Wikipedia is singled out for praise for its super-timely coverage of the Indian Ocean quake, leaving Wikinews eating dust and "dramatic" headlines. Will there be a journalist-encyclopedist showdown? Will Wikiaddicts start cancelling other appointments when they learn of crucial updates to important articles? (Do they already?) Meanwhile 'wiki' continues to infect mainstream vocabulary, in preparation for the upcoming Year of the Wiki. And better editing tools are coming out every week, thanks to both MediaWiki updates (did you know that 'what links here' now works for categories?) and third-party plugins. Happy new year! +sj+ ==Wikipedia, Disasters and Wikinews== eSchool News, ed-tech Insider Will Richardson, 12-28. 'The Future of News Right Now' Of all the ways that the Read/Write Web is changing our lives, one of the most profound is in the ways we access and consume the news... when I [want] a more complete picture of the story, I still don't go to the Times. Instead, I go to Wikipedia... I know there is some debate about the veracity of the information there. But take a minute to check out the Wikipedia entry on the tsunami event and tell me you aren't amazed. [It's getting] 75 edits an hour. In fact I found out there that the toll had reached some 55,000 before it even came through my [news] aggregator. http://www.eschoolnews.com/eti/2004/12/000426.php Guardian Unlimited, Neil McIntosh, 12-30. 'Wikipedia on the Indian Ocean earthquake' [T]he ever-impressive Wikipedia is compiling a mammoth entry on the unfolding disaster. He points out the first draft was written within 24 hours of the waves hitting shore; it's certainly an impressive effort. Meanwhile, Wikinews - the recently-launched sister site to Wikipedia - is running the dramatic headline "New tsunamis to hit India today...' http://tinyurl.com/4jz26 == Other tidbits about wikis and wikipedia == The NYT listed 'wiki' among 14 "would-be words that rose to prominence" this year, along with 'spim', 'bangalored', and 'podcasting'. That's ridonkulous. But then none could accuse compiler Grant Barrett of knowing where his towel is. http://tinyurl.com/68ngs And Val Souza continues to promote wikis in his column in India's Express Computer 'zine. He throws in a good word for Wikipedia but leaves MediaWiki out of his list of wikis to install at home. Wikipedia has detractors too, as I discovered when I received anonymous mail condemning me for "pushing" Wikipedia in my previous column... http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20041227/edit02.shtml Finally, Daily Yomiuri online says WP offers "nothing less than a glimpse into a potential future model of publishing." http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20041228wo61.htm == New Tools == (as seen on wikitech-l !) Axel Kramer released a beta of the Eclipse Wikipedia Editor Plugin in time for Christmas. http://tinyurl.com/5qaog General tools information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tools --