JUST FORWARDING WHAT WAS SHOWN THIS MORNING ON ANOTHER LIST. . AM I
VIOLATING SOME LAWS ?
Ludwik Kowalski
Let the perfect not be the enemy of the good.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject:
[TISAG] academic Vikipedia----Citizendum
Date:
Wed, 18 Oct 2006 09:14:43 -0700 (PDT)
From:
hb paksoy <hb_paksoy@yahoo.com>
Reply-To:
tisag@yahoogroups.com
To:
tisag@yahoogroups.com
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Co-Founder of Wikipedia, Now a Critic, Starts Spinoff With Academic
Editors
By BROCK READ
Can scholars build a better version of Wikipedia? Larry Sanger, a
co-founder who has since become a critic of the open-source
encyclopedia, intends to find out.
This week Mr. Sanger announced the creation of the Citizendium, an
online, interactive encyclopedia that will be open to public
contributors but guided by academic editors. The site aims to give
academics more authorial control -- and a less combative environment --
than they find on Wikipedia, which affords all users the same editing
privileges, whether they have any proven expertise or not.
The Citizendium, whose name is derived from "citizen's compendium,"
will soon start a six-week pilot project to determine many of its basic
rules and operating procedures.
Mr. Sanger left Wikipedia at the end of 2002 because he felt it was too
easy on vandals and too hard on scholars. There is a lot to like about
Wikipedia, he said, starting with the site's open-source ethics and its
commitment to "radical collaboration."
But in operation, he said, Wikipedia has flaws -- like its openness to
anonymous contributors and its rough-and-tumble editing process -- that
have driven scholars away. With his new venture, Mr. Sanger hopes to
bring those professors back into the fold.
He plans to create for the site a "representative democracy," in which
self-appointed experts will oversee the editing and shaping of
articles. Any Web surfer, regardless of his or her credentials, will be
able to contribute to the Citizendium. But scholars with "the
qualifications typically needed for a tenure-track academic position"
will act as editors, he said, authorizing changes in articles and
approving entries they deem to be trustworthy.
A team of "constables" -- administrators who must be more than 25 years
old and hold at least a bachelor's degree, according to the project's
Web site -- will enforce the editors' dictates. "If an editor says the
article on Descartes should put his biography before his philosophy,
and someone changes that order, a constable comes in and changes it
back," said Mr. Sanger.
To make the site even more appealing to academics, the Citizendium will
require each of its volunteer contributors to register -- using a real
name and a working e-mail address -- before editing any entries. In
keeping with the less-wide-open strategy, the pilot project will be an
invitation-only affair. (The Citizendium is seeking applications from
editor and constable candidates on its Web site, and Mr. Sanger expects
the pilot project to start this week.)
Scholarly Obligation?
At first the Citizendium may look a lot like Wikipedia. The new site
will be a "fork" of the existing encyclopedia; it will import the
entire collection of Wikipedia articles, delete entries deemed
unnecessary, and let contributors and editors mold the remaining
material.
But the site could evolve into a source of information more trustworthy
than Wikipedia's, said Mr. Sanger, if professors can be persuaded to
contribute. "Writing for encyclopedias has never been a way to get
tenure," he acknowledged. But he encouraged academics to join the
project "not as a way to demonstrate your scholarly chops, but as a
part of what some might regard as an obligation to teach the broader
community."
Several scholars have already signed on to the pilot project, including
Gareth Leng, a professor of experimental psychology at the University
of Edinburgh, who will serve as one of the first editors.
Critics of the plan said the Citizendium may struggle not just to
recruit experts but also to attract passionate amateurs, who have been
responsible for the bulk of Wikipedia's growth.
"I don't think Citizendium is going to work," said Alexander M.C.
Halavais, an assistant professor of communications at Quinnipiac
College, who has studied Wikipedia. "It looks far too restrictive, and
it costs too much effort to join and contribute."
Instead of fleeing from Wikipedia, he argued, scholars should form
panels to review its articles and place a stamp of approval on
well-researched entries.
But Mr. Sanger said many scholars will never put much credence in
Wikipedia articles, even if they are somehow certified by experts.
"I would like to suggest that all those people who have bandied about
the idea of organizing groups of people to descend on Wikipedia and
edit it do the Citizendium instead," he said. "In time we could make it
the go-to resource for expertise."