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Stanford's Authoritative Alternative To Wikipedia

eldavojohn writes "For decades, Stanford has been working on a different kind of Wikipedia. It might even be considered closer to a peer-reviewed journal, since you have get submissions past a 120 person group of leading philosophers around the world, not to mention Stanford's administration. It has several layers of approval, but the authoritative model produces high quality content — even if it only amounts to 1,200 articles. Content you can read straight through to find everything pertinent — not hop around following link after link like the regular Wikipedia. You might question the need for this, but one of the originators says, 'Our model is authoritative. [Wikipedia's] model is one an academic isn't going to be attracted to. If you are a young academic, who might spend six months preparing a great article on Thomas Aquinas, you're not going to publish in a place where anyone can come along and change this.' The site has articles covering topics from Quantum Computing to technical luminaries like Kurt Friedrich Gödel and Alan Turing. The principal editor said, 'It's the natural thing to do. I'm surprised no one is doing it for the other disciplines.'"

4 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. Here, fixed that for you by Dalzhim · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you are a young academic, who might spend six months preparing a great article on Thomas Aquinas, you're not going to publish in a place where anyone can come along and do better.

  2. Wikipedia if Run By Academic Experts.. by kevinNCSU · · Score: 5, Funny

    So the article is titled:

    "Wikipedia, if it were run by academic experts, would look like this"

    Intrigued I clicked the link and got a firefox unable to connect/page unavailable error. So in principle I agree. This is exactly what a webpage with wikipedia's user base would look like if it were run by Academics.

  3. Re:Academics by Abstrackt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Your comment reminds me of a demotivational poster: "none of us is as dumb as all of us".

    --
    They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
  4. Re:Academics by Beerdood · · Score: 5, Funny

    over where the place the word 'the'

    Well let's hope someone besides you made the final decision on that one

    --
    Global warming and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates - Gospel of the FSM