[WikiEN-l] Why Academics are Useful to Wikipedia

[Jens Ropers]

>> Um what's to stop the expert making a mistake and not realising that 
>> he
>> has insufficient expertise?
>
> The scenario is that Wikipedia editors have found an expert with a 
> proven
> track-record in the specific subject area of the article, and 
> solicited his
> opinion. In this scenario, the expert's track-record provides some 
> evidence
> that the expert has the expertise -- we wouldn't be relying on his or 
> her
> self-evaluation. Such evidence could never be conclusive, but I think 
> it's a
> lot better than none at all.
>
> -- Matt (User:Matt Crypto)

This is NOT a choice between one single person's academic accreditation 
vs. one single person's self-evaluation.
It's a choice between the ''collective'' wisdom and joint assessment of 
a larger group of people** vs. one single person's academic 
accreditation.


** some of them likely will just so happen to hold academic degrees 
themselves, without that ever being an issue or getting mentioned

- Jens