Customer Reviews

The World and Wikipedia: How we are editing reality

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like many web users, I use wikipedia almost accidentally; like many web users, I know why I shouldn't trust it. Or at least I did until reading Dalby's fascinating book. As an editor and administrator of wikipedia, one might expect a glowing tale of its merits, however Dalby manages to show both arguements very convincingly. This book made me look again at the world's largest encyclopedia with renewed interest.

To anyone searching for information on the internet, Wikipedia frequently appears as the first hit. Andrew Dalby explains why this is in his illuminating book. He also puts Wikipedia in context by giving a brief history of published encyclopedias. From his detailed knowledge of its workings, Dalby is very much a Wikipedia insider, but his analysis of its successes and failures is both perceptive and well balanced. The book is impressively thorough and written in an engagingly informal style. While not intended as a work of scholarship, the narrative is well researched and documented, and the arguments are persuasive. Dalby is a passionate supporter of Wikipedia's multiple language-based versions: not only does this make it a truly worldwide resource, but the existence of sites in minority languages is a means of preserving them. The book deserves careful reading, and it gave me an insight into the both the workings of this popular website and also the way in which the internet is developing. The conclusion is that Wikipedia is far from perfect -- but there are flaws in conventional encylopedias too -- and its imperfections reflect those of the world outside.

I had read enough of the excerpts and independent criticism of this book to begin to form my own opinion about it. According to others, it is not an objective look at Wikipedia, it is yet another song-and-dance about Wikipedia.

The book is the first imprint of Siduri Books. One of the principals of Siduri is liz@siduri.co.uk. She has posted elsewhere on the Internet to promote this book. In at least one such post she also included a phone number. That phone number belongs to Liz Dalby, whom we have to assume is related to the author. I agree with other critics who believe that Siduri Books was created solely to promote this book. Some have opined that real publishers are not interested in Dalby's book because it is unworthy of traditional publication.

However, I was given the book recently as a belated birthday gift, and I've gotten past the first 4 or 5 pages thus far, and I can say that the writing style is at least breezily engaging, which I do appreciate. Thus, I am modifying my rating here to 3 stars, and I'll check back in once I've completed the book.