15歳になったWikipedia - Living, Loving, Thinking, Again

Jimmy Wales “Wikipedia’s strength is in collaboration – as we’ve proved over 15 years” http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/15/wikipedia-israel-palestine-15-years-encyclopedia

Wikipediaがスタートして今年で15年。2001年か。Wikipedia以前と以後のネット世界における知識のあり方の変容を考えてみるのも興味深いかも知れない。
Jimmy Wales氏はWikipediaの共同創設者。

When I created Wikipedia 15 years ago, encyclopedias were largely a resource for history and science. There was no expectation that books could grapple with the urgent and evolving challenges of terrorism, racism and war. But Wikipedia is much more than an encyclopedia. It is a community of people who work to set aside opinion and bias in favour of neutrality and fact, all in the service of knowledge.

Wikipediaが所謂「百科事典（encyclopedia）」から一線を劃しているのは、時々刻々様相を変容させてゆく現在進行中の事件に関する情報の蒐集と整理ということだろう。例えば、昨年11月に巴里で起こったテロ*1の際には、事件発生後２時間以内に英語版の項目が立ち上げられ、年末までには4500回以上の編集が重ねられ、250以上のリソースを包括するに至った*2。巴里の前日にベイルートで起こった自爆テロに関しても、Wikipediaのヴォランティアたちは迅速に情報を収集し、項目を立ち上げた*3。”These days, it seems like we are witness to a percussion of global conflict and discord. In the complexity of conflict, we find ourselves seeking truth out of the chaos, and understanding amid the instability.”
WikipediaをWikipediaたらしめるもの、それは広範な人々の自発的協働だが、最近ではWikipediaを「知識の記録」だけでなく、「紛争におけるコンセンサス」の達成、レイシズムや偏見の克服のためのツールとして使うことも模索されている；

Since its founding 15 years ago, Wikipedia has been the go-to source for knowledge on any topic in the world. The depth and breadth of information it makes freely available is unprecedented. But the most exceptional thing about Wikipedia is that it is a collaboration, built by volunteer contributors from every walk of life. They come together, from different backgrounds and different beliefs, to learn and understand, to document the past for the future.
In this way, Wikipedia has the power to be an instrument for collective understanding and resolution – a place to find nuance in things painted black and white, and a place to seek truth together. It isn’t a dusty encyclopedia, but a living resource that reflects the changing world around it. And today, people are finding ways to not only use Wikipedia to document knowledge, but to find consensus in conflict, challenge racism and biases, and come together across painful divides.

その例として挙げられているのは先ず米国における人種問題への取り組み；

Since the 2014 fatal shooting of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri*4, the US has struggled with the issue of race and police brutality*5. Over the past year the country has experienced both peaceful and violent protests in the aftermath of the death of Brown, as well as others including Freddie Gray, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice. A deeply complex issue, it has challenged Americans to examine the way they experience each other, our communities, and those charged with protecting them.
This is the context in which Wikipedians across the country organised and participated in the first #BlackLivesMatter*6, held during Black History Month*7 in February 2015. From Harlem to Howard University, the edit-a-thons brought people together to tackle the historical and cultural gaps on Wikipedia, and to improve the representation of black culture and history.
These edit-a-thons offered a new opportunity to consider and engage with the complex past and present of race relations in America. Wikipedia articles may be collaborative, but they ultimately demand consensus. As volunteer editors worked through their differences in the editing process, they found resolution in facts, and representation in citations. They brought new voices and experiences into the Wikipedia editor community, and, with dozens of articles created or improved, new knowledge and understanding to the world.

さらには、「イスラエル＝パレスティナ紛争」*8；

It seems counterintuitive that Wikipedia, a website open for anyone in the world to edit, could be a reliable source of information for one of the world’s deeply contested issues. And it is true that finding neutrality – a cornerstone policy of Wikipedia – under these circumstances is a serious challenge.
And yet, WikiProject Israel Palestine Collaboration*9 is working to make Wikipedia the most balanced reference point for anyone seeking information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while breaking down barriers in the process. The project aims to engage people in building bridges and weaving together viewpoints from both sides in an effort to create a “truly bilateral” narrative. As the world’s primary free and open reference on the issue, Wikipedia has taken on the role of a sort of digital truth and reconciliation commission.

*1:See eg. http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20151120/1447994526 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20151125/1448382327

*2:http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/15/wikipedia-israel-palestine-15-years-encyclopedia

*3:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Beirut_bombings

*5:See “Is US policing out of control? - Guardian Live event” http://www.theguardian.com/membership/audio/2015/dec/19/is-us-policing-out-of-control-guardian-live-event

*6:https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Blog/Drafts/BlackLivesMatter_Wikipedia_Edit-a-thon%20edit-a-thons

*7:http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/ See eg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_History_Month

*8:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict

*9:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Israel_Palestine_Collaboration