One of my favourite things

Is Wikipedia. I like it for all sorts of reasons. I love that it came from nowhere in what felt like no time at all, I love that it makes finding out anything so incredibly quick, I love the principle of documenting the collective wisdom of humanity, I love that the possibility of factual inaccuracy encourages people cross reference, but most of all I love that it makes learning fun!

Okay so I realise I must sound like one of those obnoxious primary school teachers but what I mean is I love the way every page on Wikipedia is linked to hundreds of other pages. It makes lateral exploration immediate as though the dictionary has at last caught up with the speed of our naturally scatty thought processes. I'd love to see a visual representation of what Wikipedia's network of pages looks like.

In the course of finding out more about Mitch Hedberg an extraordinarily funny American comic I've only just discovered (I recommend you get hold of some of his CDs like 'Mitch All Together') within a few clicks I had found myself miles from where my search had begun discovering such fantastic gems as hylozoistic and paraprosdokian. I'm amazed I haven't seen a 'six degrees of separation' style game using Wikipedia's database before.


Incidentally I'm curious to see how they get on with their new donation system. I'm a little unclear as to exactly what the proceeds go towards but people have already started giving in earnest.

Finally one minor gripe I have despite all of Wikipedia's charms is the conspicuous absence of an 'o' in their pedia. It really bothers me more than it should.