[WikiEN-l] Everyone's favorite FUD-master is at it again

Tue Mar 22 18:43:09 UTC 2005

> On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 07:05:21 -0500, Mark Pellegrini
> <mapellegrini at comcast.net> wrote:
> > Everyone's favorite FUD-master is at it again ---
> > http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0503200191mar20,1,26199.story?coll=chi-techtopheds-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
> > /
> > /*...*
> > / A similar hyperbole surrounds such projects as the Wikipedia, a free
> > online encyclopedia open to all. The Wikipedia's apologists emphasize
> > the great number of volunteers who have taken part in the project and
> > the number of entries they have contributed. They emphasize also the
> > communal nature of the undertaking, in which anyone with a better
> > understanding of a subject, or a bigger ax to grind, can edit what
> > someone else has created. Their prime article of faith is that this
> > openness will inevitably lead to a high level of accuracy and quality.
> > ...
> >  ----------
> > Robert McHenry is former editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and is
> > the author of "How to Know."
> >
> > /This is the same guy who called us the Faith-based encyclopedia and
> > compared us to a public toilet-
> > http://www.techcentralstation.com/111504A.html
> >
> > --Mark
> >

That link that Mark posted didn't work for me but this one does:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0503200191mar20,1,26199.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

It seemed to me from reading the article that McHenry's answers to his
own concerns were inherent in Wikipedia's structure:

"There is no guarantee that truth will win out; there is only our
hard-won and too-seldom-employed knowledge of what gives us the best
chance: the free exchange and clash of ideas." (Is Wikipedia not an
obvious example of this?)

In his final recommendations, he advocates "clear thinking", a "genial
skepticism" to both one's own and others' opinions and "toleration"
(tolerance, surely?). Theoretically, this is covered in NPOV, [[assume
good faith]], and [[no personal attacks]] but as we all know these are
violated daily. My question is: how do you (I,we) work this in
practice from a personal perspective rather than looking at others?

Cormac
[[User:Cormaggio]] (en,m)