There have been reports about editors leaving the widely popular community edited encyclopedia site Wikipedia. According to a university study 49,000 editors left the site in the first quarter of 2009. Compared to the first quarter of 2008 that is a 10 fold increase. Only 4,900 people felt like leaving Wikipedia last year. So, is Wikipedia going to die?
No, says Wikimedia UK, a chapter of the organization that operates Wikipedia. According to spokesperson Michael Peel “We’re trying to engage a bit more at the moment with people who are very knowledgeable, people who are experts, so working with museums was the obvious next step,” He also points out that the content on Wikipedia is freely licensed so it will stay forever and as long as the content is there Wikipedia cannot die.
Researcher Felipe Ortega, from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, on the other hand has the opinion that if the trend continues for two or more years it could spell serious trouble for the encyclopedia site. It is no mystery that Wikipedia is going through starting troubles. It was evident from their call for donation campaign during the first few months of this year.
I agree with Felipe here. Even though they have very good content they cannot stand the rate of malicious changes if the community of editors does not stand by correcting stuff and adding more authentic content. With depleting editors it could enter into a phase like Dmoz, open directory project. I seriously feel with even few misleading entries and information the reputation of the site could plunge. I have grown up learning and referencing Wikipedia so it would be hard to see it fall. On a happier note Wikipedia informs us that they are taking things into expert hands and collaborating with museums.
