[Foundation-l] Reconsidering the policy "one language - one Wikipedia"

[phoebe ayers]

On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 2:40 PM, Mark Williamson <node.ue at gmail.com> wrote:
> Phoebe, in my humble opinion, this project is a bit different. I think
> when we are talking about child development and creating a project for
> children, there's no room to screw around or create some amateurish
> product. This is something that, if done wrong, could potentially have
> a bigger negative impact than if, say, we'd screwed up on Wikinews.
>
> -m.

Wait, weren't you the one arguing just upthread that wikipedia was
just fine and dandy for you as an adolescent? Not just wikipedia, but
wikipedia of 7 years ago, which was far less complete and stable --
far more amateurish -- than it is today.

I see your argument, but I don't buy it -- lots of kids are
autodidacts just the same as many adults, and lots of stuff designed
for kids is crap (including "professional teaching materials"). I
don't necessarily know that we could do better, but I don't see why
it's not worth a shot. Are you concerned about controversial material?
Does your concern go away if the project isn't framed for kids, but
rather as a simple language version (simple english, german, etc)?

-- phoebe