Taking their work seriously.
You have to give them credit - the people working on the Wikipedia devote a great
deal of time and effort not only to preparing the encyclopedia, but also to examining
just what should be included in such a project, and why. A lengthy thread (about
10 printed pages) around the topic What
is an encyclopedia developed in September of 2001. The discussants raised
numerous questions and expressed a wide range of opinions, seemingly knowing all
along that all of us have a certain gut feeling as to what should and what shouldn't
be included in an encyclopedia.
In that discussion, Larry Sanger, the general editor of the Widipedia notes:
There is one important result, however, of the fact
that general encyclopedias codify "human knowledge": it is that it is appropriate
that general encyclopedias be written from a neutral point of view. Where one
controversial view is presented as fact, or is asserted as being probably true
when a substantial number of experts or concerned parties would disagree with
that, the reader of the encyclopedia is given a skewed view about what
"human knowledge" of the topic consists of. To be given a really accurate view
of "how the experts think" about a topic, it is important to represent, fairly,
all the views of the experts, whoever they might be.
Getting back to the main task at hand, I would say that encyclopedias codify
adequately important synthetic "human knowledge," both declarative and procedural.
Let us call this encyclopedic knowledge for short. Encyclopedic knowledge
is the sort of knowledge that we ought to find in general encyclopedias.
That sounds nice, but when put to the test, does it really hold? When discussing,
for instance, evolution, does the Wikipedia seem even-handed, does it respectfully
discuss creationism without belittling it? Should it? Readers are of course
invited to judge for themselves
(and edit what they find in need of editing) but from my perspective it would
seem that the entry on that topic bends over backwards to be fair.
Go to: In a class of its own, or
Go to: Too Common Knowledge.