In the good ol' days, before the Internets, men would travel around the country, going door to door, selling large volumes of books known as "encyclopedias". These encyclopedias took up space and were surprisingly expensive. To navigate the set, you had to select from the appropriate book based on the letter of the topic you were interested in.

How archaic.

Now, the wonderful power of the Internets has brought us wikipedia. It's free, it's accessible, and it has eliminated the door to door salesmen. It is the first place I visit to learn about a new topic.

I'm not writing about wiki because it is a new phenomenon. Computer-savvy people, or "geeks", have known about wiki for a long time. But what is fascinating is the sociological implications of the technology. Wiki is similar to open-source software, it is open for contributions. From anyone (with some careful editing). Before, a large company hired experts and writers to compile a knowledge base (which became outdated quickly) and sold it to consumers who could afford it for a profit. Now, Wikipedia is open to experts on a global level. You could say it is communally created, communally maintained, and communally available. What Marx envisioned happening with agriculture and manufacturing has happened to information.