Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born 250 years ago. He died at the age of 35. Many believe acute rheumatic fever was the cause of his death. If not for Qwiki, I'd never have discovered this little piece of history.
The site, which went public this week, offers up an “information experience.” While it might sound a little flaky, within a minute of landing on the homepage I was hooked. Whether you enter a famous person, place or thing (or even a humble technology journalist), Qwiki will display a unique narrated slideshow on the topic complete with facts pulled from Wikipedia, among other media sources.
When I search for my hometown, Charlottetown, the female voice tells me the city was first incorporated in 1855. The photos change from black and white pictures of the Charlottetown Conference in 1864 to a colourful shot of historic Water St. Oh, and there are interactive maps, courtesy of Google. Sure, I could look up all this information on my own, but watching a story about my birthplace is far more interesting than reading about it.
Not only can I take this visual tour of Charlottetown, as a registered user I can improve this Qwiki by recommending a photo or a YouTube video, so there’s a great crowd-sourcing element to the service. I can even suggest the reader's voice be slowed down or sped up. And like any good multimedia site in 2011, I can share these entries on Facebook and Twitter.
Within my first few hours as a member, I've watched 19 Qwikis (the site tells me this when I'm logged in). Considering there are more than two million entries, I have a lot more to explore. I can't really imagine a better learning tool for people of all ages, but particularly for those working in field of education.
However the real promise of a platform like Qwiki is in what it might do beyond Wikipedia. Every content creator, be they a media organization like the Globe or a food blogger – has a database of previously published information just sitting there. The whole principle of cobbling together text, pictures and video into consumable packages could change thanks to an idea like Qwiki.
Qwiki refers to what they do as providing an “information experience.” I can see that – and it’s a little addictive, too. Anyone who knows the appeal of getting lost in Wikipedia, happily jumping from link to link and reading about everything from the Roman Empire to the intricacies of cellular neuroscience will see the appeal in something like Qwiki. Speaking of which, I’m going to get back to it – there’s an interesting Qwiki waiting for me on Wolfgang's dad, Leopold.
