Guaka wrote:
In a world that is moving to greater transparency, wikipedia is, in fact, a model. Consider being able to earn one's degree by writing on wikipedia.
But if you accidentally find out something that wasn't known before you'd have to erase it from Wikipedia and move it somewhere else... :/ Which also implies you could never earn a PhD by writing on Wikipedia. I hope Wikiresearch and/or Wikiversity will become a bit bigger to tackle this inconvenience. :)
How does one, in the course of documenting what is known on a topic, "accidentally find out something that wasn't known before"?
If one does indeed have brand new ideas about a subject, these ideas warrant the testing and maturation that comes with peer review and publication before they warrant being repeated in an encyclopedia.
(assuming you want the encyclopedia to develop a reputation for reliability, that is.)