User:Appraiser/Wikipedia Panel ideas

I'm planning to present this outline to programming organizers as a suggested panel topic.

Information Revolution

 * 1) Idea for Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource'' was originated in 1999 by Richard Stallman care of the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation. As of 2008, FSF recommends Wikipedia, which is the only free encyclopedia they list.
 * 2) "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing. It is my intention to get a copy of Wikipedia to every single person on the planet in their own language. It is my intention that free textbooks from our wikibooks project will be used to revolutionize education in developing countries by radically cutting the cost of content.” – Jimmy Wales
 * 3) This is a fruit of the "Information Age"
 * 4) theory - Similar to the Gutenberg Bible – dissemination of information begets power
 * 5) theory - Knowledge forces Democracy

Wiki Tool Theory

 * 1) Will the collaboration of 100 novices produce a better product that one expert with a peer review?
 * 2) Can a good product be produced starting with no rules and no one in charge?
 * 3) Will constant vandalism kill the project?
 * 4) Will user’s lack of trust in the content yield a useless product?
 * 5) Can the project survive on donations alone? Will commercial interests try to kill it?
 * 6) Paperless model is ideal for up-to-the-minute information

Extensive library of fiction

 * Literature
 * Television
 * Silver Screen
 * Computer/Video games
 * Music

Some (of many) non-fiction topics

 * Science
 * History
 * Geography
 * Human behavior
 * biographies
 * News

Statistics

 * 1) 684 million visits per year
 * 10,000,000 articles
 * 1) In 250 languages
 * 2) 8th most visited website
 * 3) Fewer than 2% of Wikipedia users ever contribute. 98% are readers.
 * 4) Google PageRank contributes to Wikipedia's success