[Foundation-l] [Announcement] update in board of trustees membership

[Ray Saintonge]

Andrew Gray wrote:
> On 17/12/2007, Andrew Whitworth <wknight8111 at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>>> Citizendium's small but not hurting for participants. They'll be fine.
>>>       
>> That's not my point here. There is a certain number of people in this
>> world who are going to be interested in actually "writing" an
>> encyclopedia (as opposed to the people who are happy to edit, revise,
>> or do other things to support the writing community).
>>     
> Isn't one of the major lessons we've learned from the past six years
> of Wikipedia (seven now, I guess) that the number of people in the
> world interested in writing an encyclopedia is a lot bigger than we
> ever anticipated it being?
>   
Probably, but it's part of a much wider trend  There has been similar 
growth in other areas from social networking to YouTube to MMORPGs to 
blogging.  I think there is also a widespread dissatisfaction with and 
distrust of established social and political structures.  Discussions 
about these can now take place in ways that previously were technically 
impossible. We ain't seen nothin' yet.
>> The one-author, one-page idea (from what I've heard knol is supposed
>> to be) sounds like a disaster waiting to happen
>>     
> Yes and no. It's workable, *if* there are other caveats which haven't
> been announced yet - some kind of weighting, structuring, etc. We
> shall see.
It beats having to face the question of NPOV.  Insisting on a neutral 
article on a subject like Israeli-Palestinian relations reflects one of 
the most important features of Wikipedia.  A reader who is confident 
that he can find a reasonably balanced treatment of the subject will 
come back when he can't trust other sites.

A one-author, one page policy would allow separate biased articles on 
either side of the subject.

Ec