Wikipedia through the Looking Glass

Wikipedia through the Looking Glass is the working title for a book about Wikipedia, by Edward Buckner, co-written with Eric Barbour.

I think this is going be a blockbuster, not just because it is the first critical book about Wikipedia to be published, but because it is so well-written and well-researched. It’s going to embarrass a lot of people who richly deserve to be embarrassed. The trouble for the defenders of the Wikipedia establishment is that the evidence itself, the facts themselves, are damning. – Larry Sanger

It is the story of the dark side of Wikipedia. The book reveals, for the first time, the truth behind the origin of Wikipedia, its spectacular growth into one of the world's most visited websites, the struggles to control it, and the covert agenda and political ambitions of those who now run it, including its relations with vested interests such as the technology and public relations industries. It is not just a catalogue of the scandals – sexual, ethical and financial – that have afflicted Wikipedia since its beginnings, but an attempt at accounting for them. The book aims to explain why Wikipedia is the way it is, through an examination of its origins, its history, its design, its governance and culture.

The book relies on extensive research, previously unpublished archive material, interviews with supporters - including those closest to Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales - and critics, such as disaffected Wikipedians who lost power in the successive purges of its leadership. The people and the events that shaped Wikipedia are tied together in a fast-paced narrative that takes us from Chicago to San Diego, San Francisco, Tampa and London, England.

The authors

Edward Buckner is a philosopher and historian based in London. His most recent book (Time and Existence: Duns Scotus' Questions on Aristotle's Peri Hermenias), written with Jack Zupko, has now been approved for publication by CUA press.

Co-author Eric Barbour, based in California, is the former co-founder of Vacuum Tube Valley magazine, and has won awards for his writings on the early history of electronics. He is the owner and founder of Metasonix, the world's only company making music synthesizers out of vacuum tubes.

The market

The book competes with works like Andrew Lih's The Wikipedia Revolution and Charles Matthews' How Wikipedia Works. However, it will be the first book to take a critical and analytical view of Wikipedia, and it includes material entirely omitted from previous books, such as the influence of the pedophile movement and the pornography industry, as well as archive material once thought lost. It is aimed a non-technical readership, and is of general intellectual interest.

Chapters

Founder and co-founder with Wikipedians

1. 1994 Jimbo, the Chicago futures markets and how Wikipedia was intended to work. 10 pages - In good shape.
2. 1996 The early days of Bomis. What it was, and its influence on Wikipedia. 10 pages - In good shape.
3. 1998-2000 The move to San Diego, Larry Sanger is hired, the early days of Nupedia. 15 pages - In good shape.
4. 2000-2001 The birth of Wikipedia (the true story). 12 pages - In good shape.
5. 2001 (March-July) The growth of the wiki. The influence of Richard Stallman. Free software and open source software. The Cathedral and the Bazaar. 14 pages - Needs tidying.
6. 2001-2002 The Slashdot invasion, and what 'The Internet' really is. The Cunctator and the leadership crisis. 17 pages - Needs tidying.
7. 2002 The Spanish Fork and advertising on Wikipedia. In good shape.
8. 2002-2012 Who are the Wikipedians? First draft nearly complete.
9. 2002-3 The rise of the Robots – Wikipedia as 'aggregation engine' not 'crowdsourcing'. 9 pages - Needs finishing.
10. 2003 Michael Davis moves from Chicago to Florida. His role in the Wikimedia Foundation. Advertising. Started, looking good.
11. 2004 Jon Schillaci starts the "Wikipedia campaign". The problem of conflict of interest. Started and well under way.
12. 2004 The LaRouche and other edit wars. Why conflict of interest is endemic in Wikipedia. Started.
13. 2005-7 The Wikipedia 'golden age': the rise and fall of the 'content contributors'. In good shape.
14. 2005 John Seigenthaler and Daniel Brandt and why Wikipedia is still vulnerable to malicious biography. The problem of anonymity and conflict of interest. 15 pages - Needs some work.
15. 2006-7 The Essjay affair and the lessons that failed to be learned. 16 pages - First draft complete.
16. 2007 – The problem of Philosophy on Wikipedia. Why crowdsourcing will never write the Critique of Pure Reason. 16 pages - First draft complete.
17. 2005-2008 Morrow gets out of jail. His history and how the WMF fail to address the problem of the mentally ill on Wikipedia. First draft complete - looking good.
18. 2008 The Anvil email and its aftermath. The Wikipedia 'security police'. First draft complete.
19. 2010 Why Wikipedia must not be censored, and how Jimbo was nearly removed as founder. Why there must be as much pornography as possible on Wikipedia. Well under way.
20. 2011-12 The SOPA protest and Wikipedia's alignment with the tech industry. First draft nearly complete.

>*************************************************
>* http://www.nupedia.com/ *
>* The Ever Expanding Open Source Encyclopedia *
>*************************************************

See also

• Another suggested outline
• Agencies