My statistic teacher used to say: 'There are small lies, big lies and statistics'.
Anyway, I have been browsing Wikipedia statisctics. They are rather fun (at least as fun as statistics can be :>).
ATM of my writing, I am the #912 most active Wikipedian (out of 92543 registered users). Which puts me in the top 1%. I guess I should be proud of that, with 815 edits. When I come come to think of it, if I put my time into writing 'normal' articles, I would probably have something to sell to 'serious' magazines that would look better on my CV. But I never cared much about that. If I published something in an obscure Polish science magazine, who would read it? 100 people? Compared to my latest big project, the Warsaw Uprising article on Wiki, who has been read by over 100,000 in the past week or so. I feel that my contribution to Wiki *MEANS* something, is doing some actual good, spreading knowledge. Thus I prefer the 'feel good' to 'money to eat'. Oh well.
Hopefully my future doctoral supervisors will at least understand the importance of Wiki for the scientific community. The awarness of public about Wiki is growing.
I mean, if it is more popular then Playboy, it *is* getting rather known in the world, right? Beating smut is not easy :>
And the future predictions are good as well:
So far, the prediction model is even a bit too pessimistic - the latest data show even faster growth then predicted on the above model!
It is interesting to compare Wiki to 'normal' encyclopedias. It has a huge advantage in quantity. As for quality, opinions do vary. Personally I think that in a few years we will have a quality advantage as well. For now...well, things aren't looking bad, since in many cases we are better then Britannica :)
Statistics say that the future is looking good for Wiki. The truth...well, as always, the future will show.
See you on Wiki
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