Well, after I first broached the subject of a Sherlockian wiki here back in June, there was a flurry of anti-Wikipedia chat on the Hounds of the Internet, some discussion between myself and Randall Stock and Scott Monty, but since then . . . not so much. It’s one of those ideas whose time is coming (if it isn’t already a bit behind), so here’s the question I now have to ask: Do YOU want to be a part of a Sherlockian wiki?

Let’s look at what it’s going to take to do this thing.

The technical side, the site itself, etc. is all as available to us as the internet itself. Anybody with a few bucks to spare can start a Sherlockian wiki site. Heck, I could have the basic site up in an afternoon, as could Randall or Scott or any other net-savvy Sherlockian. Of course, there wouldn’t be any content in it at that point. And that’s where it gets interesting.

Somebody has to generate content. When a wiki discussion comes up, the first topic always seems to be control. How does one control the “somebodies” that are generating content? We can’t just have people doing things willy-nilly! Never mind that people following their own lights is what built Sherlockiana as we know it. In a lot of the comments on the Hounds of the Internet, there was an expectation that a wiki would be written by random strangers, like leaving the front door to your house open with a sign that read “Come in and decorate!” But a Sherlockian wiki would be created by Sherlockians . . . and we trust our fellow Sherlockians, don’t we?

Every Sherlockian event that I’ve ever been to involved somebody trusting the speakers to walk up to the podium and contribute to the program – how is a wiki so different?

Anonymous contributors out of parts unknown can be trouble, sure.  But what if a Sherlockian wiki was produced by a specialized Sherlockian society, dedicated to the task? You have to write a wiki entry or two just to get in the club, and have to contribute another entry every so often to stay in the club. Every member knows that every other member will be looking over their content, fixing up their punctuation and spelling . . . and fact-checking. Which is where things get different from Sherlockian speakers gathered for a program.

Not only would the members of our Sherlockian wiki have to possess the trust in their fellow members to allow them access to content they wrote, since a wiki is truly a community (or society) effort, no one gets individual bylines. The best thing you can get out of it for your Sherlockian resume is simply that you belong and contribute. All for one, and one for all. If it’s a great wiki, you’re one of an elite crew. If it’s awful, well, your name is on the member list as well.

So why would anyone want to write for a Sherlockian wiki project? Well, consider how much data has gotten dumped into Sherlockian e-lists like Hounds of the Internet and Welcome Holmes for years, uncatalogued, ungrouped, untidied. Sure, there are search functions, but one still has to sift through all the chat to get to hard data. And yet I’ve seen people write some pretty lengthy pieces for those venues. That said, e-lists tend to be places of opinion, which most people are pretty pleased to dish out by the shovel-full (just turn on any “news” channel). A Sherlockian wiki, as I see it, would, to stick with that Jack Webb admonishment, “Just the facts.”  A listing for “bull pup,” for example, could cite various definitions for that troublesome phrase, attributing sources, but never pass judgement as to what the “right” definition was. Give all the details, as coldly and objectively as Sherlock Holmes himself, and leave conclusions to the reader.

There’s something vary Holmes-ish about this wiki thing, gathering an on-line set of common-place books for our future adventures. But unlike Sherlock Holmes, none of us are the first in our field, and we don’t have to go it alone. And so now I have to ask . . .

Do you want to be one of the founding members of a new Sherlockian society dedicated to building an on-line work that could be the go-to work of future Sherlockians? More importantly, are you willing to do a little data-gathering and write up the results?

Let me know here at mailroom@sherlockpeoria.net. There’s still much to be worked out, and you’ll see some of that here in future weeks. But right now I’m looking for an indication of how many Sherlockians we might be looking at starting this venture with. As Holmes once said, “We can but try.”

And, well, if I don’t head this direction, I fear I’ll be starting the world’s first Warcraft guild/Sherlockian scion society. You don’t want to see that.

Your humble correspondent,

Brad Keefauver