Smart Mobs: Wikipedia emerges as the “essential source” for the VT story

Excerpt:
"The analysis today by the New York Times of how Wikipedia responded to the Virginia Tech massacre is an important update on the state of 21st century journalism. One can realize from Wikipedia’s work last week that mob journalism is smart and serious. The Times report reads in part:
From the contributions of 2,074 editors, at last count, the site created a polished, detailed article on the massacre, with more than 140 separate footnotes, as well as sidebars that profiled the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, and gave a timeline of the attacks.

According to the foundation that runs the various Wikipedias around the world, there were more than 750,000 visits to the main article on the shootings in its first two days, an average of four visits a second. Even The Roanoke Times, which is published near Blacksburg, Va., where the university is located, noted on Thursday that Wikipedia “has emerged as the clearinghouse for detailed information on the event.”"

http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2007/04/23/wikipedia_emerg....html

Alex

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