[Wikipedia-l] difficulties of a kids' wikipedia

[Vicki Rosenzweig]

I don't know if any of these would be show-stoppers, but they're points to 
consider:

* Who counts as a "kid" for these purposes? I suspect 14-year-olds have more
in common--as Wikipedia users--with 44-year-olds than with 8-year-olds?\. If
someone wants to set up a Wikipedia based on age/reading level, they need to
define what that age and reading level are.

* It's a Wiki. That means *the users can edit it*. At a minimum, a kids' 
wiki is
likely to be full of booger jokes and similar stuff that we'd immediately 
edit out
on the English (and, I assume, the other language) Wikipedias. If this is 
really
a kids' Wiki, can we-as-adults judge the proper content?

* I Am Not A Lawyer, but I believe there are real difficulties in having 
even our
minimal-information registration for children under 13, since we're in the U.S.
There's nothing in theory to prevent an entirely-anonymous Wiki, but I suspect
it would change the environment.

Having thrown all this out, I'll note that I don't plan to work on this 
project, if it
goes ahead, and my only *strong* feeling is that if it's going to happen, 
it should have
its own defined namespace.
-- 
Vicki Rosenzweig
vr at redbird.org
http://www.redbird.org