I've got the wiki fever. I really liked the concept of being able to secretly edit someone else's work, in the manner of an online Peeping Bloggles. I wanted to practice my technique first, so I went to the Wiki Sandbox to begin. However I couldn't resist the chance to meddle, so I searched for "Russian" and I found a page where Wikimedia, the website itself, displays actual photos of its Russian business license. In the 2.0 spirit I tried to alter some of the documents, but you can imagine my surprise when the site warned me that my IP address would appear with every change. So I guess this isn't quite the Wild West atmosphere I was looking for. Here is a copy of one of the documents. I think the wiki concept can be good for research if it is used as a starting point, in order to get some basic context, terminology, or facts and then to know better where and how to look for authoritative information elsewhere. I can go to a wiki entry for antidepressant medications, for example, so that I know what medicines are normally given to people for those conditions so that I know what to put on the bottles of frozen dung pelletts that I prescribe to my patients. If I was depressed I would know to go to another, authoritative site or to ask a real doctor. The only information format I would ban would be 8-tracks.
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