Elon Musk says he's launching a competitor to Wikipedia called Grokipedia

Unlike Twitter, these bad boys never go down.

In a new feature by Observer, Wikimedia Foundation leaders speak candidly about how Wikipedia – built by people, not machines – has unintentionally become the powerhouse of the AI revolution and the potential pitfalls of using its content without attribution. 🧵⬇️ (1/3)

Read more about our editorial process: britannica.com

Excuse you, it was actually a phase where I got distracted by all the other cool entries in the World Book Encyclopedia every time I had to look something up for a project. There was nothing more riveting on God's green earth than whatever was immediately alphabetically before my homework subject.

Posing with a TV on wheels and a set of World Book Encyclopedia. (1960s)

Encyclopedia > Dictionary

Mountweazels were fictitious articles intentionally printed by encyclopedias in an effort to later reveal efforts by competitors to blanket plagiarize whole editions.

Back in 2022, I wrote for Slate about why Elon Musk attacks Wikipedia: www.sourcenotes.blog/p/why-elon-m...

My family could not afford Britannica. We had to settle for Encyclopedia Americanna. It came with a set of 10 additional Science books that I also read from cover to cover. The salesman who came to our house later turned out to be the actor who played the ne'er-do-well ex-husband on Golden Girls.

It's doing the rounds that Wikipedia supposedly spent $50 million on "DEI", or c. 29% of its budget which sounds a bit steep (even if, like me, you're inclined to be sympathetic to DEI projects), but if you actually read the report (here: meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimed...) it turns out that...

Well, I always saw Encyclopedias as a introduction to research a subject If I want to know more about it, I will go after the bibliography, usually listed on the articles. A Encyclopedia is a start point, not the end of the path.

I worked at Grolier (Encyclopedia Americana and the New Book of Knowledge). The editorial staff was at least 50% female and while coverage wasn't perfect, it was more equitable than how you describe there.

As someone who used to work as an encyclopedia editor, I wanted to say out loud that Wikipedia is a super useful resource but it is so far from perfect. I realize Elon is a dangerous asshole—but Wikipedia leveraged free crowd-sourced work to destroy an industry built on experts and fact-checking.

Okay I have some possibly surprising (for me) thoughts about how this could be non-awful. I worked on an Encyclopaedia Britannica modernisation project in 1999/2000, when we put the Encyclopaedia on the Internet. As was the vogue at the time, we made a "knowledge portal".

📚 With Wikipedia trending amid debates on its values and cultural impact, here are 5 must-read books to understand its roots, culture, and controversies: 1️⃣ *The Wikipedia Revolution* by Andrew Lih: The story of how a "bunch of nobodies" built the world's largest encyclopedia. 🌐 amzn.to/4fBPEjM

Madame de Pompadour was a great supporter of Diderot and D'Alembert in their project to compile and publish the 'Encyclopedie', despite opposition from her Royal paramour, who tried to ban it! A volume of the great work is on her desk in this portrait

The internet, circa 1975.

Few if any encyclopedias have escaped critique for supposed politicization. The problem isn’t that Wikipedia occasionally appears to show bias (nothing useful can avoid perspective), it’s that there are few alternatives which are anywhere near its scope while being anything but unabashedly partisan.

Britannica Didn’t Just Survive. It’s an A.I. Company Now. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/20/b...

Yesterday, I saved a complete 1958 edition of Compton's Encyclopedia. An early childhood memory was listening to the door-to-door salesman's pitch for the set. The pitch weighed heavily on our growing family. Great purchase, Mom & Dad! For the next decade I spent untold hours, just READING them.

Wikipedia's AI Challenge: How the free encyclopedia adapts in the age of ChatGPT: Explore how Wikipedia is evolving to meet the challenges posed by AI, ensuring its relevance and reliability in the digital age. #Wikipedia #AI #ChatGPT #DigitalAge #Technology

When I was a teeny-tiny baby, my dad saw a whole encyclopedia set being thrown out. For the one and only time in his life, he dumpster-dove, and he rescued it. A few years later, reading happened, and I spent uncountable hours with The New Book of Knowledge. Loved it loved it loved it.

Probably a mark of age, but a conversation with my boss had me thinking; how many people had encyclopedias in their homes growing up? My family bought the Funk&Wagnell's set in sections from the Winn-Dixie in the town I grew up in, and we had that for years.

Britannica has arrived on BlueSky!

Explore the dazzling data behind Wikipedia ➡️ wikimediafoundation.org/wikipedia-ye... #WikipediaYearInReview

🌍📚📈 People spent an estimated 2.4 billion hours — nearly 275,000 years! — reading English Wikipedia in 2024. The free encyclopedia is answering questions and sparking curiosity around the world every day.

Check out this year’s top 25 articles for a look back at what captured the world’s attention ➡️ wikimediafoundation.org/news/2024/12... #WikipediaYearInReview

Each year, Wikipedia users worldwide reflect the state of the planet with their searches, highlighting the topics, events, and figures that sparked the most interest. #WikipediaYearInReview

What did you read on Wikipedia this year? In the first ten months of 2024, English Wikipedia alone received over 76 billion views. Read more ➡️ wikimediafoundation.org/news/2024/12... #WikipediaYearInReview 🔊 Loyalty Freak Music, CC0

Travelling, need entertaining non fiction for the beach. Considering one of - Arctic Biosphere - Chicago Death - Decorative Edison - Education Evolution - Excretion Geometry - Geomorphic Immunity - Islam Life - Pre-Colombian Saint, or - United Zoroastrianism leaning toward Geomorphic Immunity

Previous owners left me a pile of treasures in the barn, but 90% of it is up in a loft waiting for a ladder. I can see rocking chairs and an old ass television. Ground level gems include a (mostly?) complete set of The Book Of Knowledge.

My mom gave me her 1958 editions of the Book of Knowledge which had chapters on the various eras and periods with detailed (and kinda spooky) illustrations and I obsessed over them.

The gilt-edged pages. The weight of it in my hand. The smell. The hours and hours I spent...

ein Lexikon zu benutzen ist unglaublich 'Altmodisch'. Hier ist es ein Nachdruck der ersten Ausgabe des Brockhaus von 1837. #FotoVorschlag

Encarta 99

Sure, you know Wikipedia. But do you know how the free online encyclopedia anyone can edit truly works? Find out in #AWikiMinute ▶️