestimate the power of fame.

2) Official sources and experts are welcomed, not spurned.

I love the openness of Wikipedia. However, I have long chided its lack of openness toward corporations and other sources of authority. As much as we would like to think people don't want corporations playing in our sandbox, most average users welcome organization and multiple perspectives. This is why we still have a thriving profession called editors. When it comes to corporations, Google is open, Wikpedia is closed.

3) Infinite Resources

Wikipedia has been trying to raise money for a long time now. Meanwhile, Google has infinite resources and the most powerful marketing vehicle on the planet to push it.

I am excited about the launch of this initiative. It is my hope that corporations and organizations that play by the rules will be able to unleash their subject matter experts to add content to the commons in a way the community accepts. There's no reason they should be excluded, provided there is some degree of counter balance.

What's even more exciting is that it reinforces the role of PR in this new wild and wooly online world. Now granted, we will have to play by the knol rules and be transparent. Still, this is all very exciting and in the process it might even get Wikipedia to change some too - for the better.

Social Search Sites Could Challenge Stalwarts

The following is also my column in this week's Advertising Age.

Search is broken. Of course, with Google at more than $600 a share, 91% of us using search engines and studies showing we're largely satisfied with their results, it's easy to discard this statement. The problem, however, is that search engines can bring back too much information. With content becoming a commodity, it can be difficult to separate the diamonds from the duds.

Thankfully, a number of smart entrepreneurs recognize this, and they are on the case. They see an opportunity to create a new, blended approach to search that allows us to scour the web just as we do now but with more guidance from community curators.

Mahalo, which means "thank you" in Hawaiian, is among the most notable of these upstarts. The site, which launched with a great deal of fanfare in May, is the brainchild of serial entrepreneur Jason Calacanis.

Mahalo blends wiki technology with search. The site has a small team of editors and even more volunteers who work to pull together frequently updated pages that point users to high-quality links for the top 10,000 searches in popular categories. These curated pages cover topics such as how-to articles, the latest gadget reviews and more. Pages are updated frequently as news breaks.

If a page does not exist in its database, Mahalo will aggregate results from all of the major search engines, including Google, Live.com and Ask, as well as Wikipedia and YouTube. Further, users can apply to become a guide or suggest pages and links. The only way to advertise is through contextual search ads placed through Google AdSense.

While anecdotal data shows that Mahalo may be getting some traction, it has a lot of competition in the same genre. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is preparing his own social search engine, Wikia. It promises to be more open. About, which is owned by New York Times Co., has long taken a similar approach. Finally, Google too is showing signs of becoming more social. Just recently it started allowing users to edit maps or collaborate in the open to build complete travel guides.

Saturday Morning Streams

Jason Calacanis and Fred Wilson have started a new form of blogging that's more Twitter style. It consists of brief commentaries on a myriad of subjects. Here's my shot at it as I sit in a Starbucks with my iPhone waiting for my car to be serviced. Let me know if you like this approach. I will add links later on. 

My move to Wordpress is not progressing as quickly as I would like. The WP team is making a Herculean effort to maintain my permalinks. They are terrific to work with and I really appreciate their efforts. If I can't take my permalinks with me I will stick with Typepad.

The iPhone version of Typepad meanwhile is quite good. I hope WP gets a similar interface.

The age of Web 2.0 innocence is well behind us. Some say it ended when Flickr sold. I see the sale of YouTube as the marker. I miss the innocent days when money wasn't the big motivation. The mania feels very much like 1999 without inflated IPOs.

As more brands begin launching their own content sites they may find themselves competing with the media. The media companies should get in front of this by enabling brands to create content. Yahoo's brand universes follow this model. BTW we haven't heard much about these sites. I like the concept. 

The whole Joe Torre episode depresses me. The man gave the last 12 years to the Yanks and was very successful. He deserves better.

The iPhone sorely needs cut and paste. Cmon 1.1.2.

