On Fri, Sep 22, 2006 at 01:54:22PM -0400, Death Phoenix wrote:
On 9/22/06, jf_wikipedia@mac.com jf_wikipedia@mac.com wrote:
Larry may have good intentions and a vision for a better pedia... but I am following the discussions at Citizendium-I and all I can see is an extraordinary amount of wishful thinking from participants, a similar amount of naivete, and a basic misunderstanding of how on- line collaboration works and what skills are needed to make it work. I also observe a huge disparity on the expectations.
The attempt to "fix Wikipedia" by forking a new wiki with a new process that "encourages experts" may be a good idea or a bad one, but we will know if it works or not when it happens. Let's see in three months time...
Looking at the responses here and elsewhere, it seems that a lot of Wikipedians following this WANT Citizendium to work, but doubt that it will.
I have missed this earlier as (1) I am in England, not my home in Australia, and (2) I have been doing the expert bit at a Conference in Oxford. I ought to be one of the people Larry wants, as I have been an academic for over 40 years and my D. Phil was awarded in 1964. I should be a grumpy old man saying "These young chaps do not respect my expertise", but I am not. In many areas particularly in science, Wikipedia is developing a fruitfull collaboration between experts and non-experts that is making a better encyclopedia. In some areas the non-experts have too much say. In some areas the experts have too much say. An example of the latter seems to me to me some physics articles which are way to technical for an encyclopedia or at least miss the less technical introductions. Examples of the former are mostly not in science. I am not going to move to Citizendium as I do not think it is the way to go. Getting a good balance on WP between experts and non-experts is the way to go, but it does involve social skills and some experts (and some young non-experts!) do not always have them.
Experts can push their POV. I am appalled about the number of reviews on science that merely review the work of the authors's research group and do not give a balanced view of the field. This tendency has been increasing in the last 20 years. WP can do better. I doubt Citizendium will but I'll keep an eye on some of the articles I have contributed to.
Brian [Bduke]
DP