Users united on the Internet for a 'Wikipedia Revolution'

Fast-forward to 2001 and Lih posits that sites like Wikipedia, MySpace and YouTube began to take off because many technically inclined people were looking for ways to stay productive or entertained after the dot-com companies they'd hoped to get rich at disintegrated. One of the real-life characters in his book is a North Carolinian named Seth Anthony, who became obsessed with creating tiny maps with red dots for countless "town" entries on Wikipedia and "like Forrest Gump, just kept on running."

A Yale law professor named Yochai Benkler wrote an essay that was widely circulated online that plumbed the phenomenon of people wanting to work for a common good without financial gain that has resulted in projects like Wikipedia, Creative Commons and blogs. His essay, "Coase's Penguin," referred to theories of Nobel economist Ronald Coase and the penguin mascot of Linux, the free open-source software built by the volunteer programmers that is the antithesis of Microsoft's Windows empire.

But Wikipedia is outgrowing its humble beginnings, Lih says. Its foundation has grown to a couple million dollars and supports a staff of more than 20. Meanwhile, English-language growth has slowed and versions in scores of other languages - from Yiddish to Klingon (oy!) - have taken root.

"There is increasing evidence in the last two years that the community is getting a little creaky. In 2009, you have millions of articles. It's not the same rush. It's not the same empowerment," he says, referring to the contributors. "How do you keep the energy up?"

The Wikipedia Revolution is a bit geeky in stretches, but overall is a fascinating reminder that the Web tools we depend on now as if they've always been around were hatched in anonymity not long ago by people not looking to turn a quick buck. Too bad they weren't running some of our mortgage lenders, too.