[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia's provable anti-expertise bias
charles matthews
charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com
Fri Nov 18 17:08:54 UTC 2005
Fastfission wrote
>As an aside, it would be interesting to have a fairly comprehensive
discussion of what academic experts think of Wikipedia, in relation to
teaching as well as just generally.
They're going to think it's patchy, aren't they?
Most academics are remarkably poor at popularization. They write as
experts, for experts. Any technical slip will catch their eye, before all
the work going into access and presentation.
Most non-user academics are going to miss the point about hypertext. An
area of WP with good navigation can get you in an hour what might cost a
week of a well-appointed library. But only academics who actually remember
the mazy, hazy grad student days of bombardment by things about which one
should already know will rate that aspect.
Most popularizing academics will find the tone of WP rather subdued. (This
is a good thing. We have no need to do boosterism. )
Charles
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