From: Lars Aronsson <lars(a)aronsson.se>
Subject: Re: [Wikisource-l] help needed searching for pagescans and front covers
To: "discussion list for Wikisource, the free library"
<wikisource-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Date: Wednesday, August 13, 2008, 10:45 AM
LaosLos wrote:
Why are there people who think that Wikisource is
not
related to
the act of creating something? that is, why WS is
not
"like a
publisher that prints a new edition", even
when
we are
publishing a new encyclopaedia, new textbooks, a
new
quote
database, new images... ?
Could you please stay focused on Wikisource. What exactly
is
intended to be "created" in Wikisource? The
whole purpose of
Wikisource is to present source texts, as they were
written.
It's not really up to us to modify that content, is it?
While the focus is on accurately presenting texts; that is not all Wikisource is. In fact
the more strongly we focus on accuracy the more complicated things are. As John points
out, the static nature of texts is mostly a fallacy. While everyone knows that is would
silly to type in "Bible" and arrive a the text of the Bible without making
further choices on whether you are looking for a Jewish or Christian text much less which
translation you are looking for, many other much more mundane texts have a variety
editions. Any attempt to be accurate will also invlove creating indexes and researching
the various editions and finding ways sharing that research to inform reader's
choices. Then there are things like creating translation and adding value to text by
wikilinks. I see Wikisource as creating a library rather than creating the texts. The
core of a library is always created by others but it is the creation of useful bits around
the texts that
differentiates a library from a scrapyard of books.
Birgitte SB