[WikiEN-l] Re: internet-encyclopedia.info

[Sheldon Rampton]

Sascha Noyes wrote:

>LOL. I have my doubts about the sanity of forking wikipedia. Why would you
>fork wikipedia so that you can have an encyclopedia with a Personal POV? And:
>What if someone comes along who has an opposite POV from your own, they don't
>have to adhere to NPOV, so what are you going to do? Ban them?

Actually, I think it could work. The NPOV works pretty well for 
Wikipedia, but even it requires a certain amount of enforcement and 
peer pressure to make it work. The mere idea of making Wikipedia an 
"encyclopedia" also requires discipline, and enforcing that rule has 
been possible even though you get a few people who refuse to abide by 
the guidelines. I don't see any reason to assume that an encyclopedia 
*has* to have a neutral point of view to succeed. NPOV is only one 
among multiple possible points of view. Someday maybe there'll be a 
Commiepedia frequented by leftists, a Nazipedia, a Christipedia, an 
Intifadipedia, an Agnostipedia...

For that matter, there might be different wikipedias devoted to 
specialized topics: e.g., a "litipedia" devoted to literature, or a 
"medipedia" devoted to medical information.

I'm not saying this has to happen or that it should happen, but I 
don't think there's any reason to assume that it *can't*.
-- 
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|  Sheldon Rampton
|  Editor, PR Watch (www.prwatch.org)
|  Author of books including:
|     Friends In Deed: The Story of US-Nicaragua Sister Cities
|     Toxic Sludge Is Good For You
|     Mad Cow USA
|     Trust Us, We're Experts
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