Wikilicous... Wikirrific... Wikimusing...

I’m not going to say that I’m a fan of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”. That’s because I’m not a fan. But I have seen it a few times. And of the lifelines, the 50/50 is really for chumps. I mean, really. They say it’s random, but the producers get to pick which two potential answers go away. If I was in the position, “phone a friend” would be my first choice only because I know two of the strangely smartest people on the planet (Hey, Gavin… What’s up, Kevin…). But a close second would be “Ask the Audience”, where you get to see a percentage result of the audiences opinion of the question’s answer. By and large, the masses are going to lead you in the right direction.

This is where I get excited about the wiki phenomenon. If you’ve not heard of this, check out Wikipedia. I link to it all of the time from this very blog. It’s like an encyclopedia of sorts, on the Internet that gets contributions from everyday people, crazy obsessed maniacs and professional experts who want to show how smart they are. It’s a great reference because it gets constant bulls**t testing. Every post made is open to editing from other contributors. And the other contributors could be any of the billions of people on the Interent. Wikipedia gets updated by cyber-geeks who think they know more than that academic buried in the back of the library working for Britannica.

The premise of this and other wiki sites is that a new opinion, fact, noun, whatever, will get posted and experts from around the planet will log on and share what they know about it in as clinical terms as possible. Sure marketers have tried to co-op it, but managers of the web site and other “everyman editors” do a pretty good job of shutting those down.

The really great thing is that, in general, wiki sites are more up to date than you are. If you hear about some crazy buzz on some random movie coming out this summer - say… Oh, I don’t know… “Snakes On A Plane” - go look. At this time, the Wikipedia is ground zero for where a lot of buzz grows. Check out pastafarianism (Have you been touched by his noodley appendage?).

And aside from the Wikipedia, check out Amazon, ShopWiki and Wikitravel. These are sites that allow potential customers and past customers to share what they know. Different from Wikipedia, these sites are intended to be less clinical and more fan-club like. This is a pretty neat way to get information on a vacation site, or ironing board or music.

But Wikinet apps have their down side.

One I will call Wikibullies: I imagine these guys monopolizing conversations at dinner parties if they had any social skills. But with no social skills, they sniff out words, commas and anecdotes they feel are out of whack and change them. If you’re not contributing to a wiki of their interest, I doubt I’d know they exist, but Oh they exist. These are people who spend a little more time than me paying attention to their respective topics of interest. But changes to listings get tracked and if someone’s posting a bunch of crap, the site managers can shut you out.

Another, I’ll call wikiLittlemuch is an issue I have with Amazon’s use. Take a look at their product pages. There is so much below the fold. Now I’m a big fan of testing. And the Internet lets you test and test and test until you find things that work. But with so many options at the bottom of the product page, I’ve stopped paying attention.

And then there are the Wikipranksters. I read of some guy who changed a wkikpedia entry as a prank - not really a funny prank, unless it was an inside joke - claiming a new twist on the JFK assasination. But that topic is rife with conspiracy hounds already, so I wasn’t too surprised.

Take Wikinet sites with a grain of skepticism, but take advantage of them. It’s free, it’s informational, and even if it’s wrong it’s entertaining.