I would never have predicted the success of Wikipedia itself so I certainly won’t dismiss WikiCity a new Wiki site for 22,000 US cities and towns that formally launched yesterday. According to the press release:
WikiCity is a project designed to make communities accessible, defining each not just as a dot on a map or a collection of statistics, but as a chorus of raucous, opinionated citizens falling in love with their hometown all over again. Much like Wikipedia, WikiCity is a free wiki, and anyone can contribute. However, WikiCity is different because it is designed to promote local community, commerce, tourism, and everyday life within the towns it serves – thus welcoming content that it typically not suited for Wikipedia.
Given that there are two people behind this, it won’t take much revenue to make it sustainable. The real question is whether people will become as engaged with WikiCity as with Wikipedia in terms of content creation. Probably so, as people take “ownership” of their communities.
Smaller towns is probably where this will see traction first.
Screenwerk 
June 21, 2009 at 1:10 am
I think it’s an interesting concept.
At first I thought it would be a crowdsourced version of patch.com, however, it look like they’re currently using various API to supplement the content (e.g. Google News for Local News) which makes it feel more like an aggregator than an actual wiki.
October 27, 2009 at 1:17 pm
[…] formally launched with coverage for 22,000 cities and towns in June of this year. Here’s my post from that […]