On Fri, May 16, 2014 at 10:28 AM, Pete Forsyth <peteforsyth(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote:
A quick visit to stats.grok.se indicates that the
"Search" feature of
English Wikipedia was used 63 million times last month [...]
Long time ago I played around with the idea that our endeavor for free
knowledge would result in spin-off movements, some of which have already
happened. Like easing the access to current primary sources (Open Access),
guaranteeing the distribution of knowledge (Wikipedia Zero, movement for
net neutrality), and making sure that it can be found with global open
search tools (?).
This last part is mostly uncharted territory, and as the diversity of our
open knowledge repository expands, it seems that we can offer much more
than "just wikipedia text search". Commercial search engines are moving in
the direction of search result mash-ups, mixing text , images, videos,
maps, data... so the user has an idea of which facets of the subject he or
she can explore further.
Even mash-ups generated from Wikimedia sites will never be able to compete
with web search engines, but it can become the primary choice when looking
for free knowledge, specially if synergies with other free knowledge
organizations were sought.
Perhaps there will be gaps, but I am convinced that with the time they will
become less. Maps were missing and OSM has covered that void, there were no
free scores, and then IMSLP appeared. Even for products there is Open
Product Data in the making. And regarding local business seems that
Wikivoyage and OSM have something to offer too, and who knows what will
come next.
I wonder what are your thoughts about the exciting topic of joining forces
with other organizations in the search front to become more than the sum of
the parts.
Micru