Perhaps the greatest example of collaborative knowledge building comes from Wikipedia, the user-run encyclopedia launched in 2001 that is approaching 2 million English language articles. Topics in Wikipedia are subject to change by any user who happens to be on the site. By simply clicking the "Edit" button at the top of the page, readers becomes co-authors, contributing a new section or modifying an existing one. Once thought to be a recipe for disaster, Wikipedia's open nature has led to an encyclopedic resource that rivals its multi-volume, hard-cover counterparts. Opponents to Wikipedia often cite its "anything goes" philosophy as its weakness, and indeed, Wikipedia is not free of errors.

But one need look no further than the site's ever-evolving entry on baseball to truly grasp how Wikipedia's collaborative forces have created a constantly updating document about one of the world's most famous sports.

While Wikipedia is perhaps the best showcase of collaborative writing, other knowledge-building communities have harnessed the power of the Web to "emerge." In 2005, "social news" emerged as a wholly new way to digest current events. One particular site, Newsvine.com, which launched in March 2006, promises to revolutionize the process of news creation and consumption as its users are responsible for the site's content and layout. Readers "seed the vine" with news stories they have read on the Web, while other readers

vote for submitted stories they deem important. The real-time voting results dictate the placement of stories on the front page and various sub-pages. In addition, Newsvine.com readers are given a personal space where they are encouraged to write columns, which are treated just like real news stories. Occasionally, well-written op-eds will make their way to the front page of Newsvine.com, where they share the limelight with the more typical mainstream sources. Chat and comment features accompany each entry, and important stories are usually followed by discussions that can exceed hundreds of comments from readers. The effect, taken all together, is a wholly collaborative online newspaper.