Re: [ontolog-forum] Tighter control of ontolog forum?

[paola.dimaio@xxxxxxxxx]

Christopher

this is a very sensitive and key issue, and I am not going to be able to debate all the implications that I feel are important

I am an active user of wikipedia, as well a strong critic of it, as in its pages I find extremely valuable sources of knowledge, as well as incredible misinformation.

 I tend to use wikipedia as a first point of entry to browse new topics, but I would never consider it valid unless I have double checked the entry with more standard knowledge sources. 
So. pinch of salt rule applies

But so one must be careful with all sources of knowledge. I see clamourous mistakes and omissions being made by leading experts in one field, because they know nothing and do not consider the knowledge that exists outside their own domain of expertise. 
\
I see medical profession changing its own understanding of clinical practice, and therefore changing the way they diagnose and prescribe medicines, after twenty years or sending patients early to the grave because of their prior 'scientific' beliefs proved to be wrong. 


They are experts, sure, within their domain.
A lot of rubbish comes from people who profess to be experts in their domain. 

And a  lot of learning happens when sorting through the rubbish,not only as to learn what is rubbish and what it is not, but also as to how to become and expert at rubbish sorting -
which is what editors are, in fact, this is what editors have become after years of practice.

And dont forget, that different experts have different opinions.

A lot of what discussed on ontolog forum, as well as on wikipedia, is relatively new stuff that is emerging from interdisciplinarity, of which not many expert can claim authority on.

I dont know (again do not want to enter into that debate) if having editorial boards will help, it may help control the quality, but may also make the knowledge dissemination much slower. I hate to think when the ontology editorial board would have a meeting to approve a post or not. Chances are it will never get posted, irrespective of its validity

If editorial committees must exist, then should   be really interdisciplinary and include experts who represent and defend contrasting stances in the respective domains


Paola Di Maio

and supported by a
majority of wikipedians, including its founder, is that anyone will be able to
edit, but all edits (perhaps constrained to "all edits on higher traffic pages")
will need to be approved by a "trusted" editor, of which there are many
(thousands?).

Pure openness was key to bootstrapping wikipedia's content, but now that it is
among the most frequented and trusted web sites, it has become a common target
of spam, pranks, and general maliciousness.

I know there are many in ontolog who prefer a purely open forum, but I think the
failure of SUO and the continuing nonsense in this forum - which make it the
butt of many jokes and keeps a lot of otherwise serious ontology people away (I
include myself in this category, you may argue with the "otherwise serious" bit)
 - are evidence that the open model doesn't work here.

This forum is not taken seriously because it is too open.  I suggest adopting a
model like the one Wikipedia is considering, in which we establish a sort of
active editorial board - a group of trusted moderators rather than just one, any
of whom can approve a post and thus the flow of information will not be
significantly slowed, power and control will not be in the hands of one person,
and the quality will increase.

--
Dr. Christopher A. Welty                    IBM Watson Research Center
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