Well, right. That's kind of what I mean. These things happened to Citizendium because credentialism is the natural outcome of trying to create a system of valuing a certain class of contributors more than others.
DM On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 12:35 PM, David Gerard <dger...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 29 August 2010 17:19, David Moran <fordmadoxfr...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > I think my problem with suggestions like this is that the assumption at > the > > heart of all of them--that "experts" with degrees are preferable as > > information authorities to nonexperts without--is deeply problematic, and > > I'm not convinced it won't create more problems than it solves. I am not > > myself an academic, but I've worked in an academic setting for over a > decade > > (I'm in college textbooks), and I work closely with college faculty and > ... > > quite frankly the number of them I would trust to edit an article I > wanted > > to read is very small. > > Academic qualifications generally just mean you stayed in school long > enough > > to get them, and little else. I'm not trying to spout anti-intellectual > > nonsense, I'm just saying that academia churns out an awful lot of people > > with degrees every year, a really astonishing number actually, and an > awful > > lot of those people are no more deserving of the term "expert" than the > guy > > driving the 2 train that took me to work this morning, or the girl who > > served me coffee at Dunkin' Donuts. I'm worried we'd give the imprimatur > of > > extra scholarly specialness to the edits of a bunch of people who > honestly > > would not deserve it. > > > Take care not to conflate expertise with credentials. At best, > credentials are a shortcut to finding an expert; at worst, they're a > union card that people without workable expertise use to get a job > anyway. > > Clay Shirky noted this important distinction: > > > http://many.corante.com/archives/2006/11/20/social_facts_expertise_citizendium_and_carr.php > > In practice, academics who are really interested in their field will > happily listen to the uncredentialed on their topic, even if only for > a moment, just in case they have something interesting to say. > Academics who are not all that good will be very credentialist. > Cranks, having no accepted expertise, will attach especial store to > what credentials they can scrape up. This, btw, is how Citizendium > became a pseudoscience haven: > > > http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Citizendium#The_concept_of_expertise_on_Citizendium > > > - d. > > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l