Very few community sites have had staying power over the years. Two that come to mind are iVillage and eBay. Many others have wilted.

There was just as much news from companies that did not participate in the Web 2.0 conference than those that did.

I hope Twitter doesn't sell anytime soon. Can they hold out? My gut says no.

Google Docs, Zoho and Microsoft's eventual entry into the web based office wars could really replace most wikis. The versioning is quite good in these apps.

I am using Gmail for a big research project and it worked quite nicely as a database. I think a lot of people are overlooking how useful and versatile web mail is.

Most of the top podcasts on iTunes are dominated by the big media companies. They really did a great job embracing the technology.

Behavioral targeting is the big rage right now in online marketing. The challenge is that consumers are becoming more aware of the privacy implications.

Maybe I should try this blogging format more often! It fits my mobile lifestyle.

Find Related Wikipedia Content with Similpedia

Wikipedia is by far one of the most useful sites on the Web - at least to me. That's why I am looking forward to seeing what Jimmy Wales and crew come up with when they launch their new search engine. In the meantime, there is a new Wikipedia tool, however, that has caught my attention - Similpedia.

Similpedia takes any links and shows you related content from Wikipedia. It's extremely handy if you want to drill down into a subject. Even better, they give you a bookmarklet that makes this all a snap to use from any site. You can also add a contextual widget to your site that pulls up related content for your readers and even track results via RSS. Bigger plans are in the works - a site for news and blogs called Similario.

This is a taste of what can be done with Wikipedia's vast stores of data. I would love to see Wikimedia take this to the next level with a robust API.

Search Wikipedia and RSS News Feeds via SMS

Lately I have been experimenting a lot with text messaging services since it's the primary way people interact with data on their cell phones. Plus, as you know, I am into the whole microblogging revolution.

You can do a lot with SMS, including send them from your desktop, query the Web or even use it to find a clean public restroom believe it or not. Here's another one I really like.

GoLiveMobile has set up a way to query Wikipedia via text messages using their Text2WAP technology. All you need to do is send a text message to the number 23907 with the word ABOUT followed by your search topic - e.g. ABOUT WIKIPEDIA. You will then get a link back to a special mobile-friendly version of the Wikipeida entry.

In addition, the company has a news search engine as well that scans RSS feeds. Simply text NEWS [Search Term] - eg NEWS MINNEAPOLIS - to 23907 and you will get back a link to a special formatted web page.

The service is free but typical SMS charges apply. Handy stuff.

Surf Wikipedia with Keyboard Shortcuts

I spend a lot of time on Wikipedia but when I do I use these handy keyboard shortcuts. You don't need Greasemonkey and they work on any browser. In Internet Explorer hit the Alt key followed by the command listed below. In Firefox 2 for Windows, use Alt and Shift. On the Mac hold down the control key.

Key	Command	Description
+	Start a new discussion	Allows you to add a new section (talk pages only)
. (period)	My user page	Opens your user page if logged in
=	Protect	Allows you to protect the current page (sysops only)
	Unprotect	Allows you to unprotect the current page (sysops only)
c	Content page	Shows the content page associated with the current article
d	Delete	Allows you to delete the current page (sysops only)
	Undelete	Allows you to undelete the current page (sysops only)
e	Edit this page	Allows you to edit the current page (non-protected pages)
	View source	Shows the source of the current page (protected pages)
f	Search	Allows you to search Wikipedia
h	History	Shows the current page's history
j	What links here	Shows all of the pages that link to the current one
k	Related changes	Shows recent changes in pages linked to the current one
l	My watchlist	Opens your watchlist (logged-in users only)
m	Move	Allows you to move the current page and its talk page (non-move-protected pages only)
n	My talk	Opens your user's or IP's talk page
p	Show preview	Shows a preview of your changes (on edit pages)
q	Special pages	Shows a list of all special pages
r	Recent changes	Shows a list of recent changes to the Wikipedia
s	Save page	Saves the changes that you have made (on edit pages)
t	Discussion	Opens the current article's talk page
u	Upload file	Allows you to upload images or media files
v	Show changes	Shows what changes you made to the text (on edit pages)
w	Watch	Adds the current page to your watchlist (logged-in users only)
x	Random article	Loads a random article
y	My contributions	Opens a list of your user's or IP's contributions
z	Main Page	Goes to the Main Page

