Wikipedia is awarded $890,000 for site upgrade
by Geoffrey.Cruz on 04/12/08 at 4:08 pm
Wikipedia, the online nonprofit free-to-edit encyclopedia, is a great source for information. The problem with the site is that if you want to edit an entry or start a new one, you would have to at least be tech-savvy to get through all the complex elements of the entry. Well Wikipedia is trying to fix that. Stanton Foundation has awarded Wikipedia, or WikiMedia Foundation who operates Wikipedia, $890,000 in order to make Wikipedia more user friendly. With the $890,000, Wikipedia is set to hire three new software developers who will work on eliminating complex elements from the user interface to ease the process of starting a new entry. They also plan to make all code open-source. Wikipedia release the following statement per their press release:
“Wikipedia attracts writers who have a moderate-to-high level of technical understanding, but it excludes lots of smart, knowledgeable people who are less tech-centric,” Wikimedia Foundation executive director Sue Gardner said in the release. “One of our key priorities is to attract those people and persuade them to help write and edit the encyclopedia. I am thrilled that the Stanton Foundation recognizes the importance of that work, and will be helping us with it.”
With the new funding, Wikipedia is hoping that their millions of articles will have broader depth with all perspectives on the topic being discussed. Hopefully the writers who are not tech-savvy will come out and help.
- Geoff
[Source: CNET]
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