The Boston Globe recently ran some articles about controversies surrounding Wikipedia and about the various folks who contribute to the project.
I had a wonderful hour-long conversation with the reporter, David Mehegan, in which we discussed a wide range of topics related to Wikipedia. He ended up quoting some fragments of side remarks that I made about the epistemological and existential challenges of human existence.
While it's very flattering to have a journalist take an interest in my philosophical reflections, I have to admit that I was disappointed that he didn't quote what I had to say about the importance of nonprofit and philanthropic organizations supporting knowledge and collaboration in the public interest. This is of course what the Wikimedia Foundation is all about. As I've previously mentioned, brick-and-mortar nonprofit organizations in Massachusetts have an exciting opportunity before them to make common cause with the Wikipedians, since the international Wikimania conference will be held in Cambridge this summer.
Wikipedians can teach us a lot about engaging a new generation of volunteers who take the possibility of online collaboration for granted. Traditional nonprofits can teach the Wikipedians a lot about lessons learned from the noble failures that have been experienced by folks who had good intentions and a serious lack of the other resources needed to pursue a social mission.
Let's start sharing knowledge on more than one level. Wikipedia volunteers have published almost 1,000,000 articles in English on everything from aardvarks to zygotes, and that in itself is a tremendous public service. Let's take it to the next level and have Wikipedians and nonprofit professionals teach each other about their best practices.
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