Writing is Part of Almost Everyone's Job

Yesterday Edelman and PR Week hosted a special day-long event for university educators. You can watch it all in rewind. Much of the discussion during the day revolved around what kinds of skills PR and journalism students (today and tomorrow) require in this new environment.

It struck me that a lot of what we covered applies to everyone, not just our trade. The reason is that digital age has dramatically upped the ante one skill above all - good writing.

Almost every white-collar job today requires good communication skills. There's nothing new to report there. However, what is new is that much of the way we communicate today in business is in writing through email. So even if you're not a scribe by trade, you're a still a writer by default.

Writing not your forte? That was just fine 10 years ago, but not anymore. Writing is how business gets done. Communication inside corporations will shift somewhat away from email to wikis and blogs, but that doesn't really change the need for this skill.

There are two terrific resources that can help you become a better writer. One is the outstanding Word Wise blog, penned by my colleague Dan Santow. The other is Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home, a new book I just finished.

Google Marries the Static and Live Web

If you haven't heard by now, Google launched a new way to present search results in a more integrated fashion. Instead of forcing you to go to separate search engines to dig the live web - e.g. blogs, news, videos, etc. - they now roll everything up in one set of results. They call it universal search.

What you might have missed, however, from the official word is this nugget. The giant web index that some 60% of online world uses to search is now assembled in real time. This means your search results could change frequently depending on the daily impact of live web content.

Google doesn't say it explicitly, but I suspect that their algorithm favors Wikipedia, news, blog video results now more than they did before. Lots of people won't even notice that Google made changes, but they're there.

The news today is significant. I've written here extensively about Wikipedia's growing impact on brand reputation. Now, with today's change, serious Wikipedia gaps or gaffes may show up more prominently in search results - and change more frequently.

Consider this salatious example that Danny Sullivan spotted in a search for George Washington. I had no idea one of our country's Founding Fathers had such views on a modern age issue like pre-marital sex. I am sure some kid writing a research paper had a good laugh at that one.

But it's no joke. It's in Google so it must be true.

(By the way, Google also has more up its sleeves when it comes to universal services - closer integration between Google Docs and its communications platform.)

Pew: 1/3 of US Online Adults Consult Wikipedia

According to a new report (PDF) from the Pew Center for the American Life Project, some one-third of online Americans (36% to be exact) regularly consult Wikipedia. This reflects 8% of the broader population.

Drilling down further, Wikipedia is more popular among the well-educated. Some 50% of those with at least a college degree consult the site, compared with 22% of those with a high school diploma. Pew also looked at demographics: 44% of Americans ages 18-29 use Wikipedia to look for information, while just 29% of users age 50 and up.

The Pew Report also includes fresh data from Hitwise that reveals just how popular Wikipedia is and how Google and search engines factor in.

McKinsey: Companies Remain Wary of Web 2.0

Despite what some of you might think, I am not trying to be the single bearish voice among all the live streaming giddiness that is Web 2.0 Expo week. The signs of over enthusiasm - at times my own included - are however piling up in my RSS reader. Once again, it all comes back to economics. It's good to take a step back and look at the reality. It helps us move forward.

According to a thoroughly researched report from the McKisney management consulting firm, executives are wary of investing in Web 2.0 initiatives. The reason continues to remain fear. This goes beyond a willingness to engage in blogs. It also extends to internal wikis. The enterprise is afraid of letting go of the command and control structure.

That said, there is investment. McKinsey says that money is following web services. I wonder if RSS is beating out other initiatives.

