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The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia Audiobook
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(3.04) - 195 listener ratings
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"Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing." —Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia
With more than 2,000,000 individual articles on everything from Aa! (a Japanese pop group) to Zzyzx, California, written by an army of volunteer contributors, Wikipedia is the number-eight site on the World Wide Web. Created (and corrected) by anyone with access to a computer, this impressive assemblage of knowledge is growing at an astonishing rate of more than 30,000,000 words a month. Now, for the first time, a Wikipedia insider tells the story of how it all happened—from the first glimmer of an idea to the global phenomenon it's become.
Andrew Lih has been an administrator (a trusted user who is granted access to technical features) at Wikipedia for more than four years, as well as a regular host of the weekly Wikipedia podcast. In The Wikipedia Revolution, he details the site's inception in 2001, its evolution, and its remarkable growth, while also explaining its larger cultural repercussions. Wikipedia is not just a Web site; it's a global community of contributors who have banded together out of a shared passion for making knowledge free.
The Wikipedia Revolution features a foreword by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and an afterword that is itself a Wikipedia creation.
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"An interesting historical perspective of the personalities and principles behind Wikipedia. Lih makes a clear argument for why Wikipedia is NOT the World's Greatest Encyclopedia however hard it might be trying. Fascinating information on foreign language Wikis. "
— Julie (4 out of 5 stars)
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“An easy, nontech, intriguing read about a Web miracle that today rivals Encyclopaedia Britannica, according to well-respected publications, in the quality of many of its articles.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
The [listener] cannot help but become a Wikipedia enthusiast, rooting for the volunteers and lamenting the often public setbacks.
— Library Journal -
“Tracing Wikipedia’s evolution and expansion to international editions, Lih views the encyclopedia as a ‘global community of passionate scribes,’ attributing its success to a policy of openness which is ‘not so much technical phenomenon as social phenomenon.’”
— Publishers Weekly
The Wikipedia Revolution Listener Reviews
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" Quick informative read on the history of wikis and wikipedia that also touches on many web content developments in the last decade in an approachable way. "
— John, 1/17/2014 -
" Everything you could ever want to know about Wikipedia - and more. A thorough overview. "
— Jared, 12/26/2013 -
" An interesting historical perspective of the personalities and principles behind Wikipedia. Lih makes a clear argument for why Wikipedia is NOT the World's Greatest Encyclopedia however hard it might be trying. Fascinating information on foreign language Wikis. "
— Julie, 12/17/2013 -
" I "read" the audiobook edition. Interesting, though it goes too deeply into specific examples in detail of entries and arguments. It was unabridged, but I would have enjoyed an abridged version more. "
— Ken, 11/2/2013 -
" Interesting at first, but mostly self-indulgent. Wish they had chosen an audio speaker actually familiar with some technical terms. Each of the times he used the pronunciation Sigh-sop for SysOp I cringed a little. The spelling out of ASCII was equally absurd. "
— Joseph, 10/7/2013 -
" Great book about the history of Wikipedia and their successes and failures. "
— Trever, 9/21/2013 -
" Interesting look into the first years of Wikipedia (until ca. 2008); lots of interesting anecdotes. Now, need a book for the years after that. "
— djcb, 5/14/2013 -
" A very good (if a little bit dated) introduction to the history of Wikipedia. "
— Jeremy, 1/25/2013 -
" A reasonably good summary of Wikipedia's evolution, but doesn't offer much novel analysis. I could be biased due to being familiar with a lot of this material beforehand. "
— Padraic, 7/10/2012 -
" I really got a lot out of this book. It was informative and gave me a new respect for Wikipedia, both as a reference source and as a social experiment. "
— Mireille, 9/6/2011 -
" Wikipedia is really special the way it works with volunteers and is still standardized. And you really can change anything in it. "
— Carrie, 8/29/2011 -
" Interesting at first, but mostly self-indulgent. Wish they had chosen an audio speaker actually familiar with some technical terms. Each of the times he used the pronunciation Sigh-sop for SysOp I cringed a little. The spelling out of ASCII was equally absurd. <br/> <br/> "
— Joseph, 8/27/2010 -
" I "read" the audiobook edition. Interesting, though it goes too deeply into specific examples in detail of entries and arguments. It was unabridged, but I would have enjoyed an abridged version more. "
— Ken, 4/3/2010 -
" Everything you could ever want to know about Wikipedia - and more. A thorough overview. "
— Jared, 10/2/2009 -
" If you're a web developer (Marissa!!!) you'll proabably love it. For the avearge person curious about how Wikipedia works, it's too much information, especially about it's early competitors. <br/> <br/>Seems well researched. Writing's a bit dry. "
— Phil, 6/14/2009 -
" Wikipedia is really special the way it works with volunteers and is still standardized. And you really can change anything in it. "
— Carrie, 6/4/2009 -
" This is an interesting review of the history of wikipedia, but one that is padded with a lot of tables, transcripts, etc. <br/> <br/>Told by a semi-insider, it chronicles the leaps and missteps involved in making wikipedia the phenomenon it is today. <br/> <br/> "
— Bob, 5/24/2009 -
" OK. Not bad. <br/> <br/>I did like the comparison of Sanger's mgmt of the early wikipedia/nupedia with Wales'. There's definitely a lesson in there for those trying to herd the 2.0 cats, and keep them interested and contributing. "
— Peter, 5/1/2009 -
" A reasonably good summary of Wikipedia's evolution, but doesn't offer much novel analysis. I could be biased due to being familiar with a lot of this material beforehand. "
— Thirsty_Mind, 4/11/2009 -
" Quick informative read on the history of wikis and wikipedia that also touches on many web content developments in the last decade in an approachable way. "
— John, 4/9/2009
About Andrew Lih
Andrew Lih spent ten years as an academic in new media and journalism at Columbia University and Hong Kong University. He has been an administrator at Wikipedia for over four years and a commentator on new media, technology, and journalism issues on CNN, MSNBC, and NPR. Lih is based in Beijing.
About Lloyd James
Lloyd James (a.k.a. Sean Pratt) has been a working professional actor in theater, film, television, and voice-overs for more than thirty years. He has narrated over one thousand audiobooks and won numerous Earphones Awards and nominations for the Audie Award and the Voice Arts Award. He holds a BFA degree in acting from Santa Fe University, New Mexico.