[Wikipedia-l] Peer review project for Wikipedia

Tue Nov 5 17:38:49 UTC 2002

(Posted separately to Nupedia-l and Advisory-l.)

Hello all,

Recently I proposed on Wikipedia-l to help start a "peer review" project
for Wikipedia.

If you are a Nupedia peer reviewer or editor, I hope you will consider
getting involved, because we really *need* your expertise!

The purpose of the project, at least as I've envisioned it, is limited to
picking and posting those Wikipedia articles that are of sufficiently high
quality (see below).  The picking and posting will be exceedingly simple,
to be done by subject area experts--people with qualifications similar to
those required for Nupedia peer reviewers.  Any necessary editing will be
done on Wikipedia itself, so this new website will be a *subset*, not a
*fork*, of Wikipedia articles.

I've set up a mailing list ("Sifter-l," see below).  Now we can get busy
	* discussing policy issues (e.g., article requirements)
	* picking a name
	* discussing software requirements (Magnus and Lee are at work)

If enough qualified reviewers join up and get to work posting really
excellent articles, I think we could, within several months, have several
thousand expert-certified, great articles.  This would go a long way to
winning the whole free encyclopedia movement credibility.  It would be
good for Wikipedia *and* Nupedia.  It might help win us the funding we
need.

MAILING LIST

I have just set up a mailing list, Sifter-l, for purposes of discussing
this.

http://www.nupedia.com/mailman/listinfo/sifter-l

ORIGINAL PROPOSAL

For those on Nupedia-l and Advisory-l, here's the original proposal again:

In view of the facts that Wikipedia has grown tremendously; that we have
lost several of our most overeducated, overqualified participants due to
disgust with having to deal with a few difficult, uncooperative
participants; and above all, that there is a vast body of *hundreds* of
highly educated and willing free encyclopedia participants waiting idle
due to the dormancy of Nupedia; I propose the following:

(1) We--whether Bomis or someone else--should set up another website.  It
should definitely not live at the Wikipedia.com domain.

(2) The purpose of the new website will be to *select* and *post*
Wikipedia articles that are up to a certain standard.

(3) The only participants in the new website will be those that meet the
Nupedia requirements in their particular fields, or some other similarly
stringent requirements.

(4) Either I, or a small group of trusted people, will be responsible for
approving participants.

(5) The website will be *read only*.  No one will be able to edit it
directly, including its participants.  This means it *won't* be a wiki.

(6) Any participant will have to go to Wikipedia to make any edits to an
article.

(7) Participants will save *particular versions* of articles, not the
current article, whatever it happens to be.  There should be a link to
"the most current version" of a given article on Wikipedia, as well.

(8) Implementing the website should not require *any* changes to
Wikipedia.  I want to leave Wikipedia alone completely.  The only thing
that *might* make sense is to add a link (which should be optional!) to a
corresponding "subset" website article, if it exists.  In particular,
"subset" participants should **not** be regarded as Wikipedia editors with
any particular, special status on Wikipedia.  And "subset" policy,
whatever it might turn out to be, should **not** be regarded as Wikipedia
policy.

(9) Also, I don't think we should host this website on Nupedia.com.

INTERFACE WITH NUPEDIA

Jimbo has made it clear that he wanted to do something like this with
Nupedia, but it also looks like he doesn't intend to do it anytime soon.
I and others think that this would cause an unnecessary firestorm of
controversy, and several of us are anxious to get to work actually doing
something.  So the plan is to proceed using some other address--not
Wikipedia.org and not Nupedia.com--and then, later, we'll have a much
better idea of whether it's a wise move to merge the new review project
with Nupedia.

Personal note: I'm still underemployed, though not unemployed, and so I am
thinking of getting behind Lee Crocker's effort to set up a Free
Encyclopedia Foundation.  Even if no funding is forthcoming, I want to
help get this new effort off the ground, because I think it's important.
But I won't be able to work on it anywhere near full-time unless a
Foundation can support my work.

Best,
Larry
-- 
"We have now sunk to a depth at which the re-statement of the obvious is
the first duty of intelligent men." --George Orwell