The story also notes that a generational gap between Gen X/millennials and the older guard could be at play here too.

The marketing environment has changed, without a doubt. However, it has not done so enough to force everyone yet to adapt how they communicate. Over time they will. It just is going to take longer than we would all like.

This is a big part of what motivates me and why I love my job at Edelman. We have a long road ahead of us to help big companies get over their fears and see the value in participating in the conversation. I am with the right company to make this happen quickly.

Remember, lots of prognosticators and pundits were ahead of their time in the 1.0 era too. The reality was back then that we needed more people on broadband. Every exuberant time brings with it projections that go too far. Some of that is here today. That doesn't mean that there hasn't been a shift.

Pump Your Productivity with "Mini Me" Bookmarklets

Tabbed browsing has been a staple of the modern browser for awhile now. The feature is built into Firefox and Safari. Moreover, with the launch of Internet Explorer 7 it's now available to pretty much all.

However, tabbed browsing is sometimes a pain when you want to look up something quickly - for example the weather, sunrise/sunset times, a sports score or your RSS feeds. Of course you can simply open another tab to accomplish this. However, I am now using a new hack that combines bookmarklets, pop-up windows, widgets and mobile web sites in a way that has made me a lot more productive. I use these to look up information a lot.

I know about as much Javascript as I do Japanese. Zilch. But, I do know how to make small edits to code to get by, just as I know how to say sayonara. That's all I had to do to put this system into place

Hawk Wings has two handy bookmarklets that spawn separate "distraction free" Gmail and Google Calendar windows. Once you bookmark them they pop-up in front in IE and Safari but for some reason they load in the back in Firefox.

I have cloned these bookmarklets and adapted them by changing the URL they open and the window size. Each bookmarklet is assigned to either a) mobile-friendly versions of one of my favorite sites or b) a Google widget. The result is instantaneous information! When I want to look up say a sports score, I pop the window. In addition, sometimes I minimize my main browser window and keep "Mini Me" open. This makes it easier to look up Wikipedia articles, for example, while I work on a document. (See screen grab below)

To start using these, simply right click on each one and add to your Favorites/bookmarks. Depending on the browser you're using you might get a warning. Just click ok. If you use Firefox you can even assign keywords to these. If you clone the WeatherBug or sports scores widget and change it to the URL for any widget in this directory, you can run widgets as pop-ups. Most work.

Answers.com Dictionary

CBS Sportsline Scores

Digg

Google

Google Reader

Google Talk

Techmeme

Technorati

WeatherBug

Wikipedia

Survey: 43% of Employees Web 2.0 at Work

There's a common myth that the entire Web 2.0 movement doesn't have a big impact on B2B and  their enterprise purchasing decisions. Nonsense. Workers are knee deep in these sites. According to a new survey by Clearswift, some 43% of employees access Web 2.0 sites multiple times during the work day. Think they're publishing too? Nod. Studies have shown that most blogging takes place during the day.

More stats from the survey....    

* 51% spend an hour or more a week on Web 2.0 sites; 13% spend five hours or more    
* 46% have discussed work-related issues    
* 46% regularly access Wikipedia during work hours    
* 50% believe they have a right to use work computers for personal internet access

Web 2.0's Impact: The Tourism Industry

Over the next several weeks I am going to start posting about the global medium to long-term impact Web 2.0 will have on different industry sectors. First up: travel and tourism.

According to the the Travel Industry Association, tourism generates $1.3 trillion in economic activity. And that's just in the US, folks. They say if one dollar bill equaled a second of time, then $1.3 trillion would equal over 41,000 years. That's a lot of iron. Get ready to get your share.

