Wikipedia as editorial microcosm

Wikipedia has been controversial and provocative since its inception, and yet no one can dispute the central role it has taken in the sharing and networking of knowledge. Somehow, a relatively coherent, relatively reliable encyclopedia has been produced through distributed forms of contribution. In this way, Wikipedia has become a primary test case and proof of concept for distributed, decentralized, and digital projects. While Wikipedia is certainly not the only online, crowdsourced project of this nature, nor the first, it remains one of the most astonishing.

And yet, it is well known that Wikipedia has had to face a number of problems, which had to be addressed in the first 20 years of its existence. We can take the time to briefly highlight three here for the purpose of introducing how these issues relate to a fourth set of issues, which we will refer to, using the parlance of the editing world, as developmental editing issues (we will be ready to define this term in Problem #4). Others have dealt with these issues with more nuance than we will here; we provide just enough of an overview to give necessary background for the complexities and developments essential for Wikipedia's operation. We will provide footnotes with references directing readers to more thorough accounts of these issues; these citations can also be viewed in the Resources section.