[Foundation-l] [WikiEN-l] Citizendium on quality

[George Herbert]

cc'ed to Foundation-L.

On Dec 18, 2007 3:44 PM, Jussi-Ville Heiskanen <cimonavaro at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/19/07, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> > http://blog.citizendium.org/2007/12/18/why-the-focus-on-creating-quality-content-in-case-you-didnt-know/
> >
> > 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?


-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com