User:WereSpielChequers/Infopedium

This is a review of Stephen Harrison's book The Editors, disclosure - I attended a book launch event and received a complimentary copy of the book. WereSpielChequers October 2024.

The Editors is set in our world before and during the Covid lockdowns. But instead of Wikipedia there is a similar online encyclopaedia called Infopedium.

If the works of JRR Tolkien can be oversummarised as an exploration of the trope of the hero as orphan in a faux medieval setting, then Mr Harrison's work is an estrangement of daughters in near modern times. But I'm sure readers of this publication will be more interested in the similarities and contrasts between the Infopedium of the book and Wikipedia. Imagine if you will a project as dominant on the Internet as Wikipedia was when twenty years old, but with the shonky business continuity practices of a much younger Wikipedia, long before dual sites, possibly even before that time when Wikipedia lost its main anti vandalism defence for a weekend because the relevant volunteer needed his spare server for other purposes.

There are significant commonalities ranging from a very similar hell week, to sockpuppetry and malicious interference from foreign government. But there are also marked differences, including the age profile of retirees and schoolkids as if the smartphone had not been invented (one assumes that Infopedium, unlike Wikipedia, has cracked mobile editing). While it isn't explicitly stated that Infopedium has decided to standardise on American English, the US focus, and complete absence of any characters from the rest of the English speaking world is rather suggestive. The narrow cast of characters, repeatedly crossing each others paths in very different parts of the site, gives the feel of a much much smaller community, more akin to that of the Georgian or Welsh language Wikipedias than what we are used to in EN Wiki. Another unsubtle difference between the two is over editor motivation, yes we've had our obsessives and hagiographers (a subset of POV warriors) but there are also people who edit Wikipedia because we enjoy it, and many of us manage to balance editing with other interests. An RFA candidate who appeared to be editing in all possible waking hours would likely be told to take a break, the expectation at RFA is that you answer questions in order - but it isn't just a 7 day "open book" exam, it is one where it is normal for the candidate to absent themselves for twenty hours at a time.

Of course it is possible that almost every character in this book is at least loosely based on a real current or former member of this community. But somehow I doubt I'd be the only Wikipedian who reads this book and concludes that they wouldn't be an Infopedian. All that said, in accordance with edicts from my wife I now have to pick two books from my library to go to the charity shop because I've decided to keep this one, and yes I'd buy the sequel were there to be one.