[Foundation-l] Re: Emergency Medicine Wikibook: seeking programmers and doctors, nurses, paramedics

[Anthere]

Hello,

I would like to give a precision.
Paris contacted Jimbo to talk to him about this proposal a while ago now.
We met Paris in New York, where we had the opportunity to discuss this 
project around a set of beers :-)

In Paris mind, this project was not a wikibook, but rather a new 
project, due to the differences he wished to be brought, both in terms 
of templates, and in terms of registration.

After discussion, we agreed that this project could be part of wikibooks 
rather than a new project.

We asked Paris that he send a full proposal to this mailing list, so 
that everyone can grasp the implications and possibly join.

As for myself, I had not really understood what he meant by templates, 
and now that I read the description, I do not think it is problematic.

A template model can be set by Paris himself (it must be defined before 
starting the pages) and be used for all pages. We manage to do this for 
Wikipedia for example in all country pages. Paris, see 
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France and 
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiproject_Countries to see what I mean.

However Paris has a point when he insists on "authority", since his area 
is particularly technically and legally touchy.

Still, Paris, the strength of the wiki model is precisely that anyone 
can edit. If only to help you set the template, or fix typos or do 
categories etc...

I do think you can start the project without mandatory "creditials 
request". And I think you can do it within wikibooks to start

Here is what I suggest

First, make it clear that there will be a dual population authorized to 
edit these page
* the crowd, with no credentials given. This crowd might possibly be 
autorized by "rules" (human rules rather than technical rules) not to 
edit the medical content. You might request a sort of moral engagement 
not to do so, and it is your business to enforce this. Of course, such a 
rule should have to be approved by participants to this project

* some people with credentials. They would be adding the medical content 
mostly. OR they would be the ones authorized to validate  it. You can 
equally make a template for them to put on their pages, where they will 
state all what you mentionned. You could make a special page to list all 
of them, and display it proeminently on the main page of your book. You 
could also make a rule so that these guys make a validation committee 
and might have the right to "approve" article with a big stamp.

Aside from technical possibilities, you have a lot of power as a 
*human*, through the strength of recommandations, through rules and 
through enforcement. Actually, if the community editing the book agrees 
with such guidelines and believe faithfully in its wiseness, it will be 
more powerful than any technical fancy feature.

What you need "now" is not tech, what you need it people, many people, 
some with credentials, some without, and build a community around it, 
with its own local rules.

I understand the need for "stamp of approval", but it will be important 
when there is "content". For now, there is no content. Build the 
framework, animate the community, add the content, then, there will be 
something to protect. The community will protect the content. And you 
can then use your group of "credited" people to set a 
validation/approval system which will please outside people.

Do you really think a "paper" encyclopedia is ONLY written by big 
professors ????

No, I do not think so, there are people taking care of typo, 
reorganising text to make it look better, working on displaying pictures 
in a nicer way. The big professor just add quickly the content, let it 
for others to organise it well, put their big names as a stamp of 
approval somewhere, and then, they go to a conference.

Just do the same :-) And you'll see that will work fine.

What you need is human leader to get it started and serious work on 
mission statement, guidelines and policies; That will work :-)

Anthere


Daniel Mayer a écrit:
> --- Paris Lovett <paris at pazzah.com> wrote:
> 
>>I'm writing to let everybody know more about the proposed Emergency Medicine
>>Wikibook. 
> 
> 
> Emergency Medicine Wikibook - great idea. But you don't need permission to
> start such a thing, just go to http://en.wikibooks.org and get to work! :) 
> 
> 
>>I've met with board members and it seems at the present time that
>>our main challenge is finding interested programmers to create templates and
>>a special registration screen. 
> 
> 
> Registration system? I'm sorry but that is not the way we do things around
> here. We had one project called Nupedia that had a registration system and it
> was nearly a complete failure. Its only saving grace was that its looming
> downfall led to the creation to Wikipedia (whose initial purpose was to breathe
> life back into Nupedia - but that never happened and Wikipedia quickly became
> its own thing). 
> 
> 
>>The open-source Wikibook model is a strong
>>fit with the rapidly changing and incredibly broad field of Emergency
>>Medicine. Traditional textbooks simply can't cover all the little things
>>which walk into an Emergency Room, everything from broken toes, to heart
>>attacks and strokes, to stabbings and shootings. 
> 
> 
> This is all great and wonderful, but instead of having controls on what people
> do up front, why not have control on what is included in a published/static
> copy? The live Wikibook would be the place where development of the Wikibook
> takes place and a separate website is where approved parts of that would be
> used by emergency medicine professionals. 
> 
> -- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)
> 
> 
> 		
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