Dear Citizendium Authors and Editors,
We need a definite leader for a Topic Informant Workgroup (better name
pending?). If you're adequately qualified--preferably, publishing
experience--can agree to head it up as a volunteer, and if you strongly
support CZ's mission, then I want to start working with you.
Why now?
If we can get this group off the ground, then we can nicely capture some of
the flak/interest Wikipedia and Microsoft are getting from the offer
Microsoft made to pay someone to fix up some (probably) biased Wikipedia
articles. (See attached.)
The press release would look like this:
"The Citizendium offers a different way to solve the public's quite
legitimate complaints about biased or other questionable Wikipedia articles.
The subjects of biographies, and other well-informed, concerned parties, may
offer either to publish an essay in response to the Wikipedia article on the
Citizendium, or we will conduct an interview with the person. Unlike wiki
articles, essays and interviews will be uneditable, but they will be free to
read. The person becomes an official 'topic informant.' The Citizendium
then takes on the responsibility to ensure that the article properly
addresses the concerns expressed in the essay or interview."
Read more about the proposed subproject here: http://tinyurl.com/29tmzx
This is no doubt a substantial job. I can certainly help (a lot) with it,
but I don't think I have the time to lead it. It can all take place via the
wiki and mailing lists. And suffice it to say that the potential exists
here for a career, if both CZ is successful and the very idea of public
interviews *about* publicly-editable articles is a compelling one. I think
the idea is quite compelling, myself.
I really do have the sense that it's something we need to get started on
soon.
By the way, the organization of this group can help serve as a sort of test
case for future governance processes. That's another reason I want to do
this now. We *must* get our new governance processes rolling.
--Larry
--- Begin Message ---
Hi Larry,
Thought you would want to read this:
Microsoft's step into Wikipedia prompts debate
Nancy Gohring
January 24, 2007 (IDG News Service) The debate over the revelation that
Microsoft Corp. offered to pay a developer to make changes to Wikipedia
pages points to problems that can arise when a major Web site is managed by
a community of people.
On Monday, Australian software engineer and author Rick Jelliffe wrote in a
blog posting that Microsoft had offered to pay
<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&art
icleId=9008842> him as an independent source to make changes to certain
Wikipedia entries. The offer, which Jelliffe doesn't appear to have accepted
yet, set off a heated discussion about the ethics of such a move.
Responses from Wikipedia volunteers, which include conflicting opinions and
indicate possible miscommunication, show the types of challenges a
community-run online organization can face.
Microsoft said that before approaching Jelliffe, it tried to contact
Wikipedia with concerns about some entries.
"But Microsoft couldn't get a reply -- hence why they decided it was
important to enlist someone's help to actually address the inaccuracies in
the posting so it would be fixed," said Catherine Brooker, a spokeswoman at
Microsoft's public relations firm, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide Inc., in an
e-mail.
Wikipedia <http://www.wikipedia.com/> is an online encyclopedia that anyone
can edit. The site is maintained almost exclusively by volunteers. Around
1,000 administrators work on the English language site. Together, they set
the policies that govern the site.
With so many people in charge, there are bound to be some differences of
opinion and difficulties in communications.
David Gerard, a volunteer spokesman for Wikipedia, called the potential
arrangement between Microsoft and Jelliffe disappointing, but another
Wikipedia worker didn't seem bothered by it. Mathias Schindler, a board
member of Wikimedia Germany, sent e-mail to Jelliffe praising his efforts to
fix the relevant postings. In the e-mail, which Microsoft shared, Schindler
said he hoped to discuss with Microsoft the Wikipedia articles related to
the software maker.
Schindler didn't directly comment on the issue of Microsoft paying Jelliffe
for the work.
For his part, Jelliffe hasn't said much since his initial blog posting. He
didn't seem to mind the tone of the comments left after the posting, some of
which were quite critical of Microsoft's offer.
"Yes, they are harsh, but open source and open standards are ideas that
capture the minds and hearts of people. They are the new socialism, and the
devotees are passionate," he wrote in an e-mail. The Wikipedia entries in
question include articles about the OpenDocument Format, an electronic
document format backed by open-source proponents, and Microsoft Office Open
XML, a competing format.
Ultimately, the discussion around Microsoft's relationship with Jelliffe
should draw more people to contribute to the relevant Wikipedia pages,
resulting in a more informative article, Gerard said. Microsoft spokeswoman
Brooker echoed a similar sentiment. As of 2 p.m. GMT, 21 changes to the
OpenDocument Wikipedia entry had been made on Wednesday.
Larry Sanger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
http://www.citizendium.org/release_002.html
Distribute far and wide!
(The dateline really should read Pataskala, Ohio, but nobody's heard of
that...)
--Larry
==============
Media Contact:
Maggie Quale
FortyThree, Inc.
831.621.3773
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Citizendium Pilot Project Open For Public Contribution - Project Announces
Non-Profit Status
Columbus, Ohio - January 24, 2007 - The Citizendium, a project aimed at
creating a new free encyclopedia online, announced today that its pilot
project has been a success, and that it is moving rapidly toward a public
launch. For the first time, anyone can visit the website
(www.citizendium.org), create a user account and get to work within minutes.
The project, started by a founder of Wikipedia, aims to improve on the
Wikipedia model by adding "gentle expert oversight" and requiring
contributors to use their real names.
Since the Citizendium pilot project began in November 2006, over 150 expert
editors and 350 authors have joined, creating hundreds of articles, testing
the concept and software, and participating in lively discussion on the
future shape of the project.
"We are demonstrating that experts and non-experts can work
shoulder-to-shoulder on a wiki, using their real names, in a collegial
atmosphere," said the project's Editor-in-Chief, Wikipedia co-founder Dr.
Larry Sanger. "We didn't know whether this would work, but it has so far,
quite well. We are learning that accountability has merit in the world of
wikis."
After the initial phase of carefully screening the project's first
applicants, an automatic sign-up process has been implemented and
participants will begin reaching out via global Internet mailing lists to
professors, students, professionals and other contributors. "It's been a
busy first couple of months laying the groundwork and now we're ready to
open our doors to public contribution-both participatory and financial,"
said Mike Johnson of the Citizendium's Executive Committee.
The Citizendium also today announced its acceptance as a project of the
nonprofit Tides Center, through which it may receive tax-free donations.
Tides acts as an "incubator" of nonprofit organizations. The Citizendium
intends to become independent at the end of 2007. The Citizendium has
received a significant "start-up" grant from the Revson Foundation, as well
as additional gifts from individuals, including a very generous gift from
Craig Caviezel, a Salt Lake City philanthropist.
"We're thrilled to announce our non-profit status," said Sanger. "We have
been contacted by over a dozen foundations and corporations interested in
supporting us. The fact that we had not yet obtained 501(c)(3) status was a
sticking point for many. So our new relationship with Tides means we can
move forward on this front."
The Citizendium has also launched an online fundraiser to request tax-free
donations from the public to help make the project a reality. It plans to
use new funding, or in-kind support, to obtain the server space and
bandwidth needed to open the project up to the world. It is also in the
process of hiring the staff members required to manage the rapid growth.
About Citizendium
Citizendium is an experimental new wiki project created by Wikipedia
co-founder Dr. Larry Sanger that combines public participation with gentle
expert guidance. The pilot project commenced by forking content from
Wikipedia and then progressively fine-tuning and augmenting this
information, as well as creating original articles. The Citizendium public
site is currently under development. To participate or for more information,
visit www.citizendium.org.
###
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