For years students have rated their professors online. But how about an extra-detailed college guide without any PR spin—and brimming with thousands of comments?
That beast just might be a new Web site launching this month. Will Unigo do to conventional guides what Wikipedia did to the Britannica? And how about another issue, the impartiality of the reviews? See the New York Times Magazine article and Slashdot.
The big picture: Many other kinds of reference works will be in trouble if they can be crowd-sourced and don’t require absolutely authoritative information. In fact, under open publishing models, even medical guides could face challenges. Some might argue that "open," if done right, can mean more accuracy. That remains to be seen. The best option might be a mix of open and vetted, with people given a chance to choose the version they want to see.
