Citizendium Blog

Interesting article in The Sydney Morning Herald, which correctly identifies CZ as the solution to Wikipedia’s recently-identified problem (old news for many of us) that corporations and governments can spin Wikipedia.  CZ will be at least harder to spin, because we require that people identify themselves.  Says the article:

Wales disagreed with critics who said Wikipedia’s anonymous contributions were responsible for its failings. It underpins the structure of the community, he said. “I think there’s basically zero problems that can be solved by eliminating anonymity.”

That’s not a view shared by Larry Sanger, Wikipedia’s other co-founder. Anonymity, and what he claims is a cabal of leading volunteers who impose their views on the site, has spawned what Mr Sanger called a “radical egalitarianism about knowledge”.

“As long [as] they hold those two policies as firmly as they do - and I don’t see how they can change - they are never going to be able to produce a really credible encyclopedia,” he said.

“They are always going to have articles that tend not towards the most authoritative view on the subject but towards the opinion of the most active Wikipedia contributors.”

This is one reason Sanger split with Wikipedia. Earlier this year he launched Citizendium, an online collaborative encyclopedia based on the same wiki structure but with greater editorial control and no anonymous contributions.

“Ultimately, I think I owe it to people - if I can - to do something better,” he said.