Citizendium launches as Wikipedia rival

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 27 March 2007 08:32

Your IT - Home IT

Citizendium - "a citizens' compendium of everything" - has gone live as an alternative to Wikipedia and other online user-contributed encyclopedias.

Started by Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger, Citizendium aims to differentiate itself by requiring contributors to use their real names, providing "gentle expert oversight", and insisting that articles present major points of view on contentious topics without asserting any one is the truth.

While that last point may well prove contentious in itself - for example to those who hold hard-line opinions on either side of the evolution vs creation issue - the objective is to avoid endless "edit wars" where proponents of conflicting views repeatedly change articles to comply with their way of thinking.

"[W]e accept, for purposes of working on the Citizendium, that 'human knowledge' includes all different (significant, published) theories on all different topics are parts of human knowledge," states Citizendium's neutrality policy.

The project is appointing 'constables' whose role is to keep an eye on contributors' behaviour as opposed to making editorial decisions about the quality of their content.

Citizendium amassed over 180 expert editors, 800 authors and 1100 articles during its pilot phase, and now welcomes the broader public to sign up as authors and begin contributing to the articles. Would-be editors are required to send a CV (the assumption is that they will be academics or professionals) and some proof of their bona fides, for example links to conference proceedings or departmental home pages.

While 1100 articles is a good start, it does mean Citizendium coverage is initially sparse. Many of the links on the site are coloured red, indicating that authors have yet to contribute the content they point to. Examples include entire sections such as Earth Sciences, Architecture and Sports; and specific items including supercomputer and personal digital assistant.