Probably one of the most fascinating aspects of online social efforts is inevitable accumulation of knowledge that occurs. When you've got MILLIONS of people contributing information, perspectives, and content you end up with an enormous wealth of data.
Now, it's not perfect. There are some interesting side effects. As you can well imagine, corporations have an interest in this knowledge, and Stephen Colbert did a great bit on Wikiality (I can't link to the video clip because viacom opposes posting their property on youtube since they want to protect profits by only allowing Daily Show, Colbert fans to view it from Comedy Central's site).
In a sense, resources like Wikipedia end up representing the accumulated knowledge of those with access to the internet. And while it certainly isn't a perfect, or even completely representative, mass of knowledge, it certainly is a start.
Anyone can start an article, and anyone can feel free to correct that information. Due to the nature of this particular beast, ignorant, malicious or ulteriorly motivated users can also plant wrong, fraudulent, or misleading information. Also due to the nature of the beast, this usually corrects itself because it's likely that eventually, someone in the community will see fit to correct it. Removal of information, though, is much more dangerous. In the first link in this post, there is a growing trend for organizations (government, corporate) to make modficiations to information placed in Wikis, particularly to remove information that is sensitive, negative, or particularly critical of their organization or efforts.
I'm curious to see where it ends up. My guess is, big business and government will probably win. They always seem to come out on top.
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