If you look for the most visited websites in the world,what you find is a list of sites owned by western corporalions,confirmation of the degree to which the web has been capturecl by the corporate world.1.The idea that a significant encyclopedia could be created by allowing anyone to create pages on any topic seemed pretty improbable way back in 2001 when it was introduced by Jimmy Wales.That it could have evolved into the world"s leading general reference work-and the fifth most visited website on the planet-is truly extraordinary.Since its establishment,it"s been the butt of jokes,a focus for academic anger.2.Indeed,in specialist areas,Wikipedia pages are often written by experts and are usually the best places to gain an informed and up-to-date overview.Because Wikipedia is so vast and varied,the controversies it engenders have traditionally been about its content and rarely about its governance,which is a pity,because in some ways this is the most significant aspect of the project.3.Wikipedia"s governance is a clever mix of technology,norms and processes.It started with the wiki technology invented by Ward Cunningham,which allowed anyone to write and publish live web pages,together with an acceptance that while"truth"might be unattainable,nevertheless achieving what it called"a neutral point of vrew"was a worthwhile aspiration.4.From the beginning,Wikipedia had a core of volunteer editors who shared common values and some substantive expertise.And sitting atop this structure was a founder,Jimmy Wales,who operated as a kind of benevolent dictator and an arbiter of last resort.From a contemporary perspective,though,the most significant design decision was that every page would have a public discussion page attached to it,which meant that there would be a record of all the arguments that had led to particular changes.Reading Wikipedia discussion pages provides a way of understanding how a particular proposition or assertion came to be made and how it evolved over time.5.But in a polarised political climate,it shows what can be done to preserve us from the madness of hysterical,uncivil,conspiracist discourse that now characterises social media.Which,among other things,explains why Susan Wojcicki.YouTube"s CEO,recently announced that the video site will henceforth use excerpts from Wikipedia to counteract videos romoting conspiracy theories.This,wrote one commentator,"is,at first glance,odd.A megacorporation with billions of dollars and thousands of brilliant employees is...relying on a volunteer-run platform anyone can edit to fact-check information?"It is odd.But it"s also a validation of Wikipedia"s mission and a reminder of its importance. 1选？