The Encyclopedia Britannica with "neutral" information about body oils, cookware, motor oil, vibrator beds, rat poison?! All legitimate consumer items, of course.
Absurd. I'd rather be poor but honest. I certainly wouldn't want to be associated with a system that has consumer items on it. I didn't work my tail off for years to achieve the freedom to pursue knowledge in a tenured position to end up hawking stuff - that's all it would be - hawking stuff, any way you spin it. Google does page ranks, shopping sites rank products and dealers, Amazon has customer reviews, Consumer Reports has useful tests and analyses. Having "neutral" items on consumer goods and services is close to an oxymoron in this world. I've had numerous opportunities over the years to get involved with commercial interests. I've just said no. I'm not rich, but I'm happy. And I intend to stay that way. Hope this post to the list I'm a member of is not held again, as my previous two were, and still are impounded. - Bob Futrelle On 10/31/06, Larry Sanger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > All, > > I've been approached by and will soon meet face-to-face with a major player > online who may be interested in supporting a consumer information database. > This could result in *large* amounts of support for CZ. So, I'd like to ask > you to help me think through the opportunity and the best way to approach > it. > > In a global economy, with new companies and new products appearing all the > time, with the main source of consumer information being manipulative > commercials and box labels, what could be more valuable to the world than a > *truly neutral* source of information about products? > > The idea requires that we radically expand the notion of what is included in > an encyclopedia, to encompass, well, *anything* of general interest. It > would really put the meat on the bones of "the citizens' compendium of > everything." It would involve information about every product (and, perhaps > in time, every business, and every movie, and every song...) that someone > wanted to be listed. This is crazy, of course. But there is a major player > who might provide truly significant support to help us bring it into being. > > The *only* way to make this feasible, I think, is to create a groundswell of > public support for the project. For that to happen, there must be, as well, > a *credible non-profit* organization behind it; the development of the > database must be maximally open and transparent; the results must be open > content, of course; and the system whereby information is input is as simple > as possible. > > But the *first and most important* constraint on this project that came to > my mind when I started thinking about it is that the information must be > neutral, and there must be effective (but still efficient!) ways to make > sure that the information remains neutral. We must tread *very* carefully > if we want to become a purveyor of consumer information, because the > financial interests who might want to get involved could make it *so* easy, > of course, to corrupt the fairness and reliability of the database. But the > best way to secure this is precisely for the project to be maximally public, > open, and transparent. > > Another constraint is that entries for products should not be flat wiki > pages, but database entries, with preassigned fields, and of course with > fields differing depending on product type. In every other respect, > however, it could be a wiki. > > There is no *good* reason that I can see why this should not be part of the > same database that is the Citizendium. What is needed, for articles about > Kings and philosophers, and for products, is a neutral source of general > information. > > One last thing to mention is that, in negotiating with this major online > player, we walk a fine line. We want to provide this entity an incentive to > support the Citizendium. But we cannot do that and compromise the > neutrality of the database. The question that I will be thinking a great > deal about is why they should support a non-profit organization that is > committed to neutrality. What reason can I give them? Of course, if I can > give them no persuasive reasons, then we won't pursue the opportunity. > > --Larry > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Citizendium-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.purdue.edu/mailman/listinfo/citizendium-l > -- Robert P. Futrelle Associate Professor Biological Knowledge Laboratory College of Computer and Information Science Northeastern University MS WVH202 360 Huntington Ave. Boston, MA 02115 Office: (617)-373-4239 Fax: (617)-373-5121 http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/futrelle http://www.bionlp.org http://www.diagrams.org _______________________________________________ Citizendium-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.purdue.edu/mailman/listinfo/citizendium-l
