James Bridle

James Bridle founded a Web site called Booktwo in September 2006 to “investigate, analyze, catalog and debate the future of literature and the publishing industry.” Over the years the site has been home to some interesting debates over literature and its transition from paper to screens.

In a post on Monday, Mr. Bridle talked about Wikipedia and the lack of understanding readers have about the backstory of each entry on the Web site.

Mr. Bridle picked Wikipedia for this discussion because he notes that the site offers a “historiography” — a thorough look at the history of each edit. Every change is documented and archived.

His essay points out that although an article on Wikipedia may tell a specific story, the edits show a process that involves the opinions and biases of each writer. In this respect Wikipedia, and in some instances other continually changing Web sites online, offer two stories: one that is front-facing to the reader and one that reveals the behind-the-scenes editing, writing and creative process.

To help illustrate the point, Mr. Bridle took the entry on the Iraq War and made physical books that illustrate the incredible discussion taking place in the background.

He writes: “This particular book — or rather, set of books — is every edit made to a single Wikipedia article, The Iraq War, during the five years between the article’s inception in December 2004 and November 2009, a total of 12,000 changes and almost 7,000 pages.”

The final books add up to twelve volumes, or about the size of an entire old-style encyclopedia. The content include debates over numbers, differences of opinion and the relevance of political points, among other more colorful language surrounding some topics.

Mr. Bridle notes that this kind of editing and debating process offers something we have never had access to in other historical documentation:

“And for the first time in history, we’re building a system that, perhaps only for a brief time but certainly for the moment, is capable of recording every single one of those infinitely valuable pieces of information. Everything should have a history button. We need to talk about historiography, to surface this process, to challenge absolutist narratives of the past, and thus, those of the present and our future.”

More images of the books can be found on Flickr.