Thanks to Blooey Singson for inviting the BBN partners to the WikiPilipinas Bloggers Dinner, which will be held later at the Marina Seafood Restaurant, right across the World Trade Center. Eugene of Vista Pinas, who “introduced” us to Blooey, is also sure to be there.
For those who don’t know, WikiPilipinas is the rebranded Wikipiniana. The new site features better presentation and stronger branding. As well as future versions in different Philippine dialects. I hope I get to meet the WikiPilipinas team and talk to them about the site. I’m especially interested in what their long-term plans are.
Based on recent experience, I’m sure that WikiPilipinas will become the battleground for different groups who want to portray their own opinions of a certain topic as the truth, since anyone who signs up for an account can edit the content. The topic in question could be inconsequential, like the love life of Filipino celebrities, or as important as the relationship between Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo. Here are some interesting questions that the evolution of WikiPilipinas may answer:
Is the concept of accurate and authoritative information important to Filipinos? I for one would love to see WikiPilipinas feature articles that are well-written, balanced, and comprehensive. But that’s just me. If the site enjoys high levels of traffic and participation, we might see what Filipinos really want when it comes to information.
Will users create their own content, rather than copy the freely available work from other websites? WikiPilipinas’ article on encyclopedia was lifted straight from its Wikipedia counterpart (complete with formatting tags, which may explain the article’s messy appearance). There’s nothing (legally) wrong with this, as Wikipedia’s content is available under the GNU documentation license. And I’m sure WikiPilipinas is trying to create a body of information that future users can build on. It’s a question of when—and if—WikiPilipinas will come up with their own original articles.
The open-ended nature of the WikiPilipinas’ platform means that it may grow into something totally different than what its founders expected. Already, I see people creating articles for themselves (link courtesy of Eugene). Are we seeing an “intellectual” Friendster in the works?
3 Responses to “How Will WikiPilipinas Develop?”
This is interesting!
Eversince Wikipedia’s birth (I love to call it wiki-wiki) I’ve relied on their information more heavily than their competitors. I thought that from the beginning, theirs completely changed the Encyclopedia battlefield and it looks like wiki-wiki is winning the game. Who wouldn’t love wiki-wiki? It’s updated by common people (not me - am a queen) so everyone love that they have a bit of a part in this great informational database.
I don’t see anything wrong with wikipiniana copying wikpedia’s strategy - it’s gonna be a battle though although for philippine info authority, it’s clear that people would expect wikipiniana to be on top of their game. Now for aesthetics! susko naman! pede bang pagandahin at i-organize yang site na yan! babalikan ko yan at lalait laitin ko yaaannnnn!!!!
[...] pointed out by Rico over at BBN, will everyone who has a Friendster account entitled to a WikiPinas page? If it is so, then [...]
Si Gus always talked about winning “knowledge dominance,” meaning gusto niya mag-rank ung WikiPilipinas sa top 10 for popular Philippine topics. Pero I don’t know if he considers being “authoritative” that important.
Leave a Reply