[WikiEN-l] An open letter to Jimmy Wales

[Jussi-Ville Heiskanen]

Brian wrote:
>
> I say this because I get the feeling that Wales and Sanger both believe
> there is a lot at stake here and at the same time I feel that they both take
> too much credit for what has happened. What they did is akin to writing an
> academic paper that first introduces an idea. They cannot claim authorship
> or credit for all of the publications that cite their initial publication -
> just the initial idea. It seems clear that this initial idea was authored
> and implemented by Sanger & Wales (2001?). It would be a grave injustice to
> just cite Wales (2001) if the idea was only part, or not even, his.
>
>   

Since you frame your analogy in terms of scientific ideas,
I think it would be much more accurate to put it in terms
of Sanger & Wales putting forth a later discredited theory,
which however was tangential and part of the broader
scientific thread of inquiry that eventually brought forth
a tenable theory.

To put it in more concrete terms, visualize Sanger &
Wales (2001) as being Lamarckianism. Something close,
but not quite on point. Wikipedia, as it stands now,
would be Darwinism, very well established as the most
robust theory out there, but with important wrinkles
that still need to be ironed out.


Yours,

Jussi-Ville Heiskanen