[Foundation-l] Incubator Wiki for New Wikimedia Projects

Wed Nov 16 19:54:52 UTC 2005

Anthony DiPierro wrote:

> I brought that up earlier, and I'm really not sure what to make of it,
>
>because Wikipedia certainly shouldn't be made a part of Wikibooks.  I
>can think of two possible reasons:
>
>1) Wikibooks is for textbooks, and this should be narrowly construed
>to mean classical textbooks, not to include any learning resources
>such as encyclopedias.
>
>2) Wikipedia is too big for Wikibooks (combined perhaps with the fact
>that Mediawiki is not sophisticated enough to handle both of them
>under a single project).
>
>I actually favor the latter argument, though Jimbo has just recently
>suggested that the former is (also?) true.  Also, the latter argument
>would lead to Wikibooks being used as an incubator wiki, as big
>projects would eventually outgrow Wikibooks.  (Maybe Mediawiki can be
>developed in a way to better integrate all the projects, but that's
>somewhat of a separate issue).
>
Having Wikibooks absorb Wikipedia sounds like some kind of reverse 
takeover.  It doesn't make sense.

I tend to interpret the role of Wikibooks very broadly, certainly to go 
beyond the idea of the classical textbook.  In some ways the classical 
textbook is antithetical to good education because it tends to mould its 
users into the same series of learning experiences.  A single Wikibook 
should begin with a subject that can be included in Wikipedia but which 
requires expansion into a book that in theory could be published as a 
stand alone entity.  The Cookbook was a good example of this.  There was 
a great debate at one time about the inclusion of recipes in Wikipedia.  
Some were accepted as proper to Wikipedia, but the bulk ended up in 
Wikibooks where NPOV could also be approached with a more relaxed 
interpretation.

As long as Wikijunior and Wikiversity were only producing books 
(including study guides) they were within the mandate.  What brings them 
beyond that mandate are the additional educational functions that go 
beyond books.  Maybe that is one way to interpret the term incubator, 
but that will only apply to some projects.  Others may be incubated in a 
sister project, and still others may be sufficiently different to not be 
incubatable in any existing project.

I agree that there needs to be some kind of integration or overview of 
all the projects.  Without that big picture turf wars over what belongs 
in which project are inevitable. 

Ec

Ec