Everyone's an Expert

Putting information into the hands of the people was among the original, lofty aims of the Internet — easy to forget amid the forests of e-boutiques and subscription-only sites. But an online encyclopedia — where all entries are written, maintained and vetted by Web surfers themselves — is trying to recapture those early democratic ideals. Called Wikipedia.org (wiki means "superfast" in Hawaiian and is also the name of the collaborative software upon which the site is built), the encyclopedia features more than 700,000 hypertexted articles on

everything from "Anthrax (band)" to "Zeppelin." That's more listings than Britannica.com, Encarta.com and Encyclopedia.com combined.

"My dream has been to put a free comprehensive encyclopedia at everybody's fingertips," says 37-year-old founder Jimmy Wales, who spends up to 12 unpaid hours a day maintaining the site. "It's my obsession." It has also become the obsession of thousands of others who contribute entries and programming time for free. The concept is as simple as it is ambitious: anybody can create or edit the articles, and the system relies on masses of users to catch mistakes and thus ensure the information is correct, comprehensive and up-to-date. "I realized that all over the world there are people that want to explain, want to discuss, want to describe," says Wales.

The site has articles in more than 50 languages — including Afrikaans, Bosnian and Thai — and they often make fascinating reading. Can an amateur effort be trusted? "It's highly reliable but not perfect," allows Wales, who lives in St. Petersburg, Florida. Still, according to an IBM study, prank postings on the site are usually corrected "so quickly that most users will never see [their] effects." And for repeat offenders? An 11-member Wikipedia committee stands ready to ban habitual abusers of the site's hospitality. It seems even a dream like this needs to have its own police force.

See Also: TIME Magazine