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Collaborative local media

The LocalWiki project is an ambitious effort to create community-owned, living information repositories that will provide much-needed context behind the people, places, and events that shape our communities. And we have already proven this basic idea can work and provide tremendous benefits to a community.

So much of the unique knowledge and experiences we acquire through years of living in a community gets spread only by word of mouth, or worse—just stays “locked up” in our heads. But this is great stuff, valuable expert knowledge that can benefit everyone — after all, when it comes to the communities where we live, we are all experts!

The Davis Wiki

In 2004 we started the Davis Wiki, an experimental project to collect and share interesting information about the town of Davis, California, editable by anyone, that soon became the world's largest and most vibrant community wiki.

Today the residents of Davis use it for everything from learning about local news and local history to helping return lost pets to their owners — and it's become the largest, most used media source in the city. In week, nearly half of residents use the Davis Wiki; in a month, nearly everyone uses it. And 1 in 7 residents contribute material to the Davis Wiki.

With your help, we want to help as many communities as possible realize the full potential of such an amazing, collaborative information resource. We have received a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as part of its Knight News Challenge, to develop the next generation of wiki software that is tailored to the needs of local communities.