Anthony Bradley

This very interesting post by Aaron Swartz examines who actually adds the value to Wikipedia. It is very worth the read, as are the comments. He takes issue with the assertion by Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia founder) that it is a small set of core (less than two thousand) knowledge experts that add the most value to Wikipedia. This sounded hard to believe and counter to the Web 2.0 nature of Wikipedia. How could less than two thousand volunteers create the Wikipedia behemoth?

Jimmy Wales’s position is that the Wikipedia process is more like a conventional encyclopedia effort than a Web 2.0 mass collaboration phenomenon.

Aaron Swartz’s investigation unveils that indeed a small core contributes the vast majority of edits and formatting (a large number of small contributions), but the bulk of Wikipedia content is written by peripheral and occasional contributors (a small number of substantial contributions).

My faith is restored.

It’s ironic that Aaron defends the Wikipedia phenomenon against its own founder.