The English Language Genome Project, Wikipedia: 2.36

Real quick: I know a lot of you keep asking me to call Mark Burnett (or his assistant or his second assistant) but the best I'm going to do is make a Mark Burnett tag and hope his savvy assistant or someone's savvy assistant finds this and gets him on the bandwagon.

But today's main post is about Wikipedia, the Open Source Encyclopedia.

Wicked Wikipedia at www.wikipedia.org. Actually, it's more like wicked awesome Wikipedia...

It took me awhile to come around to Wikipedia, the free, online, open-source encyclopedia. But really, blogging (read: becoming total Internet freak) has helped me realize the genius of a lot of things on the World Wide Web. Wikipedia is probably the most wicked awesome* to me, a student/advocate/user of the English language.

*please note that wicked awesomeness is particularly fickle.

If you know what Wikipedia is, skip the next paragraph or so-- unless you just adore my writing. [Tiffany, wink*]

Wikipedia is open-source, which is essentially means that anyone can edit it. Now, they protect themselves from numbskulls in two ways. One is that they encourage registration. The other is that they have the support of a lot of people who aren't idiots. TIME magazine reported that bad info is often edited out in less than ten minutes.

So, Wikipedia becomes an amazing online encyclopedia that's totally free, thanks to wonderful people all over the globe. Plus, unlike say, the Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia changes all the time as new information is added, updated and debated.

Look, the best thing I recommend is that you try it. I think you'll find its entries are well-written, cogent, full of links to other sources of information, constantly updated, easy to search, etc. Just try Wikipedia (that's wikipedia dot ORG) anytime you come across a word or phrase and you're all "now what does that mean, exactly"?

Even Bubbles made the discovery that Jimmy Dean is actually the sausage guy and James Dean is the actor, contrary to what she originally thought. Ah, Wikipedia, if you're making Bubbles smarter, there's no doubt in my mind that you're a good thing. So check it out while you're not working at work.

ALSO: RUN, DON'T WALK AWAY FROM MYSPACE! It is now a part of Rupert Murdoch's evil, baby-killing media empire. Go back to Friendster (I hear it's improved) or one of the other, lesser pointless sites from which to while away your hours. But the point is: IF YOU ARE ON MYSPACE, YOU NOW SUPPORT BABY-KILLING, SEAL-CLUBBING, CHILD-EATING FOX NEWS!
Here's the story in the LA Times, via Defamer