[WikiEN-l] inclusivity of Wikipedia and the drawing of expert boundaries

[Kathleen McCook]

I think of interest to this discussion list.

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Luyt, B. (2012). The inclusivity of Wikipedia and the drawing of expert
boundaries: An examination of talk pages and reference lists. *Journal Of
The American Society For Information Science & Technology*, *63*(9),
1868-1878.

*Wikipedia* is frequently viewed as an inclusive medium. But inclusivity
within this online encyclopedia is not a simple matter of just allowing
anyone to contribute. In its quest for legitimacy as an encyclopedia,*
Wikipedia* relies on outsiders to judge claims championed by rival editors.
In choosing these experts, Wikipedians define the boundaries of acceptable
comment on any given subject. Inclusivity then becomes a matter of how the
boundaries of expertise are drawn. In this article I examine the nature of
these boundaries and the implications they have for inclusivity and
credibility as revealed through the talk pages produced and sources used by
a particular subset of *Wikipedia*'s creators-those involved in writing
articles on the topic of Philippine history.