E of E looks like a project we should be aware of, though it looks like they are going in a different direction. It raises many questions:
They claim 400 articles, but I have not yet identified any substantial article that any of the editors actually wrote: almost all of it seems public domain, and they have an interesting approach to it: They list, for example, Topic Editor: John Lloyd (other articles) Lead Author: Environmental Protection Agency (other articles) Contributing Author: John Lloyd (other articles) or, even more interesting, http://www.eoearth.org/by/topic/environmental%20policy, which is almost entirely a listing of US legislation, with brief descriptions taken from elsewhere, but always including a direct link to the document they copied it from. This would probably appear to the reader as a decidedly more straightforward way than WP. All their text is CC-Attribute ShareAlike--I know WP doesn't consider that sufficient, but would we? Of course, we can simply use their expert selection of PD sources and use them from the original. They claim to be non-tech, and they are. All UG, and most Freshman level. The articles are being formatted to look more professional than WP with some references at the bottom, & only the necessary links. There's a commercial online encyclopedia worth comparing:: Encyclopedia of Life sciences (Wiley--originally NPG) http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/emrw/047001590X/home Most university libraries should have access. Some will have the print edition. (Disclosure: I gave them an extremely favorable review in CHOICE) . EofE Press release below. Why they need the expertise remains to be seen. -- David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.a *********************************************************************** "Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Earth, a new electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society. The Encyclopedia is a free, fully searchable collection of articles written by scholars, professionals, educators, and experts who collaborate and review each other's work. The articles are written in non-technical language and will be useful to students, educators, scholars, professionals, as well as to the general public." [snip] "Content for the Encyclopedia is created, maintained, and governed by this community of experts via a specially adapted "wiki" - an online tool that allows experts to collec(tively add and edit web content. Unlike other, well-known wikis, such as Wikipedia, access is restricted to approved experts and all content is reviewed and approved by Topic Editors prior to being published from the wiki to this public site. Revisions to existing articles are also done on the authorâ€*s wiki, and when approved they become the current version at the public site. This process produces a constantly evolving, continuously updated reference." _______________________________________________ Citizendium-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.purdue.edu/mailman/listinfo/citizendium-l
