1. Kaitlyn Graber, Kenny Henault, Mike Hoelzel, Aaron Hall

2.  Wikipedia is the 5 th most popular Web site in the world  Roughly 325 millions monthly visitors  Founded by Jimmy Wales in 2001 as an online encyclopedia with provided feedback from experts.  The term “wiki” is the Hawaiian word for fast— therefore Wikipedia was designed in hopes of speeding the pace of other online encyclopedias.

3.  Despite popularity with the public, volunteers who write, edit, and police Wikipedia are quitting.  Net losses have accelerated over the past year—Wikipedia suffered a net loss of 49,000 editors in comparison to the 4,900 loss in 2008.  The “free encyclopedia anyone can edit” is facing major decline in reliability due to errors and deliberate false additions

4.  One factor in the decline of volunteers is that many topics have already been written about.  Many rules have been adopted to control Wikipedia, specifically to reduce differing opinions in controversial matters  Wiki’s struggles raise questions about “crowdsourcing” or allowing large numbers of individuals to work on a single task without rules of traditional organizations

5.  As Wikipedia ages, it is becoming less permissive and is adding more rules.  Many new volunteers are finding that their posts have broken a rule—and have been deleted.

6.  Wiki founder, Jimmy Wales, recognizes that the Wikipedia community has become unfriendly to new users and claims that it is a correctible problem  Top priority is to improve the accuracy of Wikipedia’s articles.  With this push—all edits will be required to be approved by top editors before published to the site.

7.  Collaborative software fostered a unique form of online governance.  One of the main principles is that decisions are based by consensus-building  One original unbreakable rule is that articles must be written from a neutral point of view.  Another is that anyone is able to edit articles

8.  Foundation employs 34 people, most of which in San Fransisco—to run the site’s computers, planning and serve as it’s public face.  As it’s fiscal year ended in June, Wikimedia reports $5.6 million in expenses—as it’s funds operate mostly through donations and campaining.

9.  Wikipedia is now a constant target for vandals who post intentional false information or slander.  In 2005, John Seigenthaler Sr; a journalist, wrote about his own write-up which unjustly accused him of murder—ending in bad press for Wiki.  Wikipedians began calling for better patrolling of articles.

10.  New antivandalism features were enacted including “semiprotection”, which prevents newcomers from editing certain articles.  In 2008, editors deleted one in four contributions from infrequent contributors— a jump from one in ten in 2005.  The wikimedia Foundation is seeking to increase participation, however; overall number of participants isn’t a big focus.

11.  There were a lot more participants in the early days when anyone could write about anything.  Seminars are being held world-wide to increase participation