“Blogs are so last year,” declares Forbes magazines in an overview of the emergence of wikis. “Web logs offered “bloggers” more customizable personal Web journals and the ability to invite controlled collaboration. Wikis are the next generation: Web spaces that are totally collaborative.”

The article offers a counterpoint to former Encyclopedia Britannica editor-in-chief Robert McHenry, who contested the accuracy and professionalism of Wikipedia entries. According to American Heritage Managing Editor Frederick Allen, who compared entries from Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica, “It looks as if Wikipedia’s gotten a lot better, more thorough and more accurate.”

The article also explores the prospects for for-profit wikis in the workplace, noting that the availability of so many free wiki applications will drive companies to offer more robust packages featuring “heavy-duty databases, the ability to perform meta-text operations and real-time collaboration.”