Wikipedia stumbled over a mountain of cheese when it tried to showcase the varieties of French cheese.
It announced the creation of WikiCheese but instead of helpful listings and photographs, the online encyclopedia asked for help.
The information it had gathered was not enough to guide foodies through all the different types.
“What does a Black Brie look like? A Couronne Lochoise? And what about a Tymsboro?” it asked on its blog which launched WikiCheese.
It was Charles de Gaulle who said it was impossible to govern a nation which had 246 different types of cheese, but even he had this wrong as there are believed to be between 350 and 400.
Some argue the real number could be as high as 1,000 given that varieties occur within each type of cheese.
WikiCheese is on the quest to find out, at least for 200 varieties. The hunt for photos is being financed through a crowd-funding operation, kisskissbankbank.com, which hopes to raise €5,000 from donors.
As of Tuesday €1,225 had already come in, thanks to 29 people.
If as much as €8,000 is raised, another 100 cheeses will go online.
Some dedicated contributors will be invited to a monthly cheese session at the Paris office where they can watch professional photographers at work after hearing about the cheese and being able to taste them.
WikiCheese will eventually publish high-definition photos with background articles. Wikipedia is available to anyone online and its fountains of knowledge are free to all. It is funded entirely by donations.
The latest initiative is part of its drive to make the site as professional as possible.
