Dear Friends, Wikipedia entries dry up as volunteers exit It was one of the internet’s most radical and ultimately successful ideas. Eight years ago Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia that allows anyone to write and edit articles, declared that it would provide access to “the sum of all human knowledge”. It soon became one of world’s most popular websites. That intrepid project now, however, is starting to fall apart, according to a report in The Times.Research reveals that the volunteers who create the pages,check facts and adapt the site are abandoning the site in unprecedented numbers. Every month tens of thousands of Wikipedia’s editors are going “dead”—no longer actively contributing and updating the site, The Times reported, without a similar number of new contributors taking their place. Some argue that Wikipedia’s troubles represent a new phase for the internet. Maybe, as some believe, the website has become part of the establishment that it was supposed to change. The research found that in the first three months of this year the English-language version of the site suffered a net loss of 49,000 contributors, compared with a loss of about 4,900 during last year. Many experts believe that the trend could threaten Wikipedia’s future. * * Vacant Site Every month tens of thousands of Wikipedia’s editors are going ‘dead’—no longer actively contributing and updating the site—without a similar number of new contributors taking their place. A research found that in the first three months of this year the English-language version of the site suffered a net loss of 49,000 contributors, compared to the loss of 4,900 during the same period last year. Some believe contributors were exiting Wikipedia because of disenchantment with the process of editing the site, which was increasingly becoming rule-ridden and tedious. Source: http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIBG/2009/11/28&PageLabel=26&EntityId=Ar02603&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T Thanking You, Dinesh -- Dr. Dinesh K. S. MLISc., Ph.D. Selection Grade Librarian, Nagarjuna College of Engineering & Technology, Devanahalli, Bengaluru - 562 110. Ph: +91-9845102382, Email: dinesh.ncet@gmail.com www.nagarjunaknowledgecentre.webs.com www.dineshks.webs.com, -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.