Citizendium is almost ready to give Wikipedia a run for its money. For the first time, the site — a "progressive fork" of Wikipedia that puts scholars in charge of content — is inviting Web surfers to register and start making editorial contributions.
Citizendium was created last year by Larry Sanger, a founder of Wikipedia who has since criticized the site for being too easy on vandals and too hard on scholars (The Chronicle, October 27). Mr. Sanger announced that his encyclopedia would resemble a representative democracy: Any Web user would be allowed to edit content, he promised, but experts with "the qualifications typically needed for a tenure-track academic position" would be authorized to override any alterations.
During a pilot project that started in November, Mr. Sanger and a team of Citizendium administrators created articles and hashed out procedural guidelines. Now, they say, the site is ready for outside contributions — and, before long, for an official public unveiling.
More than 150 editors and 350 authors participated in the pilot project, according to Mr. Sanger. "We are demonstrating that experts and nonexperts can work shoulder to shoulder on a wiki, using their real names, in a collegial atmosphere," he said in a news release. "We didn't know whether this would work, but it has so far, quite well. We are learning that accountability has merit in the world of wikis."
Plenty of Wikipedia watchers have expressed doubt that Citizendium will ever amount to much. But as the site gets off the ground, its attempt to infuse open-source ideals with a sense of hierarchy should be interesting to watch. –Brock Read
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