[WikiEN-l] Citizendium vs. Wikipedia

[George Herbert]

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 7:27 AM, doc <doc.wikipedia at ntlworld.com> wrote:

> I'd say that "the reader question" is less pertinent for any start up
> than the "writer question". Readers will not be interested until you
> have enough writers to produce the goods, and do so in a reliable way.
> So you really need to find a motivation to make qualified people want to
> contribute (or Wikipedia's best to switch). Ultimately, having a lot of
> readers will do that, but any start up needs initially to offer
> something else to the writer.



I think that's a nice theory, but a number of new projects have in some
sense (either people-wise or concept-wise) spun out of Wikipedia to try and
do that, and in practice have not had readership follow them or build up on
their own.

There are a number of possible explanations...  Wikipedia just has grabbed
public mindshare and others don't have a wedge to get in right now.
Wikipedia's readers to editors curve being so easy may in fact be a key
innovation and enabler to get and keep reader mindshare.  The other
encyclopedias may just not get "reader friendly" well enough and thus be
ultimately doomed walled gardens.  Or perhaps we're being too harsh, time
and content will bring critical masses of readership.

If any of these projects really don't value readership, then they're truly
doomed.


-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com