Remember when Wikipedia was the only volunteer-driven free-content encyclopedia on the Web? Now we have Citizendium, Conservapedia and Scholarpedia, all launched in the past few months. Though they have a similar look and more or less follow Wikipedia's model of writing and editing, the wiki upstarts prove there's plenty of room for differences in the world of free online reference.

Article: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/searc...tory/56871.html

Wikipedia Imitators Tout Unique Models
TechNewsWorld, CA - 31 minutes ago
By William Weir. Conservapedia, founded by the son of antifeminist crusader Phyllis Schlafly, aims to correct the "liberal bias" of Wikipedia. ...

Remember when Wikipedia was the only volunteer-driven free-content encyclopedia on the Web? Now we have Citizendium, Conservapedia and Scholarpedia, all launched in the past few months. Though they have a similar look and more or less follow Wikipedia's model of writing and editing, the wiki upstarts prove there's plenty of room for differences in the world of free online reference.

Article: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/searc...tory/56871.html

Remember when Wikipedia was the only volunteer-driven free-content encyclopedia on the Web? Now we have Citizendium, Conservapedia and Scholarpedia, all launched in the past few months.

Article: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/searc...Unique%20Models

I'd never heard of Scholarpedia. Looks even better than Citizendium for most things... although once something controversial comes up prepare for a FIGHT

I have heard of Scholarpedia - and its in the back of my mind to ask Scholarpedia how they've managed to put a full review cycle into MediaWiki.

Conservapedia is a very, very bad joke - see my blog for more on this.

There are other wikis that are more focussed - EvoWiki which is essentially TalkOrigins.org in wiki format (and closed editing) and SkepticWiki.org (which is about skepticism, the paranormal etc) being two reasonable examples.

The main reason for Wikipedia's success is really the network effect of being so large and so easy to copy - any idiot can create a Wikipedia clone with Adsense - and many have done so.

As one of those idiots who's cloning Mediawiki (albeit, SEMANTIC Mediawiki), I'd just like to add that what's truly special about Centiare is that the EDITORS get to post their own AdSense ads (or Amazon links, or YouTube videos, or t-shirts for sale), and they keep the money for themselves. So, we're quite a welcoming domain like Wikia.com, except where all of Wikia's ad revenues go to Jimbo & Co., the ads on Centiare mostly go to the editors themselves.

I'm still trying to figure out why we're not getting more capitalistic Wikipedians who would like to edit a wiki and get paid to do it. We're even trying to prime the pump with a $300 cash prize. Maybe there are no capitalistic Wikipedians (other than me and Mercenary Wikipedian).

Sorry for the plug.

No, I'm not.

Greg

The reason is easy - you do not understand economics or human psychology.

Wikipedia Imitators Tout Unique Models
TechNewsWorld, CA - Apr 13, 2007
By William Weir. Conservapedia, founded by the son of antifeminist crusader Phyllis Schlafly, aims to correct the "liberal bias" of Wikipedia. ...