[Web4lib] Authority + Wikipedia

[K.G. Schneider]

> In 2003 I wrote an article for Searcher magazine proposing that we
> need a "graphic equalizer" for search engines -- knobs and dials that
> we can twist and turn to control how a search engine orders the hit
> list.

On my extreme-happiness wishlist would be if Google had a widget you could
click to give priority to items selected by Librarians' Internet Index. 

(Sometimes people ask me about an LII toolbar, which until we improve how
our search works would almost be self-defeating. "Why doesn't it work like
Google!" Etc. Such things have existed but I'm tepid towards them... I think
it's backwards... the little bird should hop on the hippo's back, not vice
versa. Squish.) 

I was interviewed about Wikipedia some time ago by Open Source Radio, and I
still feel burned by the interviewer, who had not revealed in advance that
he was Wikipedia-gaga. Lots of mystical talk about Wikipedia, but whenever I
hear references to "'the' community," I hold my wristwatch high. Have I used
it? Of course. But until Wikipedia resolves the authority
questions--particularly how you improve the chances (which is always what we
are talking about with authority, never an absolute) that someone looking at
the resource right then can evaluate and/or trust what he or she reads
without being part of "'the' community"--it's just the latest water cooler
for the digirati. 

Karen G. Schneider
kgs at bluehighways.com