[WikiEN-l] Do experts have a moral obligation to contribute to Wikipedia?

[Carcharoth]

On Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 8:14 PM, Charles
Matthews<charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com> wrote:

<snip>

> How about the simpler comment that if you have expertise in an area of
> public interest, you should consider writing something freely licensed
> and putting it on the Web where someone can find it and help aggregate
> it? Those who compile WP tend to have more sophisticated search habits
> than putting a single keyword into Google and hoping for the best.
> (Someone please reassure me that this is true ...)

I'd agree with this. Publishing a reliable source and making it widely
and freely accessible can be better that contributing to Wikipedia.
Especially if you are the sort of expert that doesn't have the time
and patience for Wikipedia. But equally we have an obligation to make
sure that the trolls and POV pushers don't mess things up or distort
what is being said in the article that is being supported by said
reliable source.

As for searching. It depends what databases and resources you have
access too. I frequently come up against paywalls. There are only so
many times you can look around for a different source, or ask someone
else (who has access) for a copy.

I have something else I want to say about lists and redlinks, but I'll
do that in another thread.

Carcharoth