EGRU-blog

All this week (22n-28th) it is Biology Week at Citizendium. So what? Well…

One of the criticisms of Wikipedia is that, because it is totally open, it can be abused: anybody can go in and change an article. In particular controversial articles can be repeatedly re-written as opposing sides fight it out. Wikipedia does now have rules to try and limit this, but it isn’t perfect. By its very nature, there is no “certification” of Wikipedia’s accuracy: for many (most?) articles it is fine, but one cannot be certain.

As a response to this, one of the co-founders of Wikipedia set up the Citizendium project. His idea is to develop an encyclopaedia with the help of experts, acting as editors, so that there is a better guarantee of accuracy. In addition, everyone has to use their real names, so there is less reason to act like an idiot – they know who you are. It also means that experts can be recognized.

So, why get involved? If we accept that a good online encyclopedia is a good thing, then someone has to write it. And who better than the experts? If you want to find out about gigantism in nine-spined sticklebacks, wouldn’t you want the article to be written by Gabor?

And what is happening this week? Well, this is Biology Week, when they try to lure biologists into their grasp, to write and edit articles for general consumption.

Why should we care? Aside from getting the joy of writing even more articles about science (what? You mean you don’t enjoy it?), you also get to contribute to the sum of human online knowledge. The main practical upshot of this is that you get to have your work plagarized referred to in countless students’ essays, thus helping their learning. And when someone wants to read up about a topic, you can just point them to the appropriate page, knowing that the information there is accurate and up to date (after all, you will be updating it regularly. Won’t you?).

So, get involved! The more people that do, the lighter the work load – you will only have to write a couple of paragraphs on the use of the animal model in natural populations. EGRU (and any other research group) has within it a valuable store of knowledge we could be used for The Greater Good. it also looks good on your CV, as part of our educating the public.

Um, we’re all too busy, aren’t we?

(HT: Maxine Clarke)