[WikiEN-l] Scott McCloud on Wikipedia

[Guy Chapman aka JzG]

On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 16:32:03 -0500, Delirium <delirium at hackish.org>
wrote:

>I'm not going to argue we should follow their lead, but this isn't 
>universally the case.  Britannica, to pick only the most famous 
>encyclopedia, is well known for hiring famous people to write original 
>research for their articles.  They've toned that down a bit since the 
>heydey of their 1911 edition, but it's still very much present.  I would 
>say that the idea that an encyclopedia should be a tertiary source based 
>strictly on a neutral survey of the existing secondary literature is a 
>fairly recent shift, and most encyclopedias don't fully implement it.  
>The previous conception of an encyclopedia was that it be a compendium 
>of *true* things, even if the truths flatly contradict the existing 
>secondary literature (sometimes Britannica will explicitly say things 
>like, "most commentators say [x], but this is false").  The 
>justification for the truth was not sourcing to existing literature, but 
>the combined prestige of the article's author and Britannica itself.

We could not do that because we don't do original research, but we
certainly do challenge the orthodox view in a number of areas, where
that can be supported from the best and most current sources - in
essence we see the new, emerging consensus before the weight of old
literature is consigned to the dustbin of history.

However...

These authors were, even if not explicitly, drawing on a large pool of
published sources.  I have friends who are academics; they can write
from their own knowledge, but if pressed could cite every word to
research by them or others.  It's just that they don't need to because
of their reputation, it's a given that what they say form knowledge
*could* be referenced.  If they venture an opinion it is stated as
opinion.  We don't typically see opinions as opinion in
encyclopaedias.

I only knew one person who wrote an article for Britannica, though,
and he's sadly deceased so I can't ask him about it.

Guy (JzG)
-- 
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:JzG