''The World and Wikipedia: How We are Editing Reality'' is a book written by the British linguist

Andrew Dalby Andrew Dalby, (born 1947 in Liverpool) is an English linguist, translator and historian who has written articles and several books on a wide range of topics including food history, language, and Classical texts. Education and early career D ...

and published by Siduri Books in 2009. The author provides a context for the birth and growth of

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

through an examination of the wider encyclopedia tradition. The work and community behaviour of its expert and non-expert contributors are discussed, as are the question of reliability and the problem of vandalism. Dalby covers numerous incidents from the English, French and German Wikipedias and closes with an optimistic outlook on the central and responsible role he believes Wikipedia will assume in the media. The book follows an "anecdotal approach" to argue that "disproportionate emphasis on popular culture ..does happen but that over time substance is added and entries are extended" and why "we will come to rely on it more and more and that it will come to serve us better than its predecessors."The World and Wikipedia: how we are editing reality
in ''REFERplus'' Spring 2010 He "claims Roman naturalist,

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...

, as a proto-Wikipedian", and makes the case "that Wikipedia ..has become more reliable as more people use it".Greeks, Romans ... and Wikipedians
in ''Cam'' no. 58 (Michaelmas 2009) pp. 46-47

References

External links

Andrew Dalby and others
on ''

Start The Week ''Start the Week'' is a discussion programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 which began in April 1970. The current presenter is the former BBC political editor and the BBC's former political Sunday morning presenter Andrew Marr. The previous regular p ...

'' (

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

) 14 December 2009
Book review by Yudin

Book review by Brunello
{{DEFAULTSORT:World and Wikipedia, The Books about Wikipedia 2009 non-fiction books

See also

References

External links