Charlottesville Realtor Association to write Neighborhood pages on Wikipedia

Courtesy of C-Ville –

Savage emphasizes the project is still taking shape, but the basic concept is that CAAR would begin a Wikipedia entry with some information about a neighborhood and expect “homeowner associations, people who live or used to live in the neighborhood, realtors, and other locals to contribute.” CAAR would pilot the idea initially with about 10 neighborhoods. “If you were planning on buying a home in a neighborhood, you would probably appreciate reading about it.”

I said in the article:

Jim Duncan, “speaking purely as a realtor and blogger,” lauds CAAR for “stepping into Web 2.0.” Yet despite considering himself “really quite indifferent to the whole matter,” he can imagine two problems. First, placing editorial power in the hands of readers, sometimes called crowdsourcing, does not entirely eliminate the possibility that “realtors could go on Wikipedia solely as a venue to advertise themselves.” If nobody revises a glowing self-report, it remains for others to find.