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Katherine Maher, executive director of Wikimedia: "Access to information is a human right."

Katherine Maher thinks knowledge is formed like a beautiful diamond.

A tremendous amount of pressure creates a really crystalline thing, says the director of the foundation responsible for Wikipedia, the worlds largest encyclopaedia.

As fake news proliferates and the public tires from information overload, Maher sees crowd-sourced knowledge where readers discuss, debate and edit Wikipedias articles to reach a consensus as the antidote to alternative facts.

The more people you have debating the intricacies and nuances of a particular adjective or turn of phrase, the more likely you are going to get to a place where everyone can agree what constitutes a neutral perspective on an issue.

Founded in 2001 by US entrepreneur Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia comprises more than 400 million articles edited by more than 200,000 volunteer Wikimedians around the world. Ninety per cent of its budget comes from very small donations. In 2003 the Wikimedia Foundation was created to steward the encyclopaedia, and now employs 300 people based in San Francisco.

Maher joined the foundation as chief communications officer in 2014, after working in technology and advocacy at the World Bank, UNICEF and the National Democratic Institute.

She was appointed executive director in 2016 after her predecessor unexpectedly resigned over leaked documents showing Wikipedia was set to build a search engine. This outraged Wikimedians, who believed it wasnt part of the organisations scope.

Its no surprise then, considering the lofty ideals of the Wikipedia community and Mahers background in advocacy, that she sees her role as resisting the domination of tech giants such as Google, Apple or Facebook, and championing global free knowledge.

Global, but not everywhere. Since April, Wikipedia has been blocked in Turkey because of two articles alleging links between the Turkish government and Islamist militant groups. Maher said such blocks are rare, primarily in places where the internet is restricted such as North Korea and China. Access to information is a human right, she says. Neutral, unbiased, verifiable knowledge is important.

However, Maher says they are not in the business of adjudicating disputes, and admits Wikipedias open-platform model where anyone can edit isnt perfect.

There is a lot of back-and-forth about controversial issues such as politics, but that doesnt mean the Wikipedia community doesnt have a sense of humour. Notable hoaxes include fictitious presidents of the World Bank, non-existent senate candidates and bogus Natalia Imbruglia albums.

The US Congress was temporarily blocked when it was discovered several vandal edits were coming from the government. They were saying all sorts of nasty things about all sorts of people. We can only assume it was the interns calling politicians aliens and wizards, she says.

Maher is in the midst of figuring out whats next for the foundation. Wales is taking on fake news by launching his own media outlet, Wikitribune, but Maher sees technology and diversity as the focus for Wikipedia. Only 16 per cent of its biographies are about women and the English-language edition dominates.

Maher hints at having one eye on the future of the internet as technology advances, and evolving Wikipedias search queries.

It shouldnt be just about reading information or consuming information, it should be about creating information.

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Wikimedia executive director Katherine Maher explains how to trump fake news - The Australian Financial Review