How Wikipedia Solved the Knowledge Gap: Andrew Lih at TEDxAmericanU

Andrew Lih is an associate professor of journalism at American University in Washington, DC, and author of The Wikipedia Revolution: How a bunch of nobodies created the world's greatest encyclopedia. He is a noted expert in online collaboration and digital news innovation and founded the web-based city guide NY.com in 1994. He has degrees in computer science from Columbia University, where he helped start the School of Journalism's new media program. He is a contributor to the weekly PBS MediaShift podcast and has been a speaker at South by Southwest (SXSW), the Online News Association, Wikimania and Wikisym.

How Wikipedia Solved the Knowledge Gap
Filmed by Ford Fischer and Justin Parker
Edited by Ford Fischer

Wikipedia has created millions of articles in over 200 languages, making it the greatest reference work in the world. But the "encyclopedia that anyone can edit" is even more astonishing in how it fills a human knowledge gap that, until recently, was seen as unsolvable. By organizing and explaining information faster than ever before, it is a persistent, constantly updated, peer-produced, working draft of human history. Andrew Lih explains the implications of solving the gap, and why it's vital for Wikipedia's future survival.

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