[Web4lib] The Wikipedia Gotcha -- a cosmic perspective

[Binkley, Peter]

Within a wiki (in the librarians group at wikipedia or pbwiki or
wherever), perhaps a format modelled on Talk Origins
(http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/list.html) would work: an index of
claims (statements about wikipedia from librarians), each with its own
page where the claim is articulated and sourced, and then responses are
enumerated and sourced. The sources could be links to archived email
messages or threads that capture a particular argument well. Links into
Wikipedia's documentation would also be useful. 

The difference would be that Talk Origins represents the efforts of one
community to debunk the claims of another, whereas the Wikipedia wiki
would represent a discussion within a single community which has not
reached consensus. It would be possible to set up our site as a list of
pro-Wikipedia claims with anti-Wikipedia responses or vice versa (and
appear to favour one side over the other), or allow both with lots of
interlinking of responses (and deal with a lot of redundancy).

Of course, someone is going to have to do the work...

Peter

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Marion
Sumerianlibrarian
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 12:18 PM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org; AWDobbs at ship.edu
Subject: RE: [Web4lib] The Wikipedia Gotcha -- a cosmic perspective

snip:

> Personally, the email-list format (using local filing rules) works 
> fine for me.  I'll be interested in the resulting resource you create,

> as I can see possible benefits; but I think the ease of use of email 
> lists will be a difficult "barrier" to surmount.
> 
> Good luck,
> 
> -Aaron

thanks for your reply.

i'm very interested to know if you can you point to a single instance
where an email format has carried the wikipedia discussion forward in
either a productive or creative way?

overall, i find the same issues are hashed, rehashed, and rehashed
again, and again, over a long period of time on various listservs. 

no, frankly, i don't see how email has helped to even define the issues,
let alone advance them. i may be very wrong, but would like to see
evidence of it.

then again, the discussion around "how to discuss the wikipedia
phenomenon -- and its various permutations.
what would be the best format?" is yet another pertinent example of the
dialog that needs to be addressed in a more organized, productive, and
creative manner. 

thanks again for your response, m


 
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