Jerripedia: Island gets online encyclopedia

Friday 23rd July 2010, 2:57PM BST.

Jerripedia is the brainchild of former JEP editor Mike Bisson

ISLANDERS are being invited to help write the history of Jersey on a new interactive webpage called Jerripedia.

Running alongside a Guernsey version, Donkipedia, the website aims to chronicle family, political and Island history in a similar format to online encyclopaedia Wikipedia.

Former JEP editor Mike Bisson launched Jerripedia in February, and with the site now hosting a wealth of information he wants people in Jersey to get involved, adding data and checking for errors.

‘Anyone can go on to the site, register and upload their own information or change mistakes,’ he said.

‘Every little bit of information is welcome - we already have about 80 people who are registered and making contributions.’

• To go to Jerripedia: Click here

1
Mark

July 23, 2010 at 3:51 pm

Why go it alone? Become a stub on Wikipedia.

I am afraid this smacks of Jersey, and Guernsey, attempting to box above their weight. Channel Island arrogance par exultance.

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2
John

July 24, 2010 at 1:37 am

Agreed – again its the dear old Channel Island “who you know” mentality – other Channel Islands history sites, archive sites, galleries, social networking sites etc have been operating for years and years and never get a mention, yet loads of publicity for this one – I wonder why?
As for “brainchild” in February – more like “reinventing the wheel” there are similar websites that have been running for 10 years and upwards already detailing much of the same information.

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3
Glynn Masterman

July 24, 2010 at 10:29 am

Not crazy about the name. I understand its relation to jerriais, but if I’d seen it in any other context, it would’ve made me think of Germany, rather than Jersey (no offence to our German friends). What’s wrong with plain old Jerseypedia? Regardless, it’s a wonderful idea which is sure to become a great source of information on Jersey, both significant and trivial. Well done, Mike Bisson.

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4
R B Bougourd

July 25, 2010 at 8:55 pm

If the Guernsey web page is called Donkipedia (sic), then surely the Jersey one should be called Crapopedia (sic).

Who cares about spelling, the Donkeys obviously don’t.

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5
Mac

August 11, 2010 at 10:46 am

@Mark:

You clearly don’t understand the difference between a wiki and the Wikipedia. So here’s a lesson, and it will make clear why there’s a good and valid case for Jerripedia

A wiki is a web site which allows easy edit access to users (something that none of the SJ, Archive etc websites currently do). It can be internal to an organisation or public. It is ideal for both knowledge capture and knowledge sharing because putting data into it is easy even for a non-geek.

The Wikipedia is one specific instance of a wiki – and OK, it is the one specific instance of a wiki that most people know about. The project developed out of a website called Nupedia, which aimed to provide a free analogue to Encyclopedia Britannica. It failed because it required experts to write the articles, and in its first year they got exactly 12 completed articles published. To speed things up the founders created a site that non-experts could edit as a ‘feeder’ to Nupedia. They spawned a monster…

The point remains that Wikipedia still thinks of itself as providing something like an online Encyclopedia Britannica. Its standards of content are such that a lot of what’s being created for Jerripedia and Donkipedia would not meet them. Hear me clearly: that isn’t to say that Jerripedia content has no value – it just doesn’t belong in the Wikipedia.

There are plenty of other wikis out there that cover fields in far greater depth than the Wikipedia would – most SciFi TV series now have large and highly detailed wikis (eg the various Star Trek series, Doctor Who). There is no reason why the Channel Islands shouldn’t do the same.

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