History is written by the victors

The old saying goes "history is written by the victors." The human lexicon is dynamic and always changing. I think that history and recorded knowledge are similar to a languages lexicon, "facts" changed with time, fashion and social change. Wikipedia is the perfect vehicle for this set of knowledge since it is written, edited, patrolled and updated by the people.

I really like Geoff Nunberg's conclusion at the end of his "Fresh Air" Commentary "It's only when you actually try to implement that view of collective knowledge that you realize how fond and delusional it is. When you deposit this multitude of strangers in a single place, you shouldn't be surprised when you come back and find nothing but a jumble of footprints in the mud. That's actually a fair picture of what human knowledge has always been, but it was never so evident before."

I don't see this as a bad thing. For certain questions I think that Wikipedia is often the best resource. Important and controversial information is very well monitored. I think that is it better to have a more democratic approach, leave it it open to the population to edit, than to have it maintained by a few people all employed by the same company.

If the whole sum of human knowledge is a messy "jumble of footprints in the mud" anyway, what better way to organize it than with a whole bunch of people with muddy feet?