Some people eat, sleep and chew gum, I do genealogy and write...

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The Full Wiki -- another valuable tool for genealogists

It seems like there is a never-ending stream of new vastly large Websites that add functionality to the Internet. The Full Wiki came online in January of 2010 claiming to build the largest collection of free licensed work on the Internet. Apparently, they have already brought together the collective works of Wikipedia, Wikiquote, WikiTravell, Wiktionary and for nostalgia, the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911.

Each article in The Full Wiki is linked to a series of interactive maps, mapping every location mentioned in every article, with links to surrounding areas and articles. Just for starts, try the "History of Western civilization: Reference" article. This site looks like a meta-Wikipedia. Rather than go directly to Wikipedia, you may wish to do your search in The Full Wiki. The site gives you all of the information in Wikipedia, but organizes it into a format that leads to more related information.

The one limitation, which will probably be corrected by use, is that many of the articles and links do not presently show up in a Google search, since Google partly uses the number of times a site has been accessed to do its searches.

Sometimes I think there cannot be even one more innovative or new Website, it is just impossible and then another, and another site comes along to prove me wrong.

Remember, this is a Wiki site, not a search engine. So someone has to have written an article about the subject you are searching. It is not a cure all for finding individuals, but it is an extension of the hugely useful reference material in Wikipedia.

2 comments:

  1. First, it's not a wiki site. Readers can't change the information. It allows you to search other Wiki sites.

    Or, at least, it allow you to search those sites from an unstated number of days previous. It's not being constantly updated. It's not even being daily, weekly, or monthly updated.

    Assuming all entries are from the same date (which could be an incorrect assumption) The current edition is from somewhere between November 24 and December 10th 2009. (An amazingly long period of time one piece of vandalism remained on one of my personal favorite entries.)

    So over a month old, possibly over two months old.

    This makes all the content found at TheFullWiki suspect. Did it take a picture of an entry at the worst possible time, preserving some graffiti for who knows how long?

    I'd rather search the sites directly so I know I have the current information.

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  2. Hello John and James!

    I'm Luke Metcalfe, the founder of The Full Wiki.

    Thank you for the review, James. I'm glad you enjoyed our maps and collection of sources.

    A small point: We're not claim it is yet the largest collection. It's a work in progress.

    John, I'll address your points on your blog.

    Regards
    Luke

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