[WikiEN-l] Sanger and CZ

[Fred Bauder]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Glen S [mailto:wikiglen at gmail.com]
>Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2007 10:34 PM
>To: wikien-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>Subject: [WikiEN-l] Sanger and CZ
>
>Tell me, have any of you read this:
>http://daveydweeb.com/2007/02/07/citizendium-isnt-interested-in-your-opinion/
>
>I was shocked when I read it... that is, until I read Sanger's response
>beneath it... then I was absolutely dumbfounded. With a guy with that
>attitude at the helm, I'm expecting the CZ project to fizzle out VERY
>quicky.
>
>Glen

If you go to Citizendium and participate you need to wear your Citizendium hat. I'm an old hand at that. When I post on this list, edit Wikipedia, act as an administrator, as an arbitrator, propose policies, I wear my Wikipedia hat. That is, I accept the premises of Wikipedia; if I consider how policy might be better, I think of that while accepting the premises. I suppose part of that comes from legal training, but basically, if you want to play football (American), you've got to try to move the ball towards the right goalposts, pass only behind the line of scrimmage, and tackle without grabbing the runner's facemask.

I'm writing on Citizendium and having fun doing it. I'm not sure about being an editor. I'm qualified in law--I can remember working on the law article on Wikipedia and having to deal with some rather difficult editors, including a developer who thought that status gave him a lot of clout, apparently he had taken a law course or two. Although lawyers can present a quite nasty face when they are advocating for your opponent, it is quite remarkable how well they get along when they are together talking about the basics of law. Only problem is, at this point I interested in a lot of other things I would rather write about, and haven't practiced law for 10 years. Yet, I might like working with a small group of professionals on encyclopedia articles.

The premise of Citizendium is that certified expertise is important in producing the product. There are potential problems, for example, in law, most of the real experts are working, rates run $200 a hour and more. To be sure, lawyers have fun too, and a few might find editing an encyclopedia fun, but would even 5 genuine experts be available? We accept 14 year olds here. I have voted for people who said they were 14 years old to be arbitrators. But I will be a lot more comfortable when that person has some life experience.

Bottom line, Citizendium operates from different premises. They are promising, but remain untested. Only a fair trial will determine the merit of the approach.

Fred