Gay Marketing - Citizendium or Wikipedia?

TOPICS: Citizendium. Wikipedia. Lesbian and gay marketing. LGBT. Gay marketing. Lesbian and gay market. Gay marketing enyclopedia coverage. Times Online media report on the Citizendium. Which is better for 'gay marketing' - Wikipedia or the Citizendium?

Ian Johnson, Out Now
September 9, 2007

Gay Market News has reported before on the rise of the new online reference knowledge resource the Citizendium.

There has been an article on Out Now over at Wikipedia but it sometimes suffers from the 'anyone can edit' philosophy.

The Wikipedia model really seems to cause a lot of problems over there. I previously had some involvement with contributing to Wikipedia--including having started a long time ago an original, and quite short, version of the Out Now article. That has evolved quite differently on its own since then. I tried to stay involved with Wikipedia with other articles, but eventually just gave up as a result of what seems to be serious difficulties in the ways the 'anyone can edit' philosophy impacts upon both the extent and the reliability of the articles there.

As a result, I have become a Business Editor focused on GLBT marketing at the Citizendium.

There are very much fewer articles at the Citizendium, however the project has only been live for a matter of months, and there are now almost 3,000 good quality online reference articles there.

The biggest difference between the Citizendium and Wikipedia is that at the Citizendium, not everyone can edit. Authors are welcome from a diverse range of backgrounds and Editors that are experts in specific areas are invited to participate. Because everyone is contributing under their real names at the Citizendium, there seems to be almost no vandalism of the kind that I personally think really wrecks the long-term credibility of Wikipedia.

To see what I mean, just check out the very different versions of articles you will find for the topic of 'Gay marketing' over at the Citizendium compared to the Wikipedia version.

Is the Citizendium finished yet? Of course not. Many articles are missing or not yet developed beyond an initial draft stage. It has not been going as long as Wikipedia and currently has a miniscule fraction of the articles that Wikipedia has. But the Citizendium is soon likely to be introducing some innovative new ways to make sure people undertaking online research can get easier access to a more reliable source of online knowledge.

Does the Citizendium have a model that can give users more comfort with the integrity of the knowledge they find there? Absolutely.

The Citizendium still cops criticism that asserts that experts are somehow dangerous as custodians of knowledge, something I and others can't really see.

It seems others are noticing the slow but impressive quality rise of the more credible alternative - the Citizendium. Yesterday's Times newspaper in the UK carried a cover flash to an article that tracks the reasons why the Citizendium is gaining traction in a world that needs a more credible online reference source of expert edited knowledge.

Here is an extract:

Web rivals plot the answer to Wikipedia

A project has been set up with the aim of usurping Wikipedia as the web’s leading reference work.

Like its rival, the Citizendium site will solicit input from the public. But in a departure from the standard “wiki” model, it will be directed by expert editors, and contributors will be expected to use their real names.

The changes are designed to stamp out the inaccuracies and mischief-making that have blighted Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia that “anybody can edit”.

The venture reflects a general revolt against unchecked user-generated online content, amid fears that efforts to tap the wisdom of crowds have unleashed a tyranny of the masses.

The movement’s champion is Andrew Keen, who argues in his book The Cult of the Amateur that free but substandard online content risks destroying entire industries. The idea that open collaborative projects can replace the work of professional individuals, he argues, represents an “extraordinary popular delusion”.

Citizendium is led by Larry Sanger , a co-founder of Wikipedia, who left that website to become one of its most vocal critics.

“Wikipedia has accomplished great things, but the world can do even better,” Dr Sanger said. “By engaging expert editors, eliminating anonymous contribution and launching a more mature community under a new charter, a much broader and more influential group of people and institutions will be able to improve upon Wikipedia’s extremely useful, but often uneven work. The result will be not only enormous and free, but reliable.”

The aim is to stamp out the anonymous and sometimes malicious edits that have undermined Wikipedia’s reputation.

In 2005 John Seigenthaler, the founding editorial director of USA Today, discovered that he had been linked to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by a Wikipedia article. Attacking the site he called it an irresponsible haven for “volunteer vandals with poison-pen intellects”.

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