The power of wikis is communal knowledge. The accuracy of what everyone knows is almost always greater than what somebody knows.
I had a lesson in communal knowledge last week. I was in a meeting and I got a call on my cell phone from a number that I didn’t recognize. I answered and it was a guy who (very apologetically and politely) questioned why I had noted that Marianne Moore wrote a book called “Letters From and To The General Motors Company” on my “Bibliography of American Poetry Told Through the Pulitzer Prize” site.
He noted that the Edsel– the subject of the book- was (of course) a Ford product and wondered why a poet would be corresponding with a Chrysler executive about naming a Ford.
I told him I’d call him back.
I finished my meeting & called him. There was the clanging of pipes and roaring of engines. He was in his car shop. We further discussed the issue, I realized that he was correct, and updated the site appropriately.
God bless the internet.