From: Nikola Smolenski smolensk@eunet.yu If this becomes a serious issue, I think that it could be solved by publishing separate topical encyclopedias. For example, "Wikipedia of Informatics", "Wikipedia of Mathematics" and so on, for every topic that is complete.

Actually, I was thinking about this myself. I think it should be seriously considered. Browsing Wikipedia it seems clear that unevenness of coverage extends all the way up to the most major subject areas. Physical sciences, engineering, and mathematics have a much higher quality level in general than life science, medicine, and "the humanities" generally.

Restricting it to a topical encyclopedia has other advantages, too. Cuts down the amount of work for the first publication, makes it easier to put one of our many good feet forward, makes for more interesting "sequels" than "second edition" or "Wikipedia 2005," etc.

Maybe it's timid of me to point out that this also allows sidestepping some of the areas most subject to POV disputes (and minimizing the chances some egregious troll-authored content might make it into print due to some momentary lack of vigilance).

-- Daniel P. B. Smith, dpbsmith@world.std.com alternate: dpbsmith@alum.mit.edu "Elinor Goulding Smith's Great Big Messy Book" is now back in print! Sample chapter at http://world.std.com/~dpbsmith/messy.html Buy it at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403314063/