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Davis Wiki

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Primary website:
daviswiki.org

Primary Twitter:
@daviswiki

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Editor’s Note: Encyclo has not been regularly updated since August 2014, so information posted here is likely to be out of date and may be no longer accurate. It’s best used as a snapshot of the media landscape at that point in time.

Davis Wiki is a wiki dedicated to information and news on the town of Davis, Calif. The site was created in 2004 by Philip Neustrom and Mike Ivanov while the two were undergraduate students at the UC Davis.

The site contains pages information necessary to orient oneself in Davis, with categories for basic city services, restaurants and other businesses. As a wiki all information is added, edited and vetted by users of the site, but Davis Wiki goes an extra step in asking editors to use their real names on the site.

Along with acting as an information source the wiki has proven to be a provider of news. In the spring of 2010 Davis Wiki users took to the site to spread word of a young con artist who was soliciting money from residents.

In June 2010 Neustrom and Ivanov were among the winners of the Knight News Challenge, receiving a $350,000 grant to build on the existing wiki software they use to run the site. The pair have been developing LocalWiki, a software and support program that would allow any community to start up a localized wiki similar to Davis Wiki. In September 2010 LocalWiki raised over $25,000 in support of the project through Kickstarter.

Peers, allies, & competitors:

Topix, Wikipedia, Placeblogger, Knight Foundation, Outside.in

Recent Nieman Lab coverage:

Oct. 6, 2010 / Lois Beckett

Trust, mobile, and money: New focal points (and hints for applicants) for the new Knight News Challenge — For the first time, this year’s Knight News Challenge will be requesting entries in three specific categories: mobile, revenue models, and reputation/credibility. The contest judges won’t be seeking a certain...

June 18, 2010 / Laura McGann

Knight News Challenge: Is a wiki site coming to your city? Local Wiki will build software to make it simple — Residents of Davis, Calif., have pulled off a feat that new media enthusiasts would love to replicate across the country. Since 2004, a local site has emerged as the go-to place for news and information about the communi...

June 16, 2010 / Joshua Benton

Announcing the 2010 Knight News Challenge winners: Visuals are hot, and businesses are big winners — They started out last year as a crowded field of hopefuls from around the world, each dreaming of a chance to perform under the big lights. Over months, their numbers dwindled as the level of competition rose; each succe...

Nov. 6, 2009 / Michael Andersen

Welcome to Davis, Calif.: Six lessons from the world’s best local wiki — Ah, Davis: home of 60,000 people, 30,000 students, 188 sunny days a year, a 16 percent bike commute mode share and the busiest local wiki in the world. If I were Omaha World-Herald Publisher Terry Kroeger, I’d be b...

All Lab posts on Davis Wiki »

Recently around the web, from Mediagazer:

All Mediagazer posts on Davis Wiki »

Primary author: Mark Coddington. Main text last updated: June 13, 2011.

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