Dear Wikimedians,

I'm writing to announce two thing of interest to the community:

1. "The Wikipedia Story" wiki invites Wikimedia community folks to help write the "next chapter" for Wikipedia. The result will appear in the hardback book "The Wikipedia Story: How a bunch of nobodies created the world's greatest encyclopedia" a nonfiction work which will be released in January 2009 by Hyperion

Many already know I have been writing this book for over a year, after being a community member for over five years, attending three Wikimanias and conducting countless interviews with Wikipedians around the world. I am inviting the community to collaboratively write the last chapter as a tribute to and demonstration of the extraordinary users I've had the privilege of working with. Details can be found here:

Link http://wikipediastory.com/wiki/Main_Page

In prelaunch we've had a dozen contributors "kick the tires" and put seed material in. Unlike other wiki experiments such as "A Million Penguins" and "Wikitorials" which have had difficulties building the right dynamic for generating quality content, this endeavor has experienced Wikipedians at its core. You don't all have to agree, but I'm confident the right dynamic will allow for thoughtful discourse. I invite you to come take part and help chart out the future course of Wikipedia. It would be incredibly helpful to register using your familiar Wikipedia username. Please do feel free to pass this message on or translate this for Wikimedians and non-Wikimedians alike.

As always, you are welcome to contact me directly on wiki or by email if you have any questions. See you on the wiki!

2. Wikipedia Weekly audio podcast episode 48, "An interview with Jimmy Wales," is now online for your listening pleasure. Wikipedia Weekly is an independent "radio show" that has been produced for over a year with volunteer effort from the community such as Liam Wyatt, User:Tawker, User:The Placebo Effect, User:Daveydweeb and myself. (Thanks to numerous others who have been guests and helpers.) We have never stumped or spammed the podcast (until now), and hope you find it a useful public service. You can subscribe to it as a podcast from Apple's iTunes or listen to it in Ogg Vorbis format on the web site. We always welcome comments and even your participation in our "roundtable" show discussions.

Links http://www.wikipediaweekly.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikipediaWeekly http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=201998397

Thanks.

-Andrew Lih (User:Fuzheado) http://www.andrewlih.com/blog/