WikipediA...The Free Encyclopedia That Anyone Can Edit

OK, many of us have heard of Wikipedia and maybe even gone to it to look something up.  But, what exactly is it, who invented it and when?

Wikipedia was the first "wiki" ever created for the internet.  It was created in 1995 by a computer programmer from the United States named Ward Cunningham.  Cunningham started the first "wiki" and named it the "Wiki Wiki Web".  A "wiki" is similar to a blog only anyone can add or edit the actual content unlike a blog where the blogger provides the content and the readers are limited to being able to comment on the content.

Cunningham got the name from the Hawaiian term "wiki wiki" which means quick.  He had heard the word when visiting the Islands and having a creative mind he chose the term "Wiki Wiki Web" rather than his initial idea of the Quick Web.  It's certainly cooler and with the obvious alliteration to the "world wide web" it is a better name from a marketing perspective.  Wiki can also be a "backronym" for "What I Know Is."

Wikipedia is a tool for the masses.  It is easy to use.  Anyone can add, edit, remove and change the sites content and even its structure.  Think you know something about anything that no one else knows? Put it up on Wikipedia and add it to the people's encyclopedia.  To check out the type of content you will find just take a look at the entry for Sacramento, CA and see what you think. 

Aloha and mahalo for reading this post.

Well, it seems the mainstream media just may be beginning to understand the purpose and power of blogs.  Today's Sacramento Bee Business Section carried an article entitled "Going to the Blogs" by Bee staff writer Mehul Srivastava.  While it doesn't say business is using the medium to its potential it does recognize the potential impact it will have on commerce in the future.

Once again, it appears REALTORS® are taking the lead in incorporating this new medium into their businesses.  The lead example in the article was about Jonathon Lockwood a real estate agent in the community of Cameron Park about 45 minutes east of downtown Sacramento.  Jonathon said he began blogging back in 2003 and has found the medium a great source of cultivating prospects and a productive source of leads. 

The Bee article stated that a survey done by the Pew Internet & American Life Project indicated only 5% of the 25-30 million blogs out there currently are used for business.  What the Bee article points out is that while many of the bloggers who are using the medium for personal communication will eventually be the prospects, buyers and clients of businesses as they mature.  Those who live for instant communication via instant messaging are more inclined to the blog form of information gathering.

For those who have been reading blogs from the sideline I would encourage you to jump and give it a try.  Blogging can be as simple or difficult as you like because it is what you make of it. The great folks at Internet Crusade have established a blogging program called RealTownBlogs that is a truly exceptional (and FREE!) resource for REALTORS® who want to try the new medium.  So, don't be bashful.  Jump right in and give a try.  You will be glad you did.

         Northern California Realtors® and real estate associations are once again leading the way with technology.  Back in January I wrote that several Bay Area real estate associations were in discussions to create a large multi-association multiple listing service.  While that effort is still on the table a significant development has occurred in the Northern California real estate industry. 

Three well-known multiple listing services (MLSs) have agreed to share real-time property listing information for the benefit of the more than 41,000 real estate professionals they serve.  The three MLSs are the MetroList Services, Inc. which serves the Northern California Central Valley (Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado, Yolo, San Joaquin, Stanislaus & Merced counties) the San Francisco Association of Realtors, or SFAR, serving San Francisco and the northern peninsula and BAREIS (Bay Area Real Estate Information Services) which services the North Bay (Marin, Napa, Sonoma, Solono and Mendocino counties).

Quattro is the name of the new service that links together the three major MLSs.  Quattro will merge listing information from the three MLSs into a common data set and enhance the ability of real estate brokerages to download listing information from the three MLSs into their proprietary software programs.  By agreement , agents will be allowed full, real-time reciprocal access to the three MLSs as well as access to Quattro, the merged data set, with only a single log-on required.

Quattro will provide real estate professionals with access to property listings in 14 California counties over an area of 18,000 square miles serving a population of 5.6 million people.   This will give Realtors® a capacity for both local and regional information adding more value to their clients in Northern California.

According to Rapattoni, the data service provider for all three MLSs, the new service will be available on-line to all BAREIS, MetroList and SFAR subscribers by early 2007. 

Well, today was a fun day.  This morning I met a mentor of mine - Saul Klein of Internet Crusade - for the very first time.  Saul brought his e-PRO road show into Sacramento and made a presentation about the virtues of going e-PRO to about 50 Sacramento area REALTORS at the Sacramento Association of REALTORS.

I became an e-PRO, or certified real estate internet professional, last May.  Since then I have be learning from Saul and his team at Internet Crusade, as well as some terrific agents from across the US and Canada who are active members of the "RealTalk" and "e-PROTalk" online communities.  I have gathered some great nuggets of industry knowledge, buyer/seller experiences and entrepenuerial ideas from my new found online colleagues. 

Additionally, thanks to Saul, John, Mike and everyone at Internet Crusade for providing "RealTownBlogs" which has provided me and other wired real estate prefessionals to post our ideas and thoughts in our very own blog.  Saul, et. al., are simultaneously, mavens, connectors and salesmen - all in the very best senses of the words. 

As PR guru and author Jack Trout would say, we (REALTORS) must "differentiate or die."  Each of us must move forward with the times to better serve our clients and our financial futures.  Learn how to use technology as a differentiating factor in your business and avoid becoming a real estate dinosaur.

For those who have not yet and received the e-PRO professional designation from the National Association of REALTORS I would strongly urge you to take the time to do so.  Becoming a certified internet professional is critical to every real estate professional achieving success in this wired world we live in. 

Lastly, if you get an opportunity to see Saul, Mike or John when they are out on the road please take advantage of it.  They will inspire and invigorate your mind and provide some terrific internet marketing ideas to improve your efficiencies and relationships with your clients.

The number of blogs in the world is currently upwards of 27 million.  A recent article by Stuart Luman discovered how they relate to one another.  They took the top 50 most-linked-to sites and mapped their connections.  See the linkage in the picture below.  The arrows represent links made sometime in the past 90 or so days - links that are in effect a global popularity contest.  Many of the blogs vote for each other which has been dubbed "blogrolling".  For more on this check out Stuart Luman's article titled Linkology.

Did you ever wonder about when "blogs" began or where they came from?  The creation of the weblog can be traced back to 1994 when a young student at Swarthmore College began the first ever diary (log) on the internet. Justin Hall's weblog is still available at Links.net.

Since 1994 the weblog has rapidly evolved and continues to evolve by the nanosecond.  In 1997 the online diarist named Jorn Barger created the word "weblog" from the idea of "logging the web". 

Then in 1999 two big events happened.  First, a programmer named Peter Merholz truncated the word weblog to simply "blog".  Next, Blogger began the first popular free blog creation service available on the web.

In 2000, at the beginning of the new millenium BoingBoing was born.  Later that year AndrewSullivan.com was launched. 

Of course, like anything else commercialization was bound to infiltrate this online democracy and 2002 blog advertising was begun when BlogAds was launched.

Ten years after its creation "blogging" really "arrived" in 2004 when it was not only added to the dictionary but listed as the "Word of the Year" by Merriam-Webster.

And finally, on January 2, 2006, yours truly launched this blog thanks to the support and great service from the terrific team at Internet Crusade with their user friendly RealTownBlogs geared to real estate professionals who are focused on technology.