The Long Blonde Tail

Waxxi's Next Guest: Jimmy Wales

Update: Registration is open, and details are now posted.

Sneak preview: Waxxi's next interactive podcast guest will be Jimmy Wales, on April 5, 2007.

In addition to being founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy is also co-founder and chairman of Wikia. I recently went to see him talk at NYU (on Free Culture, Transparency and Search), and learned a great deal about him, and about the project which is consuming the bulk of his time, Wikia Search.

Like Waxxi's other guests -- Michael Arrington, Robert Scoble and Cory Doctorow -- Jimmy has made the infamous Forbes Top 25 Web Celebrities for 2007 list, coming in at number 12.

But What is so impressive about this American Internet entrepreneur is the sheer impact of his vision. Wikipedia has had a profound effect on our society. Tim O'Reilly described it well when he visually depicted the evolution of an entry on Wikipedia based on the number of human attributions. And by comparing the (skyrocketing) growth of Wikipedia to that of (flatlined) Britannica.

On Wikia, TechCrunch points out:

So Wikia, the for-profit sister site to Wikipedia, is closely tracking the early growth of Wikipedia in terms of new article generation. The obvious conclusion is that what worked for Wikipedia may work for Wikia, too. Certainly the same forces of user generated content and community are in play.

Wikia Search, in at least one person's opinion, has a very good chance at disrupting the world of search by making it human-powered.

There will certainly be a lot to talk about, and I hope you can join us for the conversation. The details will be announced shortly on Waxxi's site, where you'll be able to register for the live event.

The Future of Search: Human-Powered?

On Wednesday, I attended a talk by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales (as part of the Free Culture @ NYU series I've been blogging about a bit).

It was historic, in that it was the first public talk he's given on search. Why? Well, a little project that's been occupying the bulk of his attention - Wikia Search - has become quite public after an interview with the New York Times, and its resulting article.

The thrust of Mr. Wales' presentation surrounded his vision of Wika Search:

To build a free, democratic, transparent search engine.

After all,

Search is a fundamental part of the infrastructure of the Internet, therefore of society as a whole.

He believes that search should be three things: transparent, participatory, and free.

Referring to the theory of open source, which at the time of its suggestion, was deemed impossible. "It won't work!", insisted leading technology companies like (surprise) Microsoft, Sun, IBM, SAP, and Oracle. Enter: redhat, php, Ubuntu, and more. Guess what? It does work. It works because:

It's a virtuous (not a vicious) cycle.

More involvement  --> fundamental improvement --> open code --> everyone can improve it. And so on.

Next comes open (free) content. "What?! That will never, ever work!", said such establishments as the New York Times, Financial Times, etc. Enter, for one, Wikipedia. You know, one of the world's most influential brands? 'Nuff said.

Back to search, and Wikia. Wika was described, as a whole, as:

Every other kind of book, work, or community that people might build.

Think: library (Wikia) vs. encyclopedia (Wikipedia). Wikia Search relies on three fundamental principles:

1. Transparency: all algorithms are published, testable and researchable. [Open]

2. Participatory: bringing the best elements of Wikipedia and trust networks to problems of search. This brings the power of human participation to the search process, and relies on the social structure: accountability. It, Mr. Wales believes, empowers people to contribute to something that is of very high quality. The community monitors itself, Wikipedia style. In other words, you have a stake in search. [Human-powered]

3. Free: to change the competitive landscape of search; to encourage global innovation; to disallow disambiguation. An example given was that of a search for Paris Hilton. Search engines of the now - no matter how often you travel and, let's say, search for and book a room in the Hilton Hotel in Paris - still offer up a slew of sites that link to the infamous "celebrity." Search of the future (human powered, that is) will at the very least be able to ask, 'did you mean the hotel, or the celebrity?' [Big idea]

Will Wikia Search be a viable threat to Google? You be the judge. (Or, the participant.)

Free Culture, Transparency, and Search

That's a talk that Wikipedia founder and Wikia Owner, Jimmy Wales, will be giving at the next Free Culture @ NYU Series on Wednesday, January 31st. I'll be there, for sure.

Tim O'Reilly had a lot to say about Wikipedia at Google's Un-bound event, including its comparison to Britannica, in terms of relevance (imagine on a graph Wikipedia on a constant rise, vs. Britannica which is literally, flatlined).

This (via Laura) is Mr. O'Reilly explaining a chart of activity representing the evolution of an entry in Wikipedia, based on the number of changes, edits, and additions [this happens to be a depiction of the Wikipedia entry for Evolution]:

Tim O'Reilly at Google's Un-bound conference in NYC (1/18/07)

There's a reason Wikipedia is one of the world's most influential brands (right behind Google and Apple, and hand-in-hand with You Tube) ... and it has everything to do with free culture.

Cory Doctorow: Free Culture @ NYU

Cory Doctcorow makes my brain hurt. But in a good way. A very good way. That's Cory after Friday night's Free Culture @ NYU talk: State of the Copyfight 2007: Looking up, not out of the woods yet.

The fast-talking, and even faster thinking Cory Doctorow is co-editor of Boing Boing, otherwise known as the world's most popular blog. (The stats tell all.)

He's also a sci-fi writer and activist for our rights, when it comes to the world of copyright and DRM. Here's a video of him talking up DRM and self-determination, courtesy of Loic Le Meur (and Google Video).

Seth Godin recently blogged about Cory after Thursday's Un-Bound conference,

I sat next to Cory at a conference today. It was like playing basketball next to Michael Jordan. Cory was looking at more than 30 screens a minute. He was bouncing from his mail to his calendar to a travel site and then back. His fingers were a blur as he processed inbound mail, visiting more than a dozen sites in the amount of time it took for my neck to cramp up. I'm very fast, but Cory is in a different league entirely. Rereading this, I can see I'm not doing it justice. I wish I had a video...

Side note:  Interestingly enough, I was one of the people Cory was emailing from the conference, which we all  three (plus about 297 others) attended. In the email, Cory agreed to be Waxxi's next guest, on an interactive podcast in February. More over here, shortly. In the meantime, check out his new short story collection, Overclocked.

Originally uploaded by tracysheridan