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Review: The Wikipedia Revolution by Andrew Lih

By Tom Simonite

15 April 2009

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

A new book chronicles the rise and rise of Wikipedia

(Image: Aurum/Hyperion)

WIKIPEDIA is not a technological innovation but a social one, declares its co-founder Jimmy Wales in the preface to this book. What follows in this history of the online encyclopedia – the only one of the world’s 10 most popular sites not run by a corporation – illustrates that nicely. The author, a senior community member of the project, can’t entirely ignore the technology that made it possible, but his book is mainly about people, whether visitors writing articles or Wales and others shaping a strategy that…

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