The combination of user generated content, user-based editorial control, and free content is our characteristic. That doesn't mean it's the best way for all purposes, or even that it will always be us that implements it best.
It is perfectly possible that if there were an equally free encyclopedia that was equally comprehensive, but did have editorial control in a more authoritarian conventional manner, that people might prefer it for many or most purposes. Even so, we will have the distinction for being not just the first large project of our sort, but the one that stimulated change elsewhere. It's an acknowledgment of our importance that we are influencing conventional publication also. On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 10:37 AM, Gwern Branwen <[email protected]> wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA512 > > On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 12:20 AM, wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) > > iEYEAREKAAYFAkl4kr4ACgkQvpDo5Pfl1oKbEQCcC5i02/SXa2EgSuncpVydj+h2 > 9jkAniovyrPUW4o0MW5Xl1kCvy50afRD > =hWcx > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > >> >> In a message dated 1/21/2009 9:17:31 PM Pacific Standard Time, >> [email protected] writes: >> >> * free—as in the sense of freedom, not necessarily in the sense of beer; >> * reliable—in other words, accurate, coherent, and neutral; and >> * global—that is, multilingual and written by a diverse, broad group of >> people. >> >> Britannica might be reliable, and it might become slightly global, but >> it is not yet multilingual and it isn't free.>> >> >> >> ------------- >> What evidence do you have that an encyclopedia must be free? >> >> Society has existed for a few thousand years without a free encyclopedia. > > A statement trivially true. Society has also existed for a few > thousand years without copyright, period. > > -- > gwern > > _______________________________________________ > WikiEN-l mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l > -- David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DGG _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
