Wikiguide to the Galaxy
"Ford gave up the attempt to sleep. In the corner of his cabin was a small computer screen and keyboard. He sat at it for a while and tried to compose a new entry for [Wikipedia] on the subject of Vogons but couldn’t think of anything vitriolic enough so he gve that up too, wrapped a robe round himself and went for a walk to the bridge."
While reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I eventually lost count of the ways Wikimedia Foundation projects are similar to the Guide.
Whick reminds me: there’s supposed to be a Wikipedia meetup tomorrow at an undisclosed location. I wonder if anyone will notice if no one shows up … Maybe the organizer wants us to look it up in Wikipedia …
May 22nd, 2005 at 8:12 pm
I’m pretty sure that the Wikipedia folks USED to acknowledge their (spiritual) debt to The Guide.
Then, of course, there’s http://www.h2g2.com/ – which didn’t used to (be? or acknowlege itself as, at least) a BBC project.
May 23rd, 2005 at 1:30 am
Hiya J…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogon
I’m always impressed by Wikipedia…
B
May 25th, 2005 at 12:15 am
I wouldn’t say acknowledge it so much as actually implementing it… but with greater completeness and accuracy than the small entries in the Guide, notably that about Earth.:)
H2g2 is a BBC project. Some ways it’s distinguishable from Wikipedia are:
“exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to your contribution”
“waive any moral rights in your contribution”
this grant is to the BBC only, so it limits the ability of others to republish and use the work, perhaps most notably by the prohibition on all but personal, non-commercial use of the content.
Wikipedia contributors do not grant an effective copyright transfer, do not waive their moral rights and grant everyone a broad license to reuse for all purposes, including commercial.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/terms/
June 7th, 2005 at 11:16 am
the only thing i see as absolutely missing is the design of the book itself. (there has never been a substitute for the book that meets the same implicit usability standards but stores more information.)
(serendipitously: we are designing a Thumb. right now.)