Jimmy Wales, one of the founders of online encyclopaedia phenomenon Wikipedia, has called on librarians to become deeply involved in the web-based communities that surround his products.

Talking exclusively to IWR, Wales held out the hand of solidarity to information professionals.

Wales is looking to improve the quality of information available to Wikipedia users, and to extend the number of languages that Wikipedia can be read in.

To do this, he is calling on information professionals to form and join Wikipedia Academies, which are working with communities across the world teaching wiki editing skills. Wales hopes that they will create a generation of wiki editors who will drive up standards.

Academies in South Africa and Germany have already appeared.

“Librarians are not engaging with the Academies,” Wales complained.

“If libraries throughout the world formed regional groups and made an effort, they would be playing a positive role within Wikipedia.

“The job of the librarian is about highlighting the weaknesses and strengths of information.”

Wales is also looking to harness the expertise of information professionals to improve web search results.

Wikia Search, from his for-profit organisation Wikia, aims to challenge the likes of Google and Yahoo.

“We hope to change the structure of search,” Wales said. “For me it is interesting to look at the quality of Google, Yahoo and Ask search results. They are very similar.”

Wales claims to have experimented with switching the branding, with users unable to tell the difference.

“This means good search results are a commodity,” he said.

At the heart of Wales’ challenge to the current algorithm-based search engines is user behaviour. He cites the social networks built by Stumbleupon and Digg as the basis for his search tool.

“These activities [tagging and recommending content] are social and it is information that can be trusted. I think that could be very powerful.”

The project has financial backing from the online retailer Amazon.
www.wikia.com