Christian Long of think:lab (a fellow 9rules member whose blog I’m appreciating more and more as I read it!) writes that Wikipedia will be the first element in the One Laptop per Child content repository. “A few minutes ago here at the Wikimania conference, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales announced that the One Laptop Per Child Project is including Wikipedia as the first element in their content repository. They’ve been talking about this for at least a year, but now it’s official.” (Andy Carvin via BoingBoing) Christian comments that “One of the ways to create equality is not just offering self-powered computing technology to developing nations, but also to allow each voice to quickly become an equal when it comes to creating, evaluating, and using universal information.” The inclusion of Wikipedia creates a symbiotic relationship where both tools represent open access, community knowledge access and construction, and both tools strengthen each other’s existence.

At the conference, the Wikimedia Foundation also announced Wikiversity and Wikiwyg. According to Wikimedia, Wikiversity will be “a center for the creation and use of free learning materials and activities.” More detail about Wikiversity can be found in the Wikiversity/Modified project proposal. This looks very promising, and I’ll be writing in greater depth about it.

Wikia and SocialText will launch Wikiwyg, a what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor for wiki sites. Here’s what Ross Mayfield (Socialtext CEO) said about Wikiwyg on his blog. Andy Carvin said of Wikiwyg: “It will make it easier for more people to get involved in wiki editing. The technological barrier to entry keeps out really smart people who are uncomfortable with the Wikipedia interface. ‘Wikiwyg, in some shape or form, will be the future of the Internet,’ because it will allow non-techies to become Wikipedians easily.”