
The Last Best Place on the Internet
A Human History of Wikipedia
Richard Cooke(Author)
Granta Books (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 5. November 2026
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-1-78378-812-5 (ISBN)
Description
The first post to appear read simply: "hello world". Two decades later, Wikipedia has defied the usual tech trajectory of commercialization and corruption and now stands as the largest repository of human knowledge in existence, containing over 6 million articles, accessed millions times every day by users throughout the world. It has held true to its founding principles: it is still free to use, still worked on by unpaid, amateur and mostly anonymous volunteers, and still home to information as varied as it is glorious. Here, Cooke takes us inside the world of Wikpedians, exploring the major schools of thought that underpin the project (Inclusionists and Deletionists), illuminating the concept of Wikidata and the site's hidden legacy in artificial intelligence, and investigating the inevitable controversies that have arisen -- from specific pages on Jesus, Freddy Mercury, the Scots language, and Phillip Roth, to the problem of gender bias and sexism. Written with wit, humour and unrivalled access, HELLO WORLD a celebration of a singularly human, singularly collaborative endeavor in the age of the internet.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-78378-812-5 (9781783788125)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Richard Cooke is an award-winning author and reporter whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Guardian, New Republic, and WIRED. The former US correspondent to the Monthly magazine, Australia's premier journal of reportage, he lives in Sydney.