Celebrating one million wikis!

Wetpaint is nearing an amazing milestone -- one million wikis! To celebrate this occasion, Wetpaint will reward the one-millionth site creator with the chance
to give back to their community and the planet! For one year, Wetpaint will offset the carbon emissions of both the home and car of the creator of the millionth wiki. Wetpaint will also sponsor the carbon offset of a local school or non-profit organization selected by the millionth site creator. Wetpaint is even taking it one step further by offering the package to the referrer of the millionth site.

Wetpaint has created a wiki to share the news and details about this amazing celebration. You can learn more about Wetpaint's celebration at One Million Sites, my wiki-of-the-day. This new wiki gives details about the package and the official rules. It provides badges that you can add to your blog, website, or social networking profile to promote the event. Maybe your site will be the referrer of the millionth wiki if you add a badge.

If you want to know more about wikis, visit the Everything Wiki site. Then, just click on the "start a wiki" link that is displayed at the bottom right corner of any page. If you're ready now, you can create your free website from this blogpost. I'd love to be the referrer of the millionth Wetpaint wiki!

To the top of the world with the NASA Everest Trek Wiki

Today in celebration of Sally Ride becoming the first American woman in space, I began a search for a wiki related to NASA or the space program. I did not exactly find what I originally set out to find. However, I found a neat little wiki about a NASA team on a quest to climb Mt Everest. The NASA Everest Trek wiki on PBWiki tells the story of a group of NASA employees on a great adventure -- not out of this world, but rather to the top of this world. It is a very very small wiki dedicated to a very specific event. It includes the Rocket Scientist Training page which describes how they prepared for this demanding adventure. It includes bios for the team and their itinerary. While on the adventure, the team updated a blog, whose link is included on the wiki.

What a great idea -- to share such a neat adventure through a wiki. However, the team stopped a bit short of the overall goal. I wish that the team members had updated the wiki with their pictures and stories about the adventure. One instead created her own website. They haven't been back very long --- hopefully, they will update the wiki with lots more interesting, neat information about their adventure.

Nevertheless, the NASA Everest Trek wiki meets my basic criteria for an interesting, informative, and entertaining wiki. It just left me hungry for more information. : )



Photo credits:
Mt Everest from space by NASA from the NASA Everest Trek blog
Team pic from luciebeth's site

Indiana Jones Wiki

The Indiana Jones Wiki, for fans of Dr Jones and his adventures

This weekend I had the pleasure of going to the movies with my two nephews. We enjoyed watching the new Indiana Jones movie together. I've seen all the movies, but they had not yet seen them all. I'm not sure they understood his fear of snakes or his history with Marion. I now have a great Christmas present idea for the boys. The set is also on my wish list too.

Today I was glad to find The Indiana Jones Wiki . It strives to be a comprehensive reference for the Indiana Jones fiction, including the feature films, the television series, novels, comics, and video games. The wiki launched in September 2005 on Wikia. It now has over 1100 articles.

If you're also a fan of Dr Jones, visit the wiki and lend a hand. If you're looking for that small bit of information that slipped your mind over the years, check out the detail on the wiki. It's definitely interesting, informative, and entertaining.

Yo-Yo Wiki, the online yo-yo resource that anyone can edit

Today in celebration of Yo-Yo Day, I was pleased to find a nice wiki on the yo-yo.

The Y0-Yo Wiki is hosted on Wikia and has over 1,100 articles. It offers"how to" guides, yo-yo reviews, and information on famous yo-yoers. It has information on the types of yo-yos and their maintenance. It includes articles on the history of yo-yo. There are articles on yo-yo tricks and styles of play. There is also information on the yo-yo contests and the people of yo-yo. It also lists the many places in the media (including TV, movies, magazines, and video games) where yo-yos may be seen.

I was a little disappointed though -- I was hoping to see videos of the various yo-yo masters in action and how to perform yo-yo tricks (similar to those seen at How to YoYo). Nevertheless, the Yo-Yo Wiki is definitely interesting and informative -- it could just be a little bit more entertaining for a non-yo-yo master like me. : )

Twitter Fan Wiki, a wiki for the community of tweeters

The Twitter Fan Wiki is a sweet wiki'd place for tweeters.

