No Internet user can disregard the importance of Wikipedia, the free, collaborative, multilingual, web-based encyclopaedia launched in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger and supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. While there may be some dispute regarding the accuracy or independence of certain content, no other effort to gather the knowledge of humankind in one site and to encourage limitless individual contribution to the database has been so successful. From a quick check or reminder to the starting point for serious academic production, Wikipedia has become one of the most useful tools available on the Web. I support it and so should you.
Based on the Wikipedia articles, a group of enthusiastic photographers set out to create a collaborative image database built on individual contributions and peer rating. If a picture paints a thousand words, the Fotopedia project will soon become one of the most comprehensive visual reference collections ever organized.
As promised on my Christmas post, I begin the year with one of the first photographs which marks Aventoe‘s début to digital photography. This was taken at the Botanical Garden, in my home town of Rio de Janeiro. I chose this as my first theme because the beauty of the Garden is bound to conceal the photographer’s flaws.
This photo and a few others are part of my Flickr® Photostream, slowly being built, which you are welcome to visit and comment on.
I have also created the Fotopedia article for the Botanical Garden, where some of my photos await Community approval to become part of the collection. Perhaps you may feel tempted to take a peak and consider whether this should be allowed.
In any event, I would like to encourage photographers to contribute to Fotopedia, which seems a good way to preserve beauty and information for the generations to come.
