Manclopedia and Hive Central
There’s a bit of buzz going around Manchester blogs and news sites about Manclopedia, a new wiki community for Manchester. I got a tip-off from a reader just under a week ago, and a couple of days later Kenan Bailey sent me this press release:
Manclopedia is a free, non-profit, open content encyclopedia project that aims to collect and summarise every single aspect of Greater Manchester (including it’s history, culture, politics, people and places) in hope of becoming the most comprehensive online collection of information regarding Manchester and the surrounding areas.
As well as serving as a source of learning, Manclopedia also hopes to work as medium for promotional interaction between Manchester-based projects and businesses and the general public as whole. By allowing Manchester-based artists and entrepreneurs to publish autobiographical articles Manclopedia hopes to serve as a platform to kick-start the careers of its most talented inhabitants whilst at the same time broadcasting the universal qualities of Manchester to the wider world.
Kenan admits that the site isn’t as populated as he wants it to be – a result of being ‘rumbled’ by the blogging community a month before its planned launch. Still, if people get involved it may soon be a useful resource – Chester’s wiki, also powered by MediaWiki, is something to aspire to. And, of course, there’s already a substantial Greater Manchester community on Wikipedia itself.
Manclopedia is ‘owned and operated’ by Hive, a web-based collective that runs Hive Central – a Ning-powered social networking site that promises a digital art gallery, music and videos, event information, venue locations and classified ads.
They’ve also launched a ‘Mad about Manchester’ toolbar. It’s an interesting tool that offers the latest posts from various Manchester blog (including Mancubist) – plus headlines from the MEN – within one click.
5 Comments so far
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Good luck to Manclopedia! Zaragoza (Spain) has a wiki (mediawiki) since 2006. Sure Manchester geeks will be more “collaborative” than “maños geeks”.BTW you can drop stuff about Manchester in the Zaragoza diwiki (into http://es.zaragoza.diwiki.org/index.php/Zaragoza_conecta_con_el_mundo)
By Isabelle Ayel on 10.26.08 7:30 pm
I am not sure there are real requirements for this websites. As you have pointed out, there is a vigorous wikipedia community for Greater Manchester which already is exactly what manclopedia aims at being.
The pages that I checked and that “manclopedia wants you” for, are already in wikipedia, so what’s the need to rewrite them there ???
I was also unable to find any details about the licensing of the articles contributed, which is a bit surprising for a site based on user contributions.
By tomdeb on 10.27.08 11:15 am
Fair points, well made… maybe Kenan will respond?
By Mancubist on 10.27.08 11:27 am
The relevancy (in our opinion) of Manclopedia as a stand-alone project is stated clearly in the opening description of Manclopedia. “As well as serving as an educational resource Manclopedia also hopes to work as medium for PROMOTIONAL INTERACTION [something Wikipedia doesn't allow] between Manchester based projects and businesses and the general public as whole. By allowing Manchester based artists and entrepreneurs to publish autobiographical articles Manclopedia hopes to serve as a platform to help kick start the careers of its most talented inhabitants whilst at the same time broadcasting the universal qualities of Manchester to the wider world.”
i.e. an unsigned Manchester band which wouldn’t warrant an article on Wikipedia with its global community, but it might be of great interest to the people who actually live in and around Manchester.
In response to your second comment (once again clearly stated on the front page of Manclopedia) “No article is owned by its creator or any other editor, or is vetted by any recognized authority.” (Standard practice amongst most Wiki communities.)
By Marcus (Manclopedia admin) on 10.27.08 12:04 pm
As a blogger who has only very recently become Manchester-based, it’s exciting to see how much is going on, and crossing the online/offline divide as well!
Manclopedia looks great from my perspective: I really want to get involved in the music scene but haven’t really known where to start, so having an online, Manchester-orientated resource like that is great.
By Léonie on 10.28.08 1:42 pm
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