Setting up your own wiki encyclopaedia Options

[A User]

Can anyone recommend any sites that show step by step how to set up your own wiki encyclopaedia?

[John Limey]

There are a very large number of considerations to make in order to create a viable Wikipedia rival. I started on a list of questions to consider a few weeks ago, but got sidetracked. Perhaps I'll publish it at some point.

Yes please do.

I'd like to shamelessly promote my own thoughts, which are sort of connected to this (see On Citizendium, which niftily is one of the top 10 google results for the search term "Citizendium"). Basically, I think that an effective Wikipedia rival is essentially impossible. In the post linked, I introduce the concept of the "paradox of Wikipedia" - that the same factors that make Wikipedia a successful web community and attract editors make it inherently unreliable and that the same things that make Wikipedia stronger as an encyclopedia weaken it as a web community.

I think that it's really impossible (without incredible financial backing) to beat Wikipedia by emphasizing the encyclopedia over the community. Citizendium tried to do that and has, well, failed. If you overemphasize the encyclopedia you lose the hordes of free labor that make Wikipedia work. I think it's also pretty much impossible to beat Wikipedia by going in the other direction - emphasizing the community aspects at the expense of the encyclopedia. Wikipedia already has enough problems as an encyclopedia, and (at least around here) no one wants an even less reliable version. If Interpedia were worth mentioning, it would be worth holding up as a failure that went too far towards community. That leaves the option of striking about the same balance as Wikipedia between encyclopedia and community (perhaps with some twists), but in this arena Wikipedia has all the power and momentum and (short of massive backing) your little project won't stand a chance.

You could always do something radically different - an entirely new paradigm, but then you probably wouldn't be asking about wikis.

This post has been edited by John Limey: Sat 13th March 2010, 12:42am

[MZMcBride]

There are a very large number of considerations to make in order to create a viable Wikipedia rival. I started on a list of questions to consider a few weeks ago, but got sidetracked. Perhaps I'll publish it at some point.

Yes please do.

I'd like to shamelessly promote my own thoughts, which are sort of connected to this (see On Citizendium, which niftily is one of the top 10 google results for the search term "Citizendium"). Basically, I think that an effective Wikipedia rival is essentially impossible. In the post linked, I introduce the concept of the "paradox of Wikipedia" - that the same factors that make Wikipedia a successful web community and attract editors make it inherently unreliable and that the same things that make Wikipedia stronger as an encyclopedia weaken it as a web community.

I think that it's really impossible (without incredible financial backing) to beat Wikipedia by emphasizing the encyclopedia over the community. Citizendium tried to do that and has, well, failed. If you overemphasize the encyclopedia you lose the hordes of free labor that make Wikipedia work. I think it's also pretty much impossible to beat Wikipedia by going in the other direction - emphasizing the community aspects at the expense of the encyclopedia. Wikipedia already has enough problems as an encyclopedia, and (at least around here) no one wants an even less reliable version. If Interpedia were worth mentioning, it would be worth holding up as a failure that went too far towards community. That leaves the option of striking about the same balance as Wikipedia between encyclopedia and community (perhaps with some twists), but in this arena Wikipedia has all the power and momentum and (short of massive backing) your little project won't stand a chance.

You could always do something radically different - an entirely new paradigm, but then you probably wouldn't be asking about wikis.

I guess it depends what your goal is: to destroy Wikimedia or create something better. Both are possible and both will very likely happen, though the increased financial backing that the Wikimedia Foundation is receiving guarantees that projects like Wikipedia will linger, in some form, for a long time.

Eventually, a moderately successful rival to Wikipedia will emerge. The Chinese have Baidu Baike as a rival to the Chinese Wikipedia. Something like that to rival the English Wikipedia is possible. The issue, as you note, is finding a way to make money from the site or get outside financial support. I don't think the obstacles are insurmountable, though it certainly wouldn't be an easy feat.

I think an examination of the other Wikimedia projects would be interesting. Wikipedia has been successful, but look at Wikibooks or Wikiversity or Wikispecies or any of the other non-Wikipedia Wikimedia projects. Even looking at some of the Wikipedias outside the top ten would be interesting.

Now, if the goal is to simply destroy Wikimedia, well, there are plenty of ways to do that. In all honesty, I'm surprised some of the people who regularly post here haven't made any noteworthy efforts to do so.

[A User]

Eventually, a moderately successful rival to Wikipedia will emerge. The Chinese have Baidu Baike as a rival to the Chinese Wikipedia. Something like that to rival the English Wikipedia is possible. The issue, as you note, is finding a way to make money from the site or get outside financial support. I don't think the obstacles are insurmountable, though it certainly wouldn't be an easy feat.

This article by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, indicates a Chinese wiki called Hudong (hudong.com) already has over 4 million articles:

'TechMan: Wonky or wacky, wikis invite content contributors' (14 March 2010)

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10073/10424...m#ixzz0i8ksEHko

Your prediction will probably turn out to be correct. Both China and India are untapped in terms of web-based encyclopaedias and the labour to create one, and its probably just a matter of time they will eventually overtake Wikipedia by sheer weight of contributions.