On 20 January 2012 13:18, wiki <doc.wikipe...@ntlworld.com> wrote: <snip>
> Yes, but. > > Ultimately, a paper encyclopedia says "This article is written by a > qualified person (you can see his name) he has been chosen by an expert > panel (here are their names) and his work will be reviewed by them. All of > the above named people, and this encyclopedia, are willing to stake their > professional reputations on the accuracy of this work and that we have > credible quality control - whether that's enough for you, is up to you" > > This is the interesting (if now quite old) debate about traditional encyclopedias. Yes, Britannica or any other old-style commercial encyclopedia is keen to tell you about expert authors. Less keen, for example, to tell you when the article was written, as opposed to who wrote it; the expert not having a crystal ball rather affects the value of an article (say in science or technology). This was the starting point of Harvey Einbinder's "The Myth of the Britannica" (1964), which even Wikipedians might find rather unfair to EB (though the detail is fascinating - seems Einstein got the same $80 as anyone else for an article which allowed them to promote the work using his name ... wonder how hard he worked to write it). One should note that the market works to favour encyclopedias with a business model that allows later editions in which revision is kept to essentials. That's how it is: initiating a new high-quality print encyclopedia requires money up front, and the investment is paid off by having later editions that require substantially less writing bought in, rather than done in-house. I don't know this for a fact, but I doubt encyclopedia writers get a contract in which they are guaranteed the right to revise their work for each edition - implausible given the way publishers' minds works. Anyway we know that (for English speakers at least) market forces, given the barriers to entry, did not really drive quality right up. Einbinder pretty much gets that correct, as I recall. Charles _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
