[WikiEN-l] Concise Print Wikipedia is a Fork

[Ray Saintonge]

Jimmy Wales wrote:

>Ray Saintonge wrote:
>
>>>>So long as I'm still breathing I will strenuously fight against any
>>>>Wikimedia-sponsored fork. 
>>>>
>>>Me, too, so let's not sweat about that part too much.
>>>
>>I suppose this begs the question, "When is a fork a fork?"  Many of 
>>Wikipedia's sister projects have some characteristics of a fork, but 
>>they all come under the same umbrella.  
>>
>
>Yes, you're absolutely right.
>
>I think what Mav is against, and what I'm against, is that we should
>copy a ton of articles out of Wikipedia proper and into another space
>(of whatever kind) and then edit edit edit those, while having the
>regular versions go off in their own direction.  That seems like a lot
>of wasted effort.
>
>Pointers to "good enough" versions is going to be helpful, and then of
>course once we have a "manuscript", the publisher will probably want
>to copyedit it one last time, and may need to make some slight
>modifications in order to fit some technical print requirements.
>
In some respects  I feel that I have ended up in a role reversal here. 
 I have clearly expressed myself as a committed inclusionist on 
Wikipedia, but find myself arguing from the opposite side in relation to 
the print edition, or at least the first printed edition.  Some of the 
issues that are germane to the first edition may fade away for future 
editions.

To me the key to the success of this venture will be the establishment 
of realistic production minded goals.  It's about what works.  It's 
about saying there is no time to debate some esoteric point anymore.   
It's about being cautious around adopting untested software based 
solutions without even knowing how some of our very good but otherwise 
technically challenged contributors will confront any learning curve 
that such software implies.  (We still have many contributors who feel 
that all html markup should be banned.)  It's about making tough, 
accurate time-constrained decisions based on a realistic acceptance of 
all our limitations.

Philosophically, it doesn't much matter to me whether or not this is 
accomplished by way of a fork.  The question, "Does it work?" is more 
significant here.  

There is the old saw that "there is never a second chance to make a 
first impression."  One of the most unrelenting arguments about a 
project such as Wikipedia is that you can never rely on it for accurate 
information.  Those are the people that you want proven wrong!  Making 
the first edition as big as possible is a high risk strategy which, if 
it fails, could have a devastating impact  on any project of this kind 
by anybody in the future.  This should explain my own strong feelings 
that a first edition would be better to have more modest goals in which 
size rather than accuracy is sacrificed.

I hope that this didn't sound too much like a rant. :-)
Ec