MARMAM folks, http://www.citizendium.org is something some of you may
be interested in
participating in. In short, it is a rapidly-budding project that
aims to be a refereed Wikipedia .
Gerald A. Sanger
Research Wildlife Biologist (Ret.)
USGS & USFWS
Anchorage, Alaska
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
*****************
Begin forwarded message:
Wiki Encyclopedia Invites Biologists to a Weeklong Open House
International Cyberspace — September 19 — Biology Week, an online
"open house" for biologists, biology students, and anyone else
interested, begins September 22 on Citizendium (http://
www.citizendium.org/), the next-generation wiki encyclopedia
started by Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger.
During the week, biologists and anyone interested in the topic are
invited test out the Citizendium system. Editors and authors from
the project's Biology Workgroup will be on hand to meet and greet
new people on the wiki. "I strongly believe that the Citizendium
system will be appealing to many scientists and scholars," said
Sanger. "Many of them just need to give it a try. Biology Week is
an excuse for biologists to try out the system together."
Biology is one of the more active areas in the Citizendium, with
nearly 1,000 articles in progress. Unlike the Encyclopedia of Life,
the project is a wiki and benefits from strong collaboration; for
an example of the success of the system, biologists might want to
see the article "Life" (http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Life).
Dr. Gareth Leng, Professor of Experimental Physiology at the
University of Edinburgh, and Citizendium author and editor,
described the project: "Our role will not be to tell readers what
opinions they should hold, but to give them the means to decide,
rationally, for themselves. The role of experts is critical—not to
impose opinions, but to support accuracy in reporting and citing
information."
The Citizendium, or "citizens' compendium," uses the same software
as Wikipedia. It is a successful public-expert hybrid project to
produce a general reference resource. The community encourages
general public participation, but makes a low-key, guiding role for
experts. It also requires real names and asks contributors to sign
a "social contract."
As a result, the project is vandalism-free and, despite its youth
(its public launch was just 18 months ago), has steadily added over
8,000 articles, many of them of fine quality.
LINKS:
Citizendium website: http://www.citizendium.org/
Biology Week homepage: http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Biology_Week
"Life" (sample article): http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Life
PRESS CONTACT INFORMATION:
Prof. Supten Sarbadhikari (Biology Week coordinator)
Founding Chair of Biomedical Informatics
PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research
Coimbatore, India
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/User:Supten_Sarbadhikari
Dr. Daniel Mietchen (Biology Week coordinator)
Structural Brain Mapping Group
Department of Psychiatry
University of Jena
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/User:Daniel_Mietchen
Dr. Larry Sanger
Editor-in-Chief, Citizendium; co-founder of Wikipedia
Executive Director, WatchKnow (to launch soon)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.larrysanger.org/
This press release may be found at http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/
CZ:Citizendium_Press_Releases/Sept192008
Cell: 907-242-0637
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