In experimenting with Twitter this week, I was glad to find the Twitter Fan Wiki on PBWiki. It is a neat wiki'd place for both new and experienced Twitter users. On the wiki you can view and post events, groups, and feature requests. You can learn about neat Apps and Bots available for Twitter users. There is also some geeky stuff, like Scripts and Mashups. The Newbies Corner has links to a helpful etiquette guide and a glossary for the jargon of this experience. Although small (with less than 100 pages) it seems to be a tweet place for tweeters, a twittastic wiki'd place with a twittionary with twexplanations so twewbies like me and other twitteritas won't be tweetards and will avoid twoops and mistweeks. If you are new to Twitter or want to share your expertise, visit the Twitter Fan Wiki.

Road Trips USA, one guide to the open highway

This weekend is the start of the summer vacation season. Monday is the Memorial Day holiday. There will be hamburgers and hotdogs on many grills. It's already hot in Texas and a pool sounds like a really great idea. Usually many of my friends plan extended road trips during the summer. However, with the price of gas so high, and still climbing, many are looking for the shorter road trips. I found a cute little wiki Road Trips USA on Wetpaint that offers many suggestions.

Road Trips USA is a small wiki (with less than 60 pages) but has a growing community. In addition to suggested road trips, it has other interesting information, such as fun pit stops, car games, and road trip movies. You may want to also load your MP3 player with the many road trip tunes listed on the wiki. Although you may not be planning the great American cross-country road trip (like Oprah and her friend Gayle took), there are suggested multi-day trips and short Sunday drives on the wiki that might interest you. They list their fourteen most scenic drives on the wiki. You might be interested in such a road trip this Sunday and still will be home to celebrate the holiday on Monday. However, I, myself, will be totally focused on the Indy 500 this Sunday. ; )

The following song comes to my mind when thinking about a road trip: On the Road Again by Willie Nelson (and you can see the video in this blogpost).
As posted on YouTube by dynocounter

Hopefully, if you're thinking about taking an adventure on the open highway (go ahead, the price of gas is probably going to continue to rise even higher later), you might find some interesting and informative details on this little wiki. Also, if you can suggest a neat short, road trip in your area, why not visit Road Trips USA and update the wiki?

If driving, remember to buckle up. If passing through the Lone Star state on your road trip, "don't mess with Texas" (don't litter). And, never drink and drive. Have a nice, safe Memorial Day holiday.

ArmchairGM, the ultimate community of sports fans

In honor of the debut of ABC's World Wide of Sports in 1961 on this date, today I've selected the ArmchairGM wiki as my wiki-of-the-day.

ArmchairGM, based on MediaWiki, aims to be the ultimate community of sports fans. It includes articles on sports in many categories, including baseball, basketball, football, soccer, ice hockey, auto racing, golf, cycling, olympic events, combat sports, extreme sports,water sports, horse races, and many more! Writers of articles within this sports encyclopedia can embed flash videos (such as YouTube video clips). Unlike some encyclopedias, fans on ArmchairGM may write Opinions describing what they think about different sports-related topics.

Any and all sports fans are welcome to join the ArmchairGM community and contribute. Community members can post to the community blog -- articles are filtered by the community. Articles with enough votes appear front-and-center on ArmchairGM and hit the RSS feed. ArmchairGM lets fans rate "virtually anything in the sports world" and also make it easy for its fans to grab the ratings and stick them elsewhere. Fans on ArmchairGM can get recognition through points for virtually every activity on the site. Top fans are honored on an ongoing, monthly, and weekly basis. Fans can advance up levels, starting as Little Leaguers and up to the Legends level.

ArmchairGM has been described as an example of Wiki 2.0, combining the features of open source wiki software with social networking features. Each fan can build a profile and include their own photo galleries. Fans may join networks of other fans of their favorite teams. They can meet new people and add friends. Likewise, it also has a counterpart where you can add a fan to your network of foes. It also has a virtual gift component where little icons can be sent to another fan with a personal message (e.g., tissues for team losses, asterisk for accolades). Fans can also create gifts themselves by uploading images.

ArmchairGM has been quite successful. It was acquired by Wikia for $2 million. In March 2008, the Sports Illustrated site SI.com added to its new SI Vault section the "SI Wiki" which is powered by ArmchairGM. This wiki has obviously been found "worthy enough and rich with information" of being the sports wiki for SI.com.

For those who celebrate the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, visit the ArmchairGM wiki, join the community, and jump right in!