Vinismo leaves an odd bouquet

Roberto Rocha today looks at Vinismo, the wine wiki which was first presented to the masses at DemoCamp Montreal 3. (See the video)

Co-founders Evan Prodromou and Nicolas Ritoux (who naturally both blogged about the article) have been selling the site trying to get some publicity (even to the point of emailing me and asking me to blog about it). I haven’t blogged about it for the simple reason that I’m not a wine critic. I don’t even drink the stuff. I have no clue what makes a good wine, so I have no idea if it needs a wiki.

But what I do know leaves me a bit skeptical. Wine criticism is a subjective thing, and trying to build a wiki around things people disagree about is a recipe for disaster. Of course, if anyone could make it happen, it would be Evan Prodromou, who built up the successful Wikitravel.

When it comes to wikis, Wikipedia is king. It’s the one everyone knows about, and the main reason other people think wikis will be successful. But it also means people are going to go there first. So to create a non-Wikipedia wiki, you need to fill a niche that Wikipedia can’t or won’t. And that’s tough.

There are three main reasons why information would be rejected from Wikipedia and it would make sense to build another wiki database of information:

  1. The information not encyclopedic in nature. This leads to things like WikiHow (the how-to guide), Wikitravel, A Million Penguins (the collaboratively-written novel) or WikiNews.
  2. The information is too obscure or too technical even for Wikipedia. It takes quite a feat to get information that specific when Wikipedia has over 2 million articles on subjects like Simpsons pop culture references. Nevertheless, this leads to such oh-my-god-get-a-life websites as Memory Alpha (the Star Trek encyclopedia) and Wikispecies. Wikispecies, which has more serious goals, also fits into this category.
  3. The information is subjective, biased or fictional. Conservapedia and dKosopedia fall into this category, as does Uncyclopedia (the parody encyclopedia).

If it’s #3, then there’s the problem of how people can trust it and how to avoid edit wars. #2 might make sense if there was a lot more than articles about wines, which are surely allowed in Wikipedia, and it will take quite a while for it to develop enough articles to become the default resource on the topic. And if it’s #1, then comes the question: What is it, exactly?

I hope the website does well. And if it stays out of the trap of becoming a simple subset of inferior Wikipedia articles, then it probably will.

5 thoughts on “Vinismo leaves an odd bouquet

  1. Evan Prodromou

    Hi, Steve. Yeah, my understanding is that something like a 2004 J. Lohr Cuvée PAU Paso Robles would be too specific and low-level for Wikipedia. Probably most wineries wouldn’t qualify for their own Wikipedia article.

    Additionally, articles about regions and countries would differ a lot between Wikipedia and Vinismo. Obviously, the Wikipedia article on Italy will cover history, geography, culture, language, etc. The Vinismo article on Italy will only cover Italian wine production and traditions. It’s a different kind of focus.

    I didn’t realize anyone had contacted you and asked you to blog about Vinismo. Was it me? That seems kind of dorky on my part.

    Reply
  2. Fagstein Post author

    Well, you are a dork, but it was your counterpart.

    Though I think an article on wine in Italy would probably fit on WP, I see your point. Vinismo could become the Memory Alpha of wine.

    Reply
  3. Kate M.

    “uch oh-my-god-get-a-life websites as Memory Alpha (the Star Trek encyclopedia) and Wikispecies”?!

    Yes, both efforts may be geeky, but whereas obsessive Star Trek trivia buffs may be missing a life, it’s the beginning of the end of rationality to tell working scientists to drop their efforts and go play.

    Reply
  4. Pingback: Media coverage of vinismo | Montreal Tech Watch

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