[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia's provable anti-expertise bias

[Fastfission]

On 11/20/05, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> The problems won't stop if we are more accurate.  As long as we are
> challenging vested interests our material will always be seen as
> dubious, whether or not it's true.

Are you talking about the vested interests of the academics? I assure
you that most probably care not a bit about Wikipedia and certainly
don't see it as a threat. Wikipedia does not compete with the
interests of academics in any way -- it has a different audience,
different purpose, and entirely different status of "author" than
academic work. They are not incompatible in the slightest -- in an
ideal world, Wikipedia would be parasitic on academic work, as are
other encyclopedias. In the academic ecology, parasitism is actively
enjoyed -- the more you are relied upon, the more status you have.

FF