[Wikipedia-l] Developers needed!

[Marco Krohn]

On Tuesday 24 August 2004 17:21, Benedikt Mandl wrote:

> In terms of users: I think that there actually would be some overlapping
> information of wikipedia and wikispecies - for that reason a stron
> connection between the two would be very important and beneficial for both.
> On the other hand I think that the niche for a specifically biology
> dedicated, taxonomic database such as wikispecies is big and the potential
> potential applications different enough to justify the existance of a
> wikispecies in addition to the wikipedia.
>
> When it comes to biologists to contribute contents, I am sure that it will
> be MUCH easier to convince them to work on a species directory with pure
> bio-applications rather than a general encyclopedia. Which doesn't mean
> that wikipedia won't benefit from wikispecies - just the opposite.

It might be that it is easier in the beginning to convince experts to 
contribute to a specialized catalogue than to a general encyclopedia. On the 
other hand I know that we already have experts in other areas who work on the 
Wikipedia.

For example Uwe Kills who is a professor for biological oceanography or Axel 
Boldt who is a professor for mathematics. Just have a look to how many 
articles Axel Boldt has produced http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:AxelBoldt 
and I never heard that he asked for a special wikipedia which deals with 
mathematics exclusively.

If it is possible to incorporate highly specialized topics from mathematics 
into Wikipedia then I can't see a reason why this shouldn't be possible for 
the biological field. I had a look at fishbase.org and I found nothing which 
would prevent adding similar information to Wikipedia. 

Perhaps I just do not understand sufficently the problems that come with 
taxonomy, but I would prefer it if we don't split our resources and if 
Wikipedia becomes the resource for _all_ human knowledge. At least this is 
what I and probably many others dream is.

best regards,
  Marco