Wikipedia might really be the one true source of information in the universe. Why, because the community has built it that way. This quote from Nicolas Carr of the Guardian really stuck with me. User generated content is the future, especially when it’s well moderated and properly organized.

Search at Google.com on evolution or Iraq or Aids or Gordon Brown, and the same site will appear at the top of the list of results: Wikipedia. Alter your search into one for John Keats or Muhammad Ali or Christianity or platypus or loneliness, and the same thing will happen. Pacific Ocean? Wikipedia. Catherine de Medici? Wikipedia. Human brain? Wikipedia.

In fact, if you Google any person, place or thing today, you’re almost guaranteed to find Wikipedia at or near the top of the list of recommended pages. Despite its flaws, the amateur-written encyclopedia has become the world’s all-purpose information source. It’s our new Delphic oracle.

–Nicolas Carr, blogger for the Guardian on Wikipedia