[Foundation-l] Participation of intellectual professions

[David Goodman]

The traditional academic system is based upon status differences
between pupils and teachers. One of the problems is the reception they
get--a great many experts do not take it kindly when they are
challenged by the ignorant, and get no respect for their
qualifications, or even negative comments about them.  But there is no
way of keeping WP open and preventing them from being subjected to
this.  It affects not just academic experts, but experts in all sorts
of fields and knowledgeable amateurs also.

Some experts can deal with it well, and a few have been known to go
for years on WP without mentioning their academic status. Some have
the art of explaining things to make them clear to anyone who is not
willfully misunderstanding, and the patience to do it. These are the
kind of people we need. Alas, the one's who cannot tolerate the fools
are probably never going to be able to work effectively in a WP
environment.

On Fri, May 28, 2010 at 7:16 PM, Noein <pronoein at gmail.com> wrote:
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> On 28/05/2010 22:42, Yaroslav M. Blanter wrote:
>>
>>> 3. High level physicists also stay away from it. (for example most of
>>> the theoretical information about [[quasars]] comes from the 1960's.
>>> Current information on the net is frequently only available through
>>> pay-to-read sites.)
>>>
>> Well, I am a university professor in physics and a Wikipedia
>> administrator.
>
> There's a misunderstanding. Not surprising because I'm terrible with words.
> I'm glad you're here and I'm sure there are a lot like you.
>
> I'm expressing my surprise that there are so many reticences among the
> intellectual professions, at least in France and Argentina where I made
> my little personal investigation.
> I would naively expect a massive participation from them, on the
> supposition that they share a vocation for sharing knowledge and a
> passion to learn from others. And indeed some do. I have the impression,
> however, that they're a minority. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
> If it needs to be precised, I try to never communicate to impose
> personal convictions but to ask questions and provoke thoughts in the
> hope of deeper questions.
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-- 
David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DGG