Citizendium
Citizendium, short for Citizen's Compendium, is an online collaborative wiki community that works much like Wikipedia to provide encyclopedic information. Citizendium values information quality over other information characteristics. Unlike competitors such as Wikipedia, Citizendium requires higher levels of entry and initial commitment for its online information contributors. Citizendium is open to public information providers, and it operates at a voluntary level; however, information contributors must apply to contribute to Citizendium’s efforts. In the applications, applicants must provide his or her real name. The applications are then reviewed and approved by humans. Information that appears on Citizendium’s pages must be confirmed by “experts” in order to be published on the site. [1] In order to be considered an editor (“expert”), a Citizendium contributor must fill out an additional application and submit proof of expertise in the form of a CV or resume. Citizendium thus links its editors to an online identity in order to build a strictly credible web encyclopedia. [2]
Contents
History
Citizendium started as a pilot encyclopedic project in 2006, although Larry Sanger a Wikipedia co-founder, officially launched the project in March 2007. At launch, Citizendium’s offerings were limited in numbers and scope, and it was difficult to evaluate how it might grow and evolve; however, Citizendium has seen substantial growth since then. [3]
Citizendium Roles and Features
Authors
Citizendium authors start new articles, make additions to existing articles and discuss topic discrepancies on Citizendium's talk pages.
Editors
Citizendium editors have all privileges of authors. The main difference between an author and an editor is that an editor is a community-recognized or formally acknowledged expert in some field of knowledge. Official expertise status guidelines (usually obtained through education or experience) are set by Citizendium's Editorial Council. An editor's main role in the Citizendium community consists of guiding article content to ensure that it conveys reliable information to its users. They may claim editorship over general, mid-range, and specialized topics depending upon their approved level of expertise. [5]
Constables
A constable's main task is to manage and moderate Citizendium's content information. In addition to adhering to Citizendium's policy of displaying trustworthy information, the constables also manage behavioral disputes that occur when authors disagree over content-related issues. They review applications for authorship and editorship as well as communicate with the editors on each article's approval status. [6]
Workgroups
Myths and Facts
Myths
Facts
Ethics
References
- ↑ Andrew J. Flanagin & Miriam J. Metzger (2011): FROM ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA TO WIKIPEDIA, Information, Communication & Society, 14:3, 355-374.
- ↑ Peek, Robin. The New Encyclopedia Brigade, Information Today 25:9 (Oct 2008): 17-18.
- ↑ Peek, Robin. The New Encyclopedia Brigade, Information Today 25:9 (Oct 2008): 17-18.
- ↑ http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Community_Overview
- ↑ http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:The_Editor_Role
- ↑ http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Constabulary
- ↑ http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Myths_and_Facts