Before we were all connected to the broadband Internet, it was hard to get good information about a particular destination. In 1980 when I was 10 years old my parents took my brother and I on a six week trip to all the National Parks. I wrote the AAA and National Park Service by mail and waited for them anxiously to send us all the brochures and maps. Then I studied them until I knew everything about places like Bryce Canyon, Arches National Park, Crazy Horse and Mesa Verde. Until very recently most of us turned to travel agents, the Sunday newspaper and travel mags to guide us. They were our sherpas.

Flash forward to today. Beginning in the early to mid 1990s it became very easy to research destinations. Hop on to Expedia, Yahoo Travel or Travelocity and there's gobs of information to help you compare prices and make an informed decision. That's how most of us still go about planning for a trip today. Our habits are locked...or are they.

In the Web 2.0 era, the power is shifting. The authority figure is no longer the travel agent or even the media. It's us. We're empowered with technology and we're using it to catalog every place on earth using video, photos and text. We are telling it like it is and sharing it globally. Consider the following examples.

• Wikimapia: Hey, what's a wiki doing in my Google map? That's the big idea behind this killer site. They layer a Wikipedia-like service on top of a Google Map allowing everyone to label every single place on earth. In just a few months, there have been more than two million places annotated, including some places in those national parks I adore. You can even view these annotations as a layer in Google Earth.

• Flickr: One of the most popular photo sharing sites is making it easy for us to annotate every place on Earth with photos. They allow people to geotag (definition) their photos so they can show us where the shot was taken. Soon digital cameras equipped with GPS and wireless technology will do the work for us.
• Yahoo Trip Planner: Who needs a travel agent when there's 43,000 people eager to help us. That's how many full itineraries have been created on the popular site. Simply plug in a destination and there's someone who has likely created a Triptik of their vacation, which you can easily then replicate using Yahoo's tools.

Right now, while all of this information is invaluable for travelers, it's basically fun and games. I started this post talking about money and I plan to finish it that way. While Web 2.0 is wonderful for transparency and knowledge sharing, when it comes to the impact on the tourism the final chapter has not yet been written. It's all about the Benjamins.

In the very near future these hubs will enable people to monetize their wonderful contributions to our collective knowledge about destinations, hotels, flights and more. Pennies to a site like Yahoo Travel is dollars to the individual who is the highest ranked authority on the Yahoo Trip Planner site or Yahoo Answers. This sort of revenue sharing will turn everyone into a real travel agent.

Here's a future scenario...

Maryclaire730 has put together a terrific itinerary on the Yahoo Trip Planner of my home town, New York City. She highlights a three-day junket that covers the basics like the Waldorf Astoria hotel, a Broadway show as well as places off the beaten path, like Dylan's Candy Bar, which is deep in the bowels of Bloomingdales. (Who knew?) The trip plan has been rated positively by Yahoo users and there are lots of rich photos to boot. However, maryclaire730 hasn't made a dime on this.

Now imagine that Yahoo linked you back to their main travel site. If you wanted to, you could copy maryclare730's entire trip. You can book the same flights, stay in the same hotel for the same number of days, reserve the same restaurants and even get a coupon for Dylan's Candy Bar. The revenue is shared between Yahoo, the specific attractions/airlines/hotels and, yes, maryclare730. She gets a few bucks every time you link over and book all or part of her itinerary.

That is what Web 2.0 will do for travel and tourism.

Google Should Pay a Big Share of Wikipedia's Bills

Last week word spread through the sphere that Wikipedia may one day not have enough cash to support itself. Now today Hitwise reports that 50% of Wikipeida's traffic comes from Google. What's more, Wikipedia has now cracked the Web's 10 largest sites. Google is 50% responsible and they should help WIkipedia, which operates as a not-for-profit.

The health of Wikipedia is in Google's best interest. The search engine's quality of results lately have been rising as it gives more credence to Wikipedia. Given this, one would hope that Google will finally pick up a big share of WIkipedia's expenses - namely bandwidth and storage. Google offered to host Wikipedia back in 2005. However, details are scant. One would hope that the two will consummate this proposed deal since they are both equally valuable to each other. Why the delay?

