Some people enjoy using library's, other people such as myself would prefer stay at home to do their research but still need access to the resources libraries offer. Well that is just what the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation has going on their website www.wikimedia.com. The creators of the infamous Wikipedia have much more to offer then just an online, user edited encyclopedia. They have quite a few projects complete that are all user edited. Most people don't know about any of this though for one very simple reason; when they go to wikipedia.com they don't scroll down. If they did they would find links to all the projects the foundation has completed and a great deal more. Note that Wikipedia is not an organization or entity, it is a project created by the Wikimedia foundation the same as the other projects listed on the site. The other projects just don't share the same limelight that the encyclopedia does because they came out after, but I hope to change that.
A lot of people including myself use Dictionary.com for their everyday defining needs (pun intended), but that site is for profit and unless you have a script or ad blocker in your browser you have to view all the annoying classmates.com ads and other unnecessary seizure inducing mini games. At Wiktionary.com you can lookup the definition of a word without the ads and if you don't find the definition thorough enough you can edit it yourself. Most definitions are accompanied with every piece of information you could possibly want to know about the word. You can see the origins of the word, its synonyms and translations of it into other languages. One especially cool feature is the ability to search for the definitions of phrases and proverbs. For instance when I searched “It takes two to tango” I got an example of the phrase in its proper use, a definition and the translation of the term into Finnish, which I am sure I will find use of someday. Wiktionary integrates the capabilities of Urbandictionary.com, but instead of having a list of female names under the word “bitch”, it puts the word in a professional context and format without hiding you from the fact it can be used derogatorily.
Wikibooks and Wikisource are similar to Google Book Search except that in this case the collective internet are the editors of its contents. In Google Book Search you scroll through actual photographed pages of a book, with Wikibooks and Wikisource you can navigate throughout the book in seconds using normal links, similar to navigating a .pdf file. In essence the book is the website. If that is not to your liking however, most of the books can be downloaded as a .pdf file for easy printing. In Wikibooks you will find manuals and textbooks on everything from science and math to languages and cooking. You can browse them by subject, department and category. Reading material outside of textbooks is where Wikisource comes in. They have tons of books released under the GNU Free Documentation License, meaning you can do more or less whatever you like with them. They also have speeches, poetry and biography's some dating back to medieval times. With books being uploaded daily, this virtual library is only getting bigger.
Perhaps you don't need an entire book but just a quote. Wikiquotes is just that. A place to search and browse quotes from movies, people, literature and more. You can even search by theme such as courage or war, or look for mnemonics, slogans, tongue twisters, last words and proverbs (which, oddly enough, you seem to be able to do in most all of their projects).
All these resources come together in Wikiuniversity. This is where they organize all of this into online courses that anybody can take. When I say course however, I don't mean a regimented learning structure with a teacher and homeworker. I mean you teach yourself; they have all the material and lessons laid out for you to freely use. Just like an offline university it has “schools”, as in the school of social sciences or the school of engineering. Each complete with various departments and subjects. This project started in August, 2006 and doesn't have every course a major university would, but it is definitely picking up steam. I wouldn't be surprised to see it give the for profit BYU online courses a run for their money. Pretty much the only this university doesn't offer is a diploma.
For all you biology majors they offer what is called Wikispecies which is a enormous online archive of species that covers Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Bacteria, Archaea, Protista and many other interesting life forms. For most species it shows anatomical pictures and photographs accompanying the classification. The entire archive is complete with proper taxonomy and vernacular terms for many of the categories of species complete in various languages. It would be safe to say that Wikispecies is a online directory of life for planet earth.
Ever wanted to write your own news stories? Wikinews is for you. This is where you can create and write your own news stories using quotes and information gathered from other sources throughout the net or some of your own. Each day anywhere from 10-15 stories are released regarding everything from Britney Spears to the California wildfires. All are written and designed by literally anybody and can be subscribed to using an RSS feed. The power and impact this can have on mainstream news is limitless.
All of these collaborations are put together by the Wikimedia Foundation which again, is a non-profit organization. A board of trustees controls the creation and deletion of projects with the help of a small volunteer staff, but once released the users control the content. Every one of their projects is 100 percent user edited and relies on the collective for control. Intrinsically this creates material updated by the second which evolves and changes with time and culture. Almost every project is available in more then 10 different languages with some available in over 50. Wikimedia has also given a resounding No to censorship requests from the Chinese government when they planned to expand into Asia. This is huge, as the likes of Google and Yahoo among many other companies have agreed the censorship regulations in order to expand their businesses. 'we stand for the freedom for information, and for us to compromise I think would send very much the wrong signal: that there's no one left on the planet who's willing to say "You know what? We're not going to give up."' stated Jimmy Wales the founder of Wikipedia in regard to his company and the censorship laws. I myself donated $15 to the foundation due to their firm choice of action, you cannot have true “freedom” of information with censorship.
No comments:
Post a Comment