cre8Buzz Blog

Yup, one of the biggest and most noted Web 2.0 sites is just a new play on old idea. Not to bust on Wikipedia, cause I use it often. It’s a fantastic resource, BUT its concept to use the public as creators has been done before, on a much grander and elaborate scale.

I got a posthumous “Shout Out” to Dr. James Murray and Richard Trench, editors, authors and creators of the Oxford English Dictionary. Richard Trench was the brilliant mind and visionary behind one of the most monumental achievements in the history of the English language. Dr. Murray was the fantastic leader and ultimate deliverer of this amazing project. The creation of the Oxford English Dictionary took over 70 years and, here is the Wikipedia part, used tens of thousands of brilliant, committed people. Ya, you read it right. That dictionary you have on your desk, on your bookshelf, or in that drawer next to your bed is a 19th century Wikipedia or should I say Wikidictionary.

Murray and Trench recruited people from all over the world. Their goal, create the first dictionary that would present every word, all of the English language in one work; every nuance, every meaning, every pronunciation, all of it! Dang, ya’ll that is a big job. It was called . . . the big dictionary. Kinda simple name for a book about words. But check it, like Wikipeida the OED was a democratic effort. Murray and Trench issued circulars and put out an eight page appeal to the English speaking and English reading world calling for volunteers. The call became viral, (sound familiar?) as the pages were printed in the newspapers, librarians gave them as book marks, there were small wooden boxes in shops were the public could take them and read them. They were in book stores. They spread and found an impressive circulation. All kinds of folks new what the good Dr. and Trench were up to and what they needed. Volunteers responded. Once involved volunteers would then be asked to make word lists of all the words they read and then were asked to look specifically for certain words that interested the dictionary team. Each volunteer would take a slip of paper, write on the top left hand side the target word. Then below on the left hand side the date and the following details: They were, in order, the title of the book or paper they were reading, its volume and page number and below that the full sentence in which it was used. This was done for every word by every volunteer. The “slips” of paper were then sent to Dr. Murray and his team for validation and insertion into the dictionary. How many slips of paper? I bet you are asking. Can ya say 6 million?! Here is where it is trippin, this was only the first part.

In the end, as stated, it took over 70 years to finish. Over ten thousand volunteers contributed to identifying an defining the words, which by the way was over 414 thousand extremely precise definitions sent in on millions and millions of slips of paper (like wiki’s stub maybe?). Now let’s put this in perspective. The project started in 1857. If my memory serves me, there is no light-bulb, no telephone, no cars, and no electricity, no printers, no xerox machines, no email, nothing! Imagine the logistical feat in recruiting, motivating and engaging tens of thousands of people over a seventy year period under those circumstances.

Wikipedia, you are the bomb. You have harnessed an amazing resource, the public. You are creating an amazing online tool. You have revolutionized today’s web world and Web 2.0. However, my friends, you are no revolutionaries, for that honor and distinction goes to Dr. Murray and Mr. Trench. Ya gotta give props to these cats and the amazing effort taken to bring us the OED.

They say there is no such thing as an original idea. I think I’m starting to believe em.

My next act, find the 12th century version of Myspace!