The Wikipedia Revolution Blog

Those in the San Francisco area are invited to talks TODAY about my new book “The Wikipedia Revolution: How a bunch of nobodies created the world’s greatest encyclopedia” (Hyperion). The talk at UC Berkeley will address academics, and the one with the Wiki Wednesday group will get deeper into the technology/wiki culture.

Feel free to tell anyone who might be interested! All are invited.

“The Wikipedia Revolution” by Andrew Lih
http://wikipediarevolution.com
REMINDER: Talks in the San Francisco Area, April 1

Berkeley, April 1, 2009, 4pm
UC Berkeley, School of Information, 202 South Hall
http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/newsandevents/events/20090401lih

San Francisco, April 1, 2009, 6pm
Wiki Wednesday, Citizen Space, 425 Second St., #100 (Ground floor)
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2143776
http://www.socialtext.net/wikiwed/index.cgi?san_francisco_april_2009

SUMMARY: The Wikipedia Revolution is the first narrative account of
the remarkable success story of the “encyclopedia anyone can edit.”
Andrew Lih, a Wikipedia editor/administrator, academic and journalist,
tells how the Internet’s free culture community inspired its creation
in 2001, and how legions of volunteers have emerged to create over 10
million articles in over 50 languages.

REVIEWS of The Wikipedia Revolution:

“It’s a terrific book.. Andrew tells the story historically, providing
tons of context and background.” - David Weinberger, Author,
Everything is Miscellaneous

“It was riveting–a total page turner. I thought I knew Wikipedia
inside and out yet I learned something fascinating on nearly every
page. Bravo.” - Chris Anderson, Editor in chief, Wired Magazine

“Other books have surfaced… but Lih’s authoritative approach covers
much more.” -Publishers Weekly

“An easy, nontech, intriguing read about a Web “miracle” that today
rivals the Encyclopaedia Britannica.” -Booklist, Starred Review

“Wikipedia: Exploring Fact City” by Noam Cohen
The New York Times [link http://bit.ly/14ONna]

“Everybody Knows Everything” by Jeremy Philips
Wall Street Journal [link http://bit.ly/BtfO]

“All in good faith” by Sam Leith
The Spectator (UK) Lead review [link http://bit.ly/mUj7R]

It’s good to see some folks working on trying to solve the increasingly complex and arcane Wikimarkup used in Wikipedia. Here’s an effort to simplify Infoboxes, which are basic fact boxes that typically run along the right hand side of articles.

Abstract: This paper describes a case study on the markup behind “info-boxes” in Wikipedia articles. Currently, the markup uses HTML tables to achieve its formatting. A rewritten version of the code is more semantic, more compact, more readable, and more friendly to reuse — while still maintaining the same presentation in standards-compliant browsers. A key part of the solution is to use the CSS “inline-block” feature.

Welcome to the blog, and I’m glad to announce the official book launch will be March 19, 2009, at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism from 6pm to 9pm. There will be a reading and an interview.

Feel free to join the Facebook group and event.

I will also be speaking in China about the book on February 28 in Shanghai, and March 6 in Beijing.