The combination of user generated content, user-based editorial
control, and free content is our characteristic. That doesn't mean
it's the best way for all purposes, or even that it will always be us
that implements it best.
It is perfectly possible that if there were an equally free
encyclopedia that was equally comprehensive, but did have editorial
control in a more authoritarian conventional manner, that people might
prefer it for many or most purposes. Even so, we will have the
distinction for being not just the first large project of our sort,
but the one that stimulated change elsewhere. It's an acknowledgment
of our importance that we are influencing conventional publication
also.
On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 10:37 AM, Gwern Branwen <gwern0(a)gmail.com> wrote:
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In a message dated 1/21/2009 9:17:31 PM Pacific Standard Time,
larsen.thomas.h(a)gmail.com writes:
* free—as in the sense of freedom, not necessarily in the sense of beer;
* reliable—in other words, accurate, coherent, and neutral; and
* global—that is, multilingual and written by a diverse, broad group of
people.
Britannica might be reliable, and it might become slightly global, but
it is not yet multilingual and it isn't free.>>
-------------
What evidence do you have that an encyclopedia must be free?
Society has existed for a few thousand years without a free encyclopedia.
A statement trivially true. Society has also existed for a few
thousand years without copyright, period.
--
gwern
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David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DGG