[WikiEN-l] Anyone noticed this?

[Elias Friedman]

That sounds like the first draft of an essay that would be a more personal
alternative to [WP:Expert].

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Elias Friedman A.S., EMT-P
אליהו מתתיהו בן צבי
elipongo at gmail.com
On Dec 13, 2010 5:54 AM, "Carcharoth" <carcharothwp at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 10:02 AM, Jacob De Wolff
> <jfdwolff at doctors.org.uk> wrote:
>> Alex Bateman and Darren Logan have written in this week's
>> Nature, suggesting that scientists contribute content to
>> Wikipedia rather than simply using it.
>> http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/468765c
>
> I can't read the entire article (requires subscription), but thanks
> for pointing that out.
>
> I agree whole-heartedly with this bit from one of the comments:
>
> "the principal value of Wikipedia is as a point of entry to the
> literature, rather than as a source itself."
>
> It should be made clear though that being a research scientist and
> writing encyclopedia articles are two very different skills. Some of
> the skills involved are transferable, others need to be acquired to be
> successful at both. If you consider those with a deep understanding of
> a particular science (or science in general), acquired from training
> and education in a science discipline, then what they are bringing to
> the collaborative process called Wikipedia is their knowledge of
> science and most specifically their knowledge of the sources and how
> reliable different sources are.
>
> Those skills are best used, in my view, in identifying sources to be
> used, reviewing articles to spot mistakes, explaining the mistakes and
> what to write instead, and so on. But in so doing, the need is still
> there to work with others (such as prose writers, illustrators,
> editors, template coders and so on - just as you would work with an
> editorial team if working for a print encylopedia).
>
> This is the key point that some topic area experts who misunderstand
> Wikipedia don't seem to get. Editing Wikipedia involves working as
> part of a team to improve articles, not working as an individual - the
> latter approach doesn't work except on the most obscure of articles.
>
> Carcharoth
>
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