Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia that gets seven billion page views a month, has only five full-time employees on its staff! Jimmy Wales. its founder, recently announced plans to take on Google by developing an open-source search engine.
Thought I'll share another interesing trivia related to Wikipedia. I just read in the recent issue of the New Yorker that an article published in the same magazine included an interview of a Wikipedia site administrator and contributor called Essjay. Essjay is also responsible for handling disagreements about the accuracy of the site's content. In the New Yorker piece, and based on the interview conducted by the writer, he is described as someone who is a "tenured professor of religion at a private university" and has a "PhD in theology and degree in Canon law".
It turns out that this was an invented character by the real person who is actually only 24 years old, holds no advanced degrees and has never taught at all.
When Jimmy Wales was contacted for comment, he merely said "I regard itr as a pseudonym and I don't really have a problem with it."
Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia that gets seven billion page views a month, has only five full-time employees on its staff! Jimmy Wales. its founder, recently announced plans to take on Google by developing an open-source search engine.
2 comments:
Hi David,
Thought I'll share another interesing trivia related to Wikipedia. I just read in the recent issue of the New Yorker that an article published in the same magazine included an interview of a Wikipedia site administrator and contributor called Essjay. Essjay is also responsible for handling disagreements about the accuracy of the site's content. In the New Yorker piece, and based on the interview conducted by the writer, he is described as someone who is a "tenured professor of religion at a private university" and has a "PhD in theology and degree in Canon law".
It turns out that this was an invented character by the real person who is actually only 24 years old, holds no advanced degrees and has never taught at all.
When Jimmy Wales was contacted for comment, he merely said "I regard itr as a pseudonym and I don't really have a problem with it."
This is in the New Yorker issue dated 5 March.
Interesting, eh?
cheers,
Cecilia
Hi Cecilia,
Nice to hear from you. Yes, I saw the story, but only on Wednesday, a couple of days after the story broke.
I was fascinated by Essjay's case - and the fact that New Yorker actually unmasked him!
Interesting times for Wiki.
Cheers
David
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