| Wiki Quickie
 How
do you define “local
food”? If you have a brilliant insight after
lunch, you can surf over to Wikipedia,
the online encyclopedia that allows anyone to edit or
write entries.
Almost anyone, that is.
Wikipedia was designed as a truly democratic
encyclopedia. Until recently, anyone—from Wendell
Berry to your Aunt Edna—could add
to or edit Wikipedia. This open
sourcing of knowledge is not without challenges.
Beginning to see the problem?
John
Seigenthaler Sr., a former newspaper editor who
was Robert
Kennedy's administrative assistant in the early
1960s, wrote an op-ed in USA
Today revealing that Wikipedia ran an entry claiming
that he had been suspected in the assassinations of
both Robert and John
F. Kennedy.
Problem.
Wikipedia corrected the errors and started
requiring registration from anyone adding information
to the site. Users can still edit information already
posted, but they can no longer add new information without
a free account.
In practice, the “wiki”
concept is useful. Grantees, such as the Farm and Food
Policy Project and The
Sustainable Food Laboratory, use extranet systems
to post and share documents, events, and knowledge online.
These collaborations allow disintermediated groups to
create knowledge in one place. Using usernames and passwords
to protect the information from pranksters, it’s
a useful way to create effective online collaborations
across long distances.
Still feel like defining “local
food?” Go ahead and edit. The online citation
is located at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_food.
Quick trivia:
Wiki means ____ in Hawaiian.
a) quick
b) easily changed
c) information
d) local food
To learn more about how Food and Society
grantees are using “wiki” to facilitate
long-distance collaborations, contact: Alan
Hunt at Northeast
Midwest Institute or Daniella
Malin at the Sustainability
Institute.
Answer: a) quick
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