If I'm understanding you correctly, you're talking about the lack of
English speaking experts on topics about non-English speaking
countries?
No, I'm talking about credentialed/degreed people (and their pretenders) who
can't bear the idead of writing a thousand words on the Simpsons. The kind
of person that finds Citizendium attractive is the same that thinks that the
Galileo article must morally be longer than the Paris Hilton one. Wikipedia
doesn't make that kind of distinction. In other words, they're just like a
wiki version of Britannica, which the world doesn't want or need. No person
of my generation (I'm 20) would ever choose the online version of Britannica
over Wikipedia, even if it was free.
On Jan 23, 2008 2:07 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 23/01/2008, Steven Walling
<steven.walling(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I'd agree with charles comments above, but
let me rephrase my
observation.
Citizendium has, in my opinion, an infinitely larger potential for
maintaining its current systemic bias, unlike wikipedia, which is
constantly
correcting this (see things such as
User:llrwych's recent devotion to
the
history of Ethiopia and the like). The very
nature of the cz project and
its
base of contributors demands a bias in the topics
it gives substantial
coverage to.
Start with intellectual and personal elitism, and you're going to have
that
bias show in your work, just like academia. Also
just like academia,
this
bias doesn't negate the value of the work
they do focus on, but you
still
have to acknowledge that there will always be
holes in their coverage.
If I'm understanding you correctly, you're talking about the lack of
English speaking experts on topics about non-English speaking
countries? I'm not sure how serious an issue that is - most academics
anywhere in the world speak decent English, if they look for them, I'm
sure they can find suitable experts of Ethiopian history, or whatever.
_______________________________________________
WikiEN-l mailing list
WikiEN-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit:
http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l