For those of you who can't wait for the next Quarto ( http://tinyurl.com/4clcg ) to come out, here is a quick rundown of some media highlights from December:

======== Forbes had one of their encyclopedia editors (they manage American Heritage these days) half-heartedly compare WP to Britannica Online : checking Haydn, Millard Fillmore, warblers, King James II.

"...Frederick Allen, Managing Editor of American Heritage admitted, 'it looks as if Wikipedia's gotten a lot better, more thorough and more accurate.'...Even the Wikipedia's James II of Britain article beat Britannica in size, reach and outside references..." http://www.forbes.com/home/technology/best/2004/1213/bow001.html

We should introduce Mr. Allen to Lord Emsworth; I wonder what he would think then. http://tinyurl.com/453e7

(For those of you keeping score at home, it is James II of "England", if you please.)

========

Meanwhile, Tim Bray sat down and wrote a delightfully thoughtful piece on the emerging properties of Wikipedia.

"...the proposition that the Wikipedia is a misguided waste of time is boring. Something poorly-understood is happening here, and the observed results are immensely better than intuition from first principles would suggest. This is interesting; it seems obvious to me that there are lessons to learn here, about reference publishing in particular and knowledge husbandry in general." http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2004/12/06/Trustipedia

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Journalists continue to get heated up about collaborative journalism:

Mark Glaser wrote a passionate piece on the collaborative news org he wants to work for, almost a community Wikiproject : http://tinyurl.com/62nu4 ( See also his earlier notes on Wiki and journalism: http://tinyurl.com/5cxzu )

Then Mitch Ratcliffe spun a long editorial on Wikinews itself ( http://tinyurl.com/5bm9z )

And some local citizen journalism enterprises are starting to take shape: ... from the fully-realized Baristanet ( http://www.baristanet.com , serving Montclair, Glen Ridge, and Bloomfield, NJ ), and the entire town of Greensboro, NC ( http://tinyurl.com/432ea )

... to Pegasus News, "launching in Dallas in late 2005, but with a cool blog up now," which plans to eventually expand to "every major U.S. city with a monopoly newspaper" http://shapeofdays.typepad.com/pegasus_news/

...to Dan Gillmor's "jumping out of a window, and building a parachute in midair" departure from the SJ Merc to start his own venture that enables and illustrates the kind of grassroots journalism he has been writing about. http://tinyurl.com/66rag

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Elsehwere, Wikiquote picks up a few admirers on Bill Hicks' birthday : http://maisonneuve.org/blog/index.php?itemid=718 http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/features/2952532

And Wikimedia gets another quick plug in the Indian press, in a review of reference desks and online dictionaries: http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20041213/market06.shtml

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Finally, a question for our style gurus: is it "Wikipedia" or "the Wikipedia"? We had better start presenting clear guidance for our loving referers. A quick score sheet from recent pubs:

- Frederick Allen, American Heritage editor : "Wikipedia" - Dr. 'Alfaso' Gizmo, semi-anonymous journalist : "graffiti" - Matt Rand, /Forbes/ writer : "the Wikipedia" - Mitch Ratcliffe, veteran journalist : "Wikipedia" - Robert McHenry, Former /Britannica/ editor : [unintelligible] - Tim Bray, Encyclophile : "the Wikipedia" - Val Souza, Express Computer columnist, India : "the Wikipedia" - Wired Magazine, various writers : "Wikipedia"