Wikipedia

A New Community of Practice?

Dan O'Sullivan

$103

Paperback

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English

Routledge
17 November 2016

Literature: history & criticism; Reference works; Humanities; Cultural studies; Study & learning skills: general

During its brief existence Wikipedia has proved astonishingly successful with 2.8 million articles in English alone available freely to all with access to the internet.

The online encyclopedia can be seen as the 21st century’s version of earlier historical attempts to gather the world’s knowledge into one place - this unique book offers a description of some of these earlier attempts. O’Sullivan follows with a thorough analysis of Wikipedia itself, suggesting how to approach and contribute to the site, and what can be gained from using it.

Writing in an accessible style the author takes a socio-historical approach and argues that by looking at communities of practice in the past we can come to understand the radical, even political, nature of Wikipedia. The book will have a broad appeal to anyone interested in the development of this unique project, including information management professionals but also historians, sociologists, educators and students.

By: Dan O'Sullivan
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9781138267749
ISBN 10: 1138267740
Pages: 200
Publication Date: 17 November 2016
Audience: College/higher education , General/trade , Primary , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Contents: Preface; Introduction; Part I Groups in History: Group theory; The Library of Alexandria; The Royal Society; The republic of letters; The making of the Oxford English Dictionary; The Left Book Club. Part II Wikipedia: Social sites; Wikipedia: aims; Wikipedia: the community; Wikipedia: structure; Wikipedia: transaction costs; Wikipedia and the public; Wikipedia and the nature of knowledge. Part III Using Wikipedia: Browsing Wikipedia; Assessing Wikipedia; Contributing to Wikipedia; Conclusion; Index.

Dan O'Sullivan has spent most of his life working in education, teaching history in colleges. He has written several books including 'Youth Culture' (Methuen, 1974), 'The Age of Discovery 1400-1550' (Longman, 1984), 'Tudor Britain 1485-1603' (Longman, 1997) and 'In Search of Captain Cook' (I.B.Tauris, 2008).

Reviews for Wikipedia: A New Community of Practice?

'... an excellent historical context for this huge knowledge production project, the Wikipedia.' Online Information Review, Vol 34, no 2, 2010 'I enjoyed this book immensely: it will sit on my shelf of frequently-consulted works.' CILIP Update, January 2011