Tags: Google, WIkipedia

Wikipedia Added to Google OneBox

Google has quietly added a new OneBox feature that highlights articles from Wikipedia. All you need to do to is tack on the word "info" or "information" at the end of your query and Google will put a large Wikipedia link at the top of the results page. Your search keywords and the Wikipedia article title need to match up exactly, otherwise the Onebox links don't show up.

As Wikipedia's power and brand rise, Google is going to dig deeper into the citizen-edited encyclopedia. Google loves frequently updated information so the fit is perfect. This will occur even as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales readies a Google competitor. While this OneBox is not a search engine for Wikipedia, it sure comes close. There's nothing to stop Google from going further and building a Wikipedia search engine and I suspect they will.

Google Onebox spotlights special results such as news, stock quotes, weather, music and maps when certain trigger keywords are used. Blogs were added last week.

Tags: wikipedia, google, onebox

Wikipedia Implements Measures to Prevent Vandalism

Wikipedia has instituted a new system to protect the home page from vandalism. The technology, dubbed "cascading protection," was developed by Andrew Garrett. The system extends current measures to protect the home page to all media it features as any articles it links to on a given day.

Tags: Wikipedia

The Wikipedia Threat to Google's Empire

Last month, Google accounted for a staggering 47.3% of all web searches, according to comScore. Naturally, Google's stock is following right in step. It's just off its all time high. However, for all the hype about Google vs. Yahoo et al, Wikipedia quietly looms as a huge threat to Google's dominance.

Google's value will only be upheld as long as it remains the relevance leader  - e.g. the quality of its search capabilities. This presents a dilemma. For starters, the Google search engine feeds on Wikipedia to supply much of its most relevant results. It even hosts Wikipedia pages. Meanwhile, Wikipedia is gearing up to challenge Google with its own search engine. And, with the launch today of Wikiseek, it becomes quite clear that you can indeed build a high quality search engine off the collaborative encyclopedia.

What's more, Wikipedia's rise is coming at a time when Google appears to be losing its focus on search. The company in recent months seems to be prioritizing the expansion its advertising empire through pursuits such as the $1.6B purchase of YouTube. Google feels like a very different company than it was just a couple of years ago when search was the focus.

Now Google releases products without any search capabilities whatsoever. Google Spreadsheets lacked search until rev 2 and Google Reader still doesn't have it. At the same time, Google's results feel increasingly littered with spam and irrelevant web sites. The ads it serves are often low quality too.

Meanwhile, Wikipedia, which turned six yesterday, is rising. The number of Wikipedians who have edited ten or more articles continues its hockey stick growth. In October 2006 that number climbed to 158,000 people. Further, media citations rose 300% last year, according to data compiled using Factiva. Last year Wikipedia was cited 11,000 times in the press. Traffic is on the rise too. Hitwise says that Wikipedia is the 20th most visited domain in the US. Let's not forget that Google was once this size too.

Google is surely aware of the dependancy it has on Wikipedia. Perhaps this is why it acquired JotSpot. They may want to have the bricks in place to build a rival to Wikipedia - if that's even possible.

As Wikipedia builds its search capability, adopts a WYSIWYG interface and gets easier to use, more netizens will get comfortable and become editors. Wikipedia's power will rise and soon it will become clear to all that it is an emerging competitor to Google.

NBA's Dallas Mavs Ask Fans to Wiki Every Game

The Dallas Mavericks have broken new ground with a wiki that allows fans to catalog every single game. The wiki is powered by MediaWiki - the same software used by Wikipedia. However, it is moderated.

According to the Mavs, the team is also hoping fans will use the wiki to chronicle historical games. To that end they are soliciting fan photographs.

MavsWiki is the first in professional sports, according to the team. The Dallas Mavericks are owned by Mark Cuban, a long time basketball fan and Internet pioneer.

Tags: DallasMavericks, MarkCuban, NBA, basketball, sports