[WikiEN-l] A future for Nupedia? Academic degrees have real usefulness

Sun Sep 12 00:26:08 UTC 2004

Robert wrote:

>There is an evident distrust towards academic degrees here,
>and it doesn't help us. It seems to stem from a
>misunderstanding of egalitarianism that many Wikipedia
>contributors have. Some people seem to think that
>egalitarianism means that all people are equally competant
>to review an article. This is just as true as saying that
>all people are equally tall, and that all food in a
>supermarket is equally nutritious.  In other words, the
>proposition is violently false.
>  
>
I obviously can't speak for others, but this isn't my particular problem 
with academic degrees.  I certainly don't think all people are equally 
qualified, but I am not confident that having a PhD is as strong an 
indicator of qualification as some people seem to think it is.  Note 
also that this is not out of some sort of self-interested jealousy, as 
I'm currently a PhD student myself, so it would benefit me personally if 
people would continue to hold PhDs to be worth their weight in gold 
(hopefully with a similarly-sized paycheck!).  But I don't think they are.

>I'd honestly be willing to bet my life that a dozen Ph.D.s
>in Physics will produce better editorial oversight and
>corrections than a dozen self-selected Internet junkies,
>when it comes to reviewing Physics articles.  I'd honestly
>be willing to bet my life that a dozen Ph.D.s in American
>Literature will produce better editorial oversight and
>corrections than a dozen self-selected Internet junkies,
>when it comes to reviewing American literature articles.
>  
>
This depends very highly on the field.  If we are talking about quantum 
physics, then I agree that academics in the field of quantum physics are 
the people to talk to.  There are many fields in which academia is quite 
a bit of an ivory tower though, generally unaware of anything going on 
outside its walls.  Pick up an academic treatise on "internet culture" 
sometime if you want a good laugh---you might get a bit of a taste of 
what the Native Americans might have felt like when 18th-century 
academics wrote journal articles about their culture.  Or to pick an 
example closer to home, take a look at all the academic literature on 
the use of websites as a collaborative tool---it by and large ignores 
Wikipedia and MediaWiki, parading inferior software and discussing 
problems Wikipedia encountered and solved 2 years ago.  If it's not done 
by someone with a PhD, a lot of academia doesn't know it exists, so 
academia tends to miss a lot of things.

So, sure, give academia its due, but not more than that.  It is very 
good at some things, and very bad at others.

-Mark