Why is Wikipedia's editing community dwindling?

Wikipedia's closely-examined editing community has been declining for quite some time, and historian and Wikipedia editor Richard Jensen has a theory that may explain why. The problem, Jensen postulates, is that there's simply less work for editors to do than there has been in the past. He cites the editing histories of popular articles like the War of 1812 and World War II, which peak between 2005 and 2007. In contrast, the articles' pageviews have steadily increased, which Jensen says shows that there isn't a lack of engagement, but rather that popular articles are nearly complete. Take a look at more highlights from Jensen's study at The Atlantic.

[Source: The Verge]

Meet the 'bots' that edit Wikipedia

Wikipedia is written and maintained by tens of thousands of volunteers across the world. Those, in turn, are assisted by hundreds of "bots" - autonomous computer programmes that keep the encyclopaedia running.

"Penis is the male sex organ," the Wikipedia page in question read.

While that statement is undeniably true and thus may merit inclusion in Wikipedia, it belongs nowhere in the site's article on national supreme courts and their legal roles.

When an anonymous Wikipedia reader in South Carolina offered that contribution to the globally popular online encyclopaedia last week, it took just seconds for the blemish to be discovered and deleted.

The vandalism was caught not by a reader, but by a simple artificial intelligence programme called a bot - short for robot.

[Source: BBC - Click to read the full story]