Watch Wikipedia

Here's a trend you might not have expected. Wikipedia is one of the four most popular social networking sites, even though it is not of the "hang out with your friends or community" sort. In fact, you probably are among the users (including this one) that has come to expect and rely on the quality of most of the information available on Wikipedia, as well as the timeliness of the updating. If you had asked me whether so many human beings would help create a service so useful and so good, just because they wanted to help, I'd have said "no way." At least some times, what Web 2.0 proponents claim is true, is true. So in chatting with David Beckemeyer, PhoneGnome CEO, why would it not be able to create some sort of user research outfit (one hesitates to use the word "company") that essentially is a wiki, perhaps a private wiki for some purposes, and a public wiki for others? My point is that if IP-enabled applications and services are changing everything in communications and media, and changing many things in the learning and playing arenas, why is there not reason to believe it can change market research and analysis as well?