[WikiEN-l] Jimbo interview

[Sam Korn]

On Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 3:35 PM, Fred Bauder <fredbaud at fairpoint.net> wrote:
>> On Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 12:36 PM, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 2009/4/5 Oskar Sigvardsson <oskarsigvardsson at gmail.com>:
>>>
>>>> I think it's very clear that wikipedia has developed a very successful
>>>> model, not least because many other wikis seem to almost automatically
>>>> adopt our style and policies. In short: Wikipedia Works.
>>>
>>>
>>> NPOV is our key innovation. Much more radical than letting anyone edit
>>> the website.
>>
>> I agree.  The only way a wiki that says "anyone can edit" can work is
>> with NPOV.  You can either enforce a POV by banning people who don't
>> share your point of view, or you can explicitly endorse *no-one's*
>> point of view.
>
> The obvious alternative is to allow point of view editing but structure
> the wiki to include articles from diverse points of view, not an
> innovation, editorial pages of major newspapers are typically structured
> in that way.
>
>> (Similarly, NPOV would be extremely difficult to manage with a small
>> base of users as discussion (and, to some extent, conflict) is
>> essential.)
>>
>
> Yes, but failures to present a complete spectrum of points of view can be
> balanced by including a "NPOV" article imported from Wikipedia.

Or, indeed, by linking to the editorial pages of major newspapers from
an "NPOV" article *on* Wikipedia...

-- 
Sam
PGP public key: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sam_Korn/public_key