[Foundation-l] Wikiversity

Tue Aug 15 22:17:54 UTC 2006

James Hare wrote:

>Well-Roundedness.
>
>Fairness.
>
>WV:NOT operated by a greedy corporation with an agenda
>
>That's just a start.
>
>HAPPY WIKIVERSITY DAY!
>  
>

Well, I don't have any agenda other than getting the books in print for 
our language preservation -- and that costs money. And once in print,
I will have to take any heat for stuff put into them that's not allowed 
or subject to claims. I certainly hope people don't think I'm greedy...

Jeff

>On 8/15/06, Cormac Lawler <cormaggio at gmail.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>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
>>_______________________________________________
>>foundation-l mailing list
>>foundation-l at wikimedia.org
>>http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>>
>>    
>>
>_______________________________________________
>foundation-l mailing list
>foundation-l at wikimedia.org
>http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>
>  
>