[Foundation-l] Wikiversity

Tue Aug 15 21:32:22 UTC 2006

On 8/15/06, Birgitte SB <birgitte_sb at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> --- Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
>
> > NPOV does apply to Wikiversity, but of course
> > context matters in how we
> > understand and apply it.
> >
> > For example, a course which is highly biased and
> > pushing some POV should
> > be fixed, as we would quite
> > properly consider it to be broken.
> >
> > But of course, as Cormac points out, some of what
> > Wikiversity is going
> > to be about is explorations of
> > research, etc.  As Amgine put it, even here NPOV
> > applies, but it applies
> > in a way that makes sense for this
> > type of content.
> >
> > The danger of saying too quickly "NPOV does not
> > apply" is that we would
> > thereby open the door to lunatics
> > (and there are lunatics!) trying to push extremely
> > biased courses.  We
> > can do better than that.
> >
> > --Jimbo
> >
>
>
> I think everyone is not quite on the same page here.
> Although neutrality is going to be an important aspect
> of Wikiversity.  WP:NPOV is not going to be the policy
> in use there.  Mainly this is becuse Wikiversity is
> not writiing encyclopedia articles.  Bias will take a
> subtley different form on that project.  Just like
> bias rears its' head on Wikisource in the form of
> altered texts.  I do not believe it was something
> people thought of early on at Wikisource, but it is
> certainly what has transpired.  I am just trying to
> guess as to how bias will try and work its way into
> Wikiversity.  It may not be possible, we might have to
> wait and find out when it happens.  WP:NPOV is about
> how to counteract bias on WP.  I do not believe anyone
> is suggesting counteracting bias at WV is not of the
> utmost importance, just that WV will have approach it
> in a unique way.
>
> Birgitte SB
>
>

Yes, I think you've got me, Birgitte :-). I just think that NPOV (as I
conceptualise it) is not a useful concept to apply to Wikiversity.
Don't get me wrong - I wince just as much as anyone if someone will
try to teach people that the world began 10,000 years ago ;-), but
surely the point of education is to try to get people to think for
themselves? I see no problem with provocative, even biased,
educational materials - so long as people are given the wherewithal to
critically evaluate them. I think we need an analogy to NPOV -
"completeness" sounds better, but just not catchy enough :-)

Cormac