Will the world of obtaining travel information ever be the same again?
On the 15th January The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit parent organization of Wikipedia, officially launched Wikivoyage. The new site is a free online travel guide that, just like Wikipedia, is edited collaboratively. It currently features about 50,000 articles and has attracted a core group of about 200 volunteer editors. The site is available in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. We checked out the content for Dubai and have to say that it was accurate, up to date and provided a lot of information that we did not know and we have lived here for some time.
"There's a huge global demand for travel information, but very few sources are both comprehensive and non-commercial. That's about to change," said Sue Gardner, the Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. "Wikivoyage is a great, useful service for travellers, and I'm expecting that with the support of the Wikimedia Foundation and the global Wikimedia editing community, it's going to get even bigger and better."
Wikivoyage was first conceived in 2006 as Wikitravel. It operated under parent company Internet Brands until last year when the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees approved a proposal from some of the contributors to migrate the content onto Wikimedia servers.
"The purpose of the Wikivoyage Association is to promote education and knowledge of all countries and regions in the world, as well as understanding among nations," said Stefan Fussan, Chairman of the board of the Wikivoyage Association. "We're very excited about the launch of Wikivoyage as a Wikimedia project, and about the future role of the Association in supporting the Wikivoyage community through its programs."
The start point is an excellent one and with continuous editing can only get better. One issue will be can the site remain neutral and not suffer from competitive interference and bias, issues faced by profit making sites such as Trip Advisor?
If the reputation remains clean and the content authoritative this is likely to be the most visited travel information community site in the world.