Co-founder of Wikipedia talks about problems

[Karen Coyle]

Following up on the various discussions here about Wikipedia, there is
an article by one of its co-founders, Larry Sanger:

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/30/142458/25

He feels that Wikipedia is a reliable source of information, or can be.
(And cites librarians as being among WP's main detractors.) The problem,
though, is that it has developed in a culture of anti-elitism that
results in a lack for respect for expertise.* This means that experts
who want to write articles have to spend an inordinate amount of time
defending themselves when they are questioned by less knowledgeable (but
apparently still quite outspoken) members of the Wikipedia community. He
feels that this is driving off exactly those writers and it sounds like
he's anticipating some kind of melt-down of the Wikipedia process.

* Without waxing too philosophical on this issue, this does have
elements of the old "democracy=equality=all the same" debate that comes
up in so many venues, and leads to long, drunken arguments over whether
janitors should be paid the same as heart surgeons. I don't have an
answer, but buy me a drink and I'll join in the debate. ;-)

kc
-- 
-------------------------------------
Karen Coyle
Digital Library Specialist
http://www.kcoyle.net
Ph: 510-540-7596 Fax: 510-848-3913
--------------------------------------