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		<title>Wikipedia and explainers</title>
		<dateCreated>Sun, 27 May 2012 14:40:12 GMT</dateCreated>
		<dateModified>Mon, 28 May 2012 03:15:00 GMT</dateModified>
		<ownerName>Dave Winer</ownerName>
		<ownerEmail>dave.winer@gmail.com</ownerEmail>
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		<outline created="Sun, 27 May 2012 14:40:12 GMT" ctSaves="7" flPreview="false" id="2012.05.27.1833" name="wikipediaAndExplainers" server="xmlrpc://cms.scripting2.com:5337/RPC2" storySerialNum="1833" text="Wikipedia and explainers" type="scripting2Post" url="http://scripting.com/stories/2012/05/27/wikipediaAndExplainers.html" username="davewiner" versionClient="0.44" versionServer="0.44" whenLastSave="Mon, 28 May 2012 03:14:56 GMT">
			<outline created="Sun, 27 May 2012 14:35:42 GