[WikiEN-l] Twitterpedia will win

[George Herbert]

On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 11:14 AM, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:

> George Herbert wrote:
> > I developed an entire user help system once which required that all
> > information be one 23x80 character text frame, including a line of
> > navigation info and a line of the next prompt (useful: 21x80).  That was
> > quite a challenge.
> >
> > Wrapping a useful amount of encyclopedic info into Tweets is possible but
> > extremely painful.  Especially as there's no links.
> >
> >
> >
> Even if it could be done, the Wikipedia system of rules would not be so
> amenable.


The english Wikipedia system is predicated on a high-multimedia potential,
for our purposes unlimited length format, where ability to source detailed
information and have long arguments about prominence of key ideas in the
article is a good thing.

Having only 140 characters to work with (or even 1600ish, as my example) is
a limit which would require entirely different approaches.

Writing smaller is harder - people able to wordsmith will move to the
prominence somewhat.

Identifying the 5ish key facts (who, what, when, where, why, etc) for any
topic is probably easier than figuring out how to write a NPOV 10,000 word
article on a contentious issue.


-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com