Unlimited Jargon

Wikimedia: More than just wikipedia.

Everybody on the internet today seems to know about Wikipedia (of course I knew about it about when it was fresh and exciting). So today, whilst the mainstream population uses Wikipedia, I am going to explore some of the other features/services of Wikimedia. Consider it my service to internet or something like that. :)

Wikitionary:
A free dictionary - a fair idea, but I doubt it will catch on because we need to know when we look up words we are getting a definition from an authorative source.

Wikispecies:
This site aims to list the world's species. I think it has potential, but may only appeal to a small proportion of the population. Also inaccurate information could easily start to propagate.

Wikinews:
News everyone can write and edit. This means you get stories not covered by the national press by people who may have first hand accounts of events, however also that facts may be inaccurate.

Wikicommons:
I think this site really has potential. The aim is to allow people to upload content for the general public to use such as clipart. Beneath each item is the license the author has assigned to it.

Wikisource
This service is very useful to anyone interested in literature as it contains published books which no longer have copyright restrictions. Although other websites have attempted this, I think Wikimedia has the server power and capacity to make the project very successful.

Wikiquote:
Looking for a good quote? Here is one place where you can find plenty of good examples. A word of advice however is to remember that anybody can edit the pages, so proceed with caution. (I suggest typing quotes into a search engine to find out if any other sites have them)

Wikibooks:
Instead of collaborating to write an encyclopedia, how about books? That is the mission of this site. Whenever you are researching a well known topic, stopping to check whether a book exists in Wikibooks is a good idea as it offers lots of good information.

Happy researching!

Labels: My philosophy, Web tools

posted by Caesar on Friday, September 29, 2006