Wikipedia

How do Wikipedia’s processes for creating and modifying articles ever lead to high-quality results?

That is an extremely difficult question to answer, especially after reading exactly how the process works. I suppose the best answer came from the "Wiki's at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein" case, a quote from the founder of Wikipedia, "The Wiki model is different because it gives you an incentive when you are writing. If you write something that annoys other people, it's just going to be deleted. So if you want your writing to survive you really have to strive to be cooperative and helpful."

This statement holds a lot of ground when it comes to a corporate wiki, or wiki's on a smaller scale than Wikipedia. The incredible amount of information on Wikipedia and the level of accuracy it maintains is astonishing. In some cases it holds a better reputation than Encyclopedia Britannica and overall, the accuracy of Wikipedia is not far behind Encyclopedia Britannica.

I suppose Wikipedia survives on a system of checks and balances. Yes, it is an open source to anyone, but questionable information is quickly brought to the forefront of the "organization" and immediately reviewed, a five-day process to "include or delete" information.

Wikipedia is a non-profit organization. It is difficult to comprehend the level of inforamtion and effort that has been put into such a project. Wikipedia also accepts donations. Donations used to be solicited on the homepage and I think the donations were in the $millions$. Not only do people donate time, but money. Wikipedia is a phenomenon.