cc'ed to Foundation-L.

On Dec 18, 2007 3:44 PM, Jussi-Ville Heiskanen cimonavaro@gmail.com wrote:

On 12/19/07, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:

...

http://blog.citizendium.org/2007/12/18/why-the-focus-on-creating-quality-con...

Interesting thoughts on quality.

For me the telling line in that blog post is:

"Even if we don't get it right, someone eventually will, because it is possible and because there is such a huge potential demand for it. I look forward to that day!"

That is pretty much what citizendium is relying on. That there is a "huge potential demand" for perfection instead of "just good enough". I don't see that this is a gimme, but it could be true. I cast my lot with "just good enough", so will have to forego perfection.

Without getting absolutist, I think there's clearly a spectrum here.

We've picked one point; it works for us, and our editors and our readership, and we're taken credibly by outside organizations and society as a whole.

It may be that other points in the spectrum are both workable as volunteer projects (critical mass of contributors and content) and higher in the quality spectrum, and seen as more valuable by society as a whole.

This is something that the Foundation may want to keep in mind; "English Wikipedia" as currently structured may not be the only english language encyclopedia project worth supporting. Why let Larry and Google have all the fun exploring the corners and diversity options in the space we're in?