Wikipilipinas: Join the knowledge revolution

Technology has completely transformed the way students do research. Whenever I did research papers back in grade school or high school, our teachers would require us to use books as our sources. They would usher the class into the cold and silent library, and we would wander off to our respective aisles. After cradling a small stack of hardbound, scholarly-sounding titles, we’d trudge over to the tables and pull out handfuls of index cards. Making note cards was always part of the curriculum. Although we could photocopy the pages from the books, we still had to scribble entire paragraphs down. We even had to note their page, paragraph and line numbers, as well as the call number of the library books. We complained endlessly and begged to use the Internet, but they shook their heads and declared that books were always, always more reliable.

Eventually, however, our preferred topics became more contemporary, too new for budding authors and scholars to write about. My English 101 paper in college, for instance, was about metrosexuality. Of course, my professor insisted that we still needed to stuff our bibliography with book sources. At least Ateneo’s library was a million times better than my high school library, and I found a ton of books that provided great insights on male sexuality throughout history. However, I couldn’t have done my paper without the articles, columns, and essays I found on the Internet. College found me and the rest of my generation flipping through fewer books and staring at computer screens for much of our research. My chemistry project about birth control pills, my communications paper on courtship through text, my theology paper on “friends with benefits,” my philosophy paper on electronic monitoring in the workplace, and even my thesis: practically everything I crafted in college was backed up by online research.

Practically everything except Filipino topics, that is. The Internet seems like the source of all knowledge these days, but when it comes to subjects like elite families, unforgettable Pinoy female movie villains, tourism sights, or ancient Filipino language, the web pages never seem to give you enough or reliable information. You’d rather struggle through outdated reference materials than quote web pages that sometimes contain misspelled words and dubious information. I always had a hard time with topics like arnis, teenage culture in the ‘70s, or local courtship practices.

Students today are lucky, though, to have WikiPilipinas.org, a popular and free web-based encyclopedia of the Philippines. We all know what Wikipedia is, that fantastic mixture of a wiki (a knowledge sharing tool on the Internet that allows users to edit content online) and an encyclopedia (an alphabetically-arranged directory of information written objectively and in the third person). WikiPilipinas is just like that, except it specializes in Filipino topics. This Philippine online encyclopedia already has 12 knowledge portals: geography and travel, religion and beliefs, science and technology, sports and leisure, history, economy and business, government and technology, media and entertainment, people and society, culture and arts, communities, and a Philippine web directory. It has over 33,000 entries, from Ely Buendia to Top 10 churches for weddings. It isn’t just for school anymore, but to find information that anyone needs. WikiPilipinas founder Gus Vibal describes this as a democratized access to information. No library cards, no opening hours — simply 24/7, worldwide access for anyone who can get to a computer with an Internet connection. Upon typing in the URL (wikipedia.org), you’ve got a search page in front of you, and it will bring you to the article you’re looking for. Clicking on the home page will show you to the 12 portals, as well as Most Viewed Pages and Top Users’ Contributions.

Even better, the information is current and stays that way, because people are free to add, remove and edit the entries. Our history and heritage is rich, and our pop culture is dynamic. This portal can keep up with all the information that we need, want, or don’t even know we want. WikiPilipinas allows and encourages people to participate actively in content development. WikiPilipinas subscribes to the copyleft principle of WikiPedia (“using copyright law to remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions of a work for others and requiring that the same freedoms be preserved in modified versions” — from WikiPedia) and is covered by the GNU Free Documentation License, which says the contents are freely distributed and reproduced as long as you say where you got it from.

Vibal reminds us of that the interpretation of history comes from those who write. WikiPilipinas gives the common people the power to publish and to interpret history. “Publish, or perish,” he declares. He also emphasizes that WikiPilipinas is universalist, not prescriptive.  There are no recommended topics or areas you have to stick to. You’re free to create entries about Maging Sino Ka Man or even your own grandfather. This allows a balanced presentation online. There is no oligarchy controlling the tone or choice of topics. Various people can edit, correct and improve each other’s entries. There is a mix of high and low culture, of entertainment and scholarly work. He urges people to volunteer for WikiPilipinas and expand the knowledge portal. He also invites everyone to visit and use the site. Within the year, WikiPilipinas aims to reach a benchmark of 100,000 entries to be among the top 10 Wiki encyclopedias of the world. With our 33,000 entries, we’ve already surpassed countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Norway. According to Vibal, this serves as “proof that Philippine culture has the depth and substance to stand among the best in the world.” You can also visit WikiPilipinas’ sister portal, Filipinana.net, the country’s biggest digital library and research portal. It offers free access to rare, unpublished and even out-of-print books and materials on Philippine studies.

It’s about time we have Internet portals like these. Don’t wait for your next research paper to visit. Thanks to these sites, we can finally learn more about our heritage, keep up with contemporary issues, contribute our own knowledge about culture, gain cultural recognition for our own country, and (of course) submit great papers on Filipino topics.

WikiPilipinas will also be in the International Book Fair until September 2, 2007 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City and invites the public to join a sneak peek and a walk-through and to participate in live demonstrations and tutorials on the Philippine wiki revolution.