Student creates a 'Wikipedia' for Cornell

There are roughly 100 articles about Cornell on Wikipedia, but there are many Cornell topics that just aren't that interesting to the rest of the world. Like RedRover, real and "rumored" tunnels under the campus, or "Who is this Tracy Mitrano who keeps sending us e-mail about file sharing?"

So Tyler Garzo '08, a biology major with a lot of Web skills, has created CUWiki, a Wikipedia-style encyclopedia for the Cornell community. The project is an independent study effort with Graeme Bailey, professor of computer science, as faculty adviser. Part of the project is to learn more about how an online encyclopedia manages its server space and handles multiple requests. Garzo pays for the server space himself "to keep it unofficial."

So far, CUWiki contains about 30 articles -- written by Garzo -- and a list of articles needed. Topics might include classes, departments, dorms, professors, clubs, rumors, legends and fast-developing news, Garzo says. Since about 20 other universities have local Wikis with a lot more articles, "Cornell needs to get up to speed on this," he says. As with Wikipedia, anyone can post an article or edit one already there. Try it out at http://www.cuwiki.org/.

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