Building a Wikipedia alternative

The next time you type “speed of sound” into Google, Wikipedia might have to battle another open-source encyclopedia for top linking rights. According to a recent story from the Associated Press’ Brian Bergstein, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger is launching a Wikipedia alternative called Citizendium.


The new online encyclopedia will be free to read and edit, ad-free, and structured as a non-profit organization. Unlike the mammoth Wikipedia (which currently has more than 1.7 million articles), contributors must provide their real names. Articles will also be vetted for accuracy by experts in applicable fields.


The success or power of this new resource remains to be seen. But it raises several important issues, such as the connection between anonymity and accountability, and whether open-source projects can truly foster accurate, reliable and civil public information sources. We’ll certainly be watching.

This post was written by Cheri Hanson

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post to del.icio.us | created: 03/26/07 | tags: connected generation, newsworthy, content strategy, communities, blog

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