David Alexander Russell wrote:
I don't know if people will prefer the Citizendium version though - if people want there are plenty of academic websites already.
Encyclopaedia's with clear navigation, crosslinking etc? No, not really.
The whole reason people USE Wikipedia is its up-to-date coverage on a stupendous range of topics
And why would Citizendium not be like that?
- sure, Citizendium will have a complete 'fork copy' of Wikipedia to
begin with, but only the articles that its experts are interested in will ever get updated -
That is a risk. If I had my say, it would not be a fork in the way Larry describes, but that pages get copied and improved, and if the page is not available at Citizendium, a link to Wikipedia is provided. That will be a good incentive for everybody to make those basic pages as well. But do not worry, if I start with the evolutionary biology section, I will start with the basic pages.
that is the essential problem with a project that aims at giving control to a handful of experts to the exclusion of everyone else.
Maybe the control of the content is there, but just imagine a group of authors working together with some experts to make a truly good article, after which it gets approved and instead that you have to continually monitor it for idiots who have vandalized it, or added some nonsense, you can just start working on the next cool article.
You might get a reasonably up-to-date article on evolution or philosophy, but if you want to find out about something less expert-attractive then you need Wikipedia.
Indeed, I personally do not see the need for all the fancruft etc. to be at a Citizendium.
That means that Wikipedia will still be people's first port of call - even though some articles on Citizendium /might/ be better (not guaranteed), there is a very good chance that you will find what you're looking for.
Could be. It could also just work the other way round. And if the articles at Citizendium are not better than at Wikipedia, it will be gone within no time. There is no need for a project of equal quality, there is a need for a project of higher quality.
Kim