And you think blogging is easy?!
What if there were a free online encyclopedia that you could not only access readily but which you could help edit, create, and publish at will without even logging in?
Wikipedia, “The Free Encyclopedia”, is precisely such an animal and the notion is one of a truly collective, communistic enterprise. WikiWiki is a Hawaian word meaning “quick” and all “wiki” online projects (
By comparison: If a blog were a glass shack with a locked door where you could create your own visible display within but upon the outer walls of which passerbys were welcomed to graffiti comments, then a wiki is an open commune with no doors where anyone can just walk in off the street and rearrange the furniture as seems more befitting to their values, tastes, and outlook (and they could even but are not supposed to destroy the furniture).
Hrm…let me try some shameless self-promotion... here (current) and here (history). Now I wonder how long "they" (us? who? we!) will continue to let that stand?
update: a Wiki-editor named Malcolm Fraser seems to keep "un-editing" my edits (ruddy stodgy old censoring socialist that he probably is !) That would account for any differences between (current) and (history) above.
Yes, my edits (still getting deleted) are/were "humorous", but the Wiki page does so invite: "You can even edit the page you are reading right now: just click "Edit this page" to the right! It really works! See, you're editing it!" Nonetheless, there is this point to my madness : Wiki (wherever it is found) reeks of actual and potential censorship and that's why, though more open than blogging, it is and will forever remain an inferior form of communication to blogging.
For instance, I could have written an article that claimed that the Castro was behind the assassination of JFK. And my good, fascist friend Malcolm out there could follow-up my "free, open" exchange by changing all references to "Castro" to "the CIA". With blogging, however, I write my article and he can challenge me in a comment of his own or on his own blog, but he can't act as my self-appointed censor.
The Defense Rests: Vive La Blog!
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