If you've followed any of the links on this blog, you've perhaps noticed that they almost invariably point to a Wikipedia entry. Why? Because more than anything else, in terms of being an information resource, Wikipedia seems to embody the promise of the Internet.
Back in the good old days, the Internet was about sharing information, but it was difficult to limited user interfaces. Then someone invented the web browser. Then came the hucksters trying to sell shit and cluttering it up. Then came the search engines, which helped sort through this clutter, but they seem to be losing ground daily due to billions of useless links from the same old but trickier hucksters trying to sell the same old shit.
Don't know what I'm talking about? Say you wanted to learn more about Cruise Lines - try Googling that and see how many links you get to sites trying to flog tickets, rather than an article talking about the industry itself. Do the same in Wikipedia - and voila, you have what you need. Even Microsoft's "free" Encarta "On-Line Encyclopedia" is just an excuse to post ads.
It could be called "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Planet Earth"; we haven't explored the rest of the galaxy yet, but Wikipedia is rapidly becoming the repository of all human knowledge of what we do know: From Aardvarks to Zebus, Shakespeare to Thermonuclear Weapon Design, from the ubiquitous Butt-Plug to the ever irrelevant Paris Hilton, its all there. And yes, the recipe for the infamous Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is there as well.
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