July 15, 2007

The Geekness of Wikipedia

This is something commonly known, and often talked about: Wikipedia isn't really Encyclopedia-like because its articles have a great "geek factor" - meaning, for instance, that some Star Trek characters have longer Wikipedia entries than personalities that will allways remain in History.

But I've just stumbled upon one of those weird cases, and so I felt I should share this experience with you... Augusto Hilário is the name of someone that is commonly known as just "Hilário": a great musician and an essencial piece of the evolution of Fado - a Portuguese musical style. To help you to understand his importance, Fado is the musical style that usually is used to define Portugal, and is a part of the Portuguese identity. Now, there are two major "Fado styles": Lisbon's Fado and Coimbra's Fado. Hilário was one of those guys that defined the characteristic style of Coimbra's Fado, and thus is a really important person in Fado's history and for Portugal. So, I went to http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilário... And was redirected to Henrique Hilário's profile. Who's that? A Portuguese soccer player that, by the description they have there, didn't achieve anything of revelence to grant him an entry into an Encyclopedia... Specially not overtaking "Hilário"'s entry.

BTW, more info about Fado's Hilário can be found here, or here (links in Portuguese).

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