“Our mission from day one is to build the world’s highest quality how-to manual, and for every topic be the single, highest quality page available on the Web, and do it in multiple languages,” says Jack Herrick of wikiHow, an online learning resource that Herrick started building six years ago.
Herrick explains that wikiHow aims to offer an alternative to the “mediocre how-to content flooding the Net.” To do this, he entices volunteers to work with a “whole lot of love” and, more important, he pushes their content through an an editorial review process inspired by Wikipedia.
I just found out about wikiHow thanks to this ASPP eNews post, which included this video. (The post also introduced me to WebProNews, which inspires me to once again recommend you check out ASPP eNews.)
I like Herrick’s attitude but, to be frank, what got me sucked into the video was the cool format that WPN is using — the Skype interview all worked into the online news interview using cool green screen effects. (Note to self: Ethan, you have got to figure out how to do this for reporting for AfterCapture On Photography!)
wikiHow Is Not a Serious Photography Resource
It only took a quick perusal to realize that wikiHow is not a good resource for photographers — at least concerning photography. Currently, there is only a single entry for “Lightroom” and, trust me, you won’t find it of value. Nothing at all came up to help with even basic raw image processing, let alone the serious stuff.
As I’m super interested in learning the wonderful Final Cut Express, I did a search on that. I was dished up “How to Use Final Cut Pro Workflow,” which seemed promissing, but which really isn’t helpful at all. The content just isn’t valuable.
Of equal irritation, I realized numerous ads were actually stuck within the article content. A real turn off, and confusing, too.
wikiHow for Pancakes and Other Basics?
Now, if you want to learn how to make homemade pancakes — as I did last weekend — wikiHow dishes up a bunch on the topic, and the content seems good (although I’m not the one to judge). And, even with its excessive ads, wikiHow does seem cleaner than other how-to sites (that I avoid). And I do like Herrick’s wiki-how-to vision. So like me, you might want to keep wikiHow in might for non-photography questions.
