Larry:
I'm actually quite able to avoid the fallacy of false dichotomy and is
acknowledging that not everything is black-and-white. Maybe I didn't
clearly articulate my concern, so let me try again.
I appreciate the fact that there will be non-expert *authors*, and this
was indeed clear from the beginning, as you note. However, the
*editors'* expertise is, I had thought, a distinguishing feature of
this project, and you're now denying that as well. So, if non-expert
involvement is permitted and encouraged at both the authorial and the
editorial stage, then what distinguishes this project from Wikipedia,
and in what sense is it "based on expert opinion"?
Thanks,
Dave
David
A. Truncellito, Ph.D.
If you
have an apple and I have an apple
and we exchange these apples,
then you and I will still each have
one
apple.
But if you have an idea and I
have an
idea
and we exchange these ideas,
then each of us will have two ideas.
--George Bernard Shaw
Assistant Professor of
Writing, The
George Washington University
2100 Foxhall Road NW, Washington,
DC 20007
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://home.gwu.edu/~truncell
Larry Sanger wrote:
Is it for experts only or for everyone?) This last question is especially
important to me. The reason I joined the project is that the Fundamental
Policies (http://www.citizendium.org/fundamentals.html) indicate CZ will be
"based on...expert opinion" and that editors will be "subject area experts".
But it sounds as though you're now suggesting that those of us who think
that CZ is for experts only are mistaken. So, can you reconcile this aspect
of the policy with what you said in this email?
I can reconcile them. On the one hand, the content of CZ is to be "based
on...expert opinion," and indeed there are many "subject area experts" who
already are serving as editors. On the other hand, in my e-mail I said, "CZ
is not for experts only!" This means that people who are not experts can
have a hand in creating it, and I encourage them to.
Are you saying that you didn't realize that there would be a category of
non-expert authors? That's kind of hard to believe. I quote from the very
first sentence on http://www.citizendium.org: "The Citizendium
(sit-ih-ZEN-dee-um), a 'citizens' compendium of everything,' will be an
experimental new wiki project that combines public participation with gentle
expert guidance." It is Citizendium, not Expertendium.
I find it frustrating that people quite frequently insist that things must
be either all of one thing or all of another. The world, and the best
possible systems, are hardly every so black-and-white.
--Larry
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