Building Beyond Wikipedia
We noted last month the Cornell wiki that required that experts be validated.
Today’s Register has a venture that builds beyond similar scepticism about the reliability of an encyclopaedia on which anyone can post.
$10m for a Wikipedia for grown-ups
The Register notes:
Digital Universe aims to garner the best of both worlds: harness wide public input, but with acknowledged experts acting as stewards.
The project has a long list of institutions signed up, including the National Council for Science and the Environment, the American Museum of Natural History, the World Resources Institute, the UN and UCB.
Material will be available for free, but the project’s FAQ says that for a small premium, copyright material will be available to subscribers. It also offers a richer, and a much more attractive user interface.
Oh gee, I don’t know. It has a creepy feel to it — kind of Wim Wenders out of Ron Hubbard. Far too many dolphins and toucans. I don’t want to use a special proprietary browser — makes me feel claustrophobic a bit. And “stewards”… I like a bit more grit in my meal.
This more controlled process might have potential where Ted’s idea of an enclopedia of Canadian legal topics is concerned – see pp216-217 of his LLM thesis.