[Wikipedia-l] A Solution to Larry Sanger's Criticisms - Project Has Been Around For A While

[Daniel Mayer]

--- "Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales" <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
> If anything, I think we're more elitist than that: we look at academia
> and say "Yes, pretty good, but we should do better."

Yep. In addition, the tendency of some to blindly defer to individual experts
is a dangerous thing. Expects are humans too, and thus have their own bias and
shortcomings. 

For example, my intro to college chemistry instructor was a bit miffed that his
doctoral work on molecular structure modeling was not accepted by the
scientific community. So he taught us that part of the class (Valence Shell
Electron Pair Repulsion model) with a clear bias against it. 

He also thought that chlorine radicals were not responsible for the ozone hole
(in opposition to scientific consensus on the issue). I was smart enough to see
past his bias, but I'm sure many of my classmates bought what he said and the
contempt for what he had to teach, as gospel. 

I could also easily see this guy as a POV-pusher on Wikipedia who would try to
use his PhD credentials as an argument stopper (don't get me wrong, he is a
nice guy, but very opinionated). 

I've had several other PhD professors like this as well. So blindly showing
deference to people with impressive-sounding credentials is not a panacea (as  
Larry seems to imply). In fact, it could be a recipe for disaster. 

We must instead look beyond the individual and try to fairly and accurately
present the topic at hand. That can and should be done by mixing the best
aspects of academia with the best aspects of enthusiastic armatures.

-- mav


		
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