Comments on: Should geoscientists spend time making Wikipedia articles better?

By: The Sanity Inspector

The Sanity Inspector — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:49:16 +0000

Wikipedia's better than Conservapedia, at least.

By: BrianR

BrianR — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:09:53 +0000

See a continuation of this discussion at the blog Reporting on a Revolution here: http://tinyurl.com/qenky8

By: Lab Lemming

Lab Lemming — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 13:52:57 +0000

I think it depends on the situation.

Fighting edit battles may be pointless, but for many geotopics, that isn’t an issue. For example, many useful but non-controversial topics simply need expansion from stub form. e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psammite

Then there are the things with no entries at all, such as everything in red linked from here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_canyon

By: BrianR

BrianR — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:21:50 +0000

Anterracon … thanks a lot for you comment. Sounds like a success story in your case. I need to hear more stories like that … would give me a less pessimistic view of it :)

By: Anterracon

Anterracon — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:32:08 +0000

I can only draw on my experience. As a Geologist looking for references regarding the Geology of the Indian sub-continent a few years back I was stymied by the lack of resources. In fact the only resource I could find was a badly written and confusing wikipedia article.But it contained the what I was looking for (but was interpretable only to someone with specialized knowledge of the Indian Proterozoic).

So I took the time to re-write it, organize and make figures for it. Now it stands as the pre-eminent web resource on the geology of India(of course with others adding and building to the framework I imprinted).

Our role on wikipedia is not polemicize but to educate. There is no need to have journal quality writing, only general introductions to the topic with places to go further. In some cases, where geologic information is a state secret(like Russia) wikipedia is the only way people can gain even a bare minimum of knowledge. To spend time edit warring is pointless but to share our knowledge and experience is vital.

By: BrianR

BrianR — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:57:49 +0000

Lab Lemming … I agree, Wikipedia does come in handy for stuff like that.

Again, this is not some overarching rebuke of Wikipedia as a whole.

Lab Lemming — what do you think? (i.e., the question that is the title of the post)

By: Lab Lemming

Lab Lemming — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:37:48 +0000

Brian, do you use it at all?

I find it is a handy math and physics resource- good for looking up all those formulae that I forgot a decade ago.

By: BrianR

BrianR — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 00:22:27 +0000

Patrick says: “But think about what it has accomplished: unleashing the collective knowledge of so many and the energy so many have put into it to build something “bigger than themselves”. I find that truly remarkable.”

I wholeheartedly agree … which is why I find it interesting and important to discuss it w/in the context of the little corner of knowledge I reside in.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 00:19:54 +0000

Andrew: It reaches a certain level of accuracy, say “introduction level”. The more specialized the topic, the lower the level, the more general the topic, the higher. More editors is usually good since it flushes any errors pretty quickly for 99 % of the topics.

(Again: no one is going to start an edit war over King Philip II and his agricultural policy). But if I had read 20 books on 16th century Spain, wouldn’t I be able to contribute on that topic ? Would I be incorrect in my edits ?

It’s an imperfect system in an imperfect world, and it surely will be replaced by something else.

But think about what it has accomplished: unleashing the collective knowledge of so many and the energy so many have put into it to build something “bigger than themselves”. I find that truly remarkable.

By: BrianR

BrianR — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 00:18:43 +0000

Lab Lemming says: “And yet, you devoted thousands of words arguing with crackpots here on your blog.”

Crackpots can’t edit my posts.