Why Wikipedia Just Gets Better

摘要

I was right about Wikipedia. And I was wrong. Some years back, when the wiki model first emerged as a method of developing and distributing diverse information among Internet users for collaboration, I immediately looked for its flaws. I did this because the concept was Utopian. I thought, let me get this straight: People are going to contribute to an open, online encyclopedia—just because they can? In fact, that is exactly what happened, and Wikipedia quickly achieved critical mass. When I initially evaluated it, I thought the wiki concept would rapidly devolve into a mess. I was convinced that online vandalism would eventually invade and ruin it. Yet the complete opposite has occurred. Why?