Wikipedia: The Holy Grail

“Those who seek the truth, seek Wikipedia.” - anonymous

Since the dawn of mankind, we have perpetually sought out the answers to life’s questions.

Who are we? Why are we here? What does the future hold? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

For thousands of years we have searched high and low. We have crossed continents. We have cured diseases. We have even landed on the moon. We have accomplished more than ever thought possible. Yet, the more we achieved as a species, the more we yearned to know.

In the early years, we looked toward philosophers to provide us with the answers we sought. These brilliant minds gave it their all, but could never quite figure it all out.

As time passed and society progressed, we resorted to almanacs, encyclopedias and atlases as our primary sources of information. These books were good, but not good enough.

The World Wide Web was brought to the masses in the 1990s, and along with it a new hope. An almost bottomless pit of information quickly became available at our finger tips. Powerful search engines such as Yahoo, Google, and Ask Jeeves quickly scoured the internet for whatever we asked. We were on the right track, but not even the charming Jeeves had all the answers.

On a winter’s day in 2001, the flood gates finally opened.

I speak of the historic moment we were dared to, “ask not what your World Wide Web can do for you, but what you can do for your World Wide Web.”

I speak of the glorious moment when people all over this great earth threw their Encyclopedia Britannicas in the dustbin of history.

I speak of the historic moment when high school and college textbooks became obsolete.

I speak of the glorious moment when thousands of years of knowledge became consolidated into one ultimate source.

This moment that I speak of is when wikipedia.org went live.