In a lively debate organized by The Wall Street Journal, the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, faced off against the editor in chief of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Dale Hoiberg. A key point of contention was which online encyclopedia had the smartest, most-qualified contributors.
Mr. Hoiberg said his contributors and advisers consisted of "more than 4,000 scholars and experts around the world," and he disparaged the group working on Wikipedia, which allows anyone to contribute. "While Wikipedia may welcome scholars," he said, "all the reports I’ve seen suggest that most of the work is done by individuals who, though very dedicated, have little or no scholarly background."
Mr. Wales fired back that because Britannica is "proprietary rather than freely licensed, they would have a very hard time attracting the kind of talent that we have." He added that "it is a misunderstanding to think of ‘openness’ as antithetical to quality."
"I can only assume Mr. Wales is being ironic when he says Britannica would have a hard time attracting the kind of talent that Wikipedia has," replied Mr. Hoiberg. "Britannica has published more than a hundred Nobel Prize winners and thousands of other well-known experts and scholars."
"The point I am making here is not at all ironic," said Mr. Wales. "Britannica’s contributors, while sometimes distinguished, are relatively few in number as compared to the number of high-quality people that Wikipedia is able to rely upon."
Who do you think won the debate?
