Today marks the launch of the beta version of Wikiseek which searches the explosively growing Wikipedia and those sites referenced within Wikipedia. It’s search is based on user tagging and the categorization within Wikipedia. This makes the search more relevant and less subject to spam.
Wikipedia is the most prominent example of the growth of mass collaboration. According to Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, authors of Wikinomics, Wikipedia is
a collaboratively created encyclopedia, owned by no one and authored by tens of thousands of enthusiasts. With five full time employees, it is ten times bigger than Encyclopedia Britannica and roughly the same in accuracy.
Experts, schools, seminaries…all sources of authoritative instruction must understand and respond to this movement that is making the “wisdom of crowds” more and more accessible as the means to learning. If the “experts” don’t participate in what is happening, they will be replaced, disintermediated.
For businesses, this is a revolutionary opportunity to tap into the knowledge of all people in their own organizations as well as customers and people around the world. Internal subject matter experts will increasingly be challenged by the collaborative knowledge of the masses.
On a spiritual level, there is a parallel in my mind to Gutenberg’s invention of moveable type. His technology spawned an explosion of publishing that set the stage for the Renaissance and the scientific revolution. It was also foundational to the Reformation as translations of the Bible into the language of the day empowered the laity in their personal spiritual development. Whereas Gutenberg's moveable type put the words back into the hands of people, wiki's are like "moveable content" putting the knowledge into the hands of people.
My hope is that innovations like Wikipedia and Wikisearch will not only advance knowledge in general but also make the truths of Scripture even more accessible and understandable to people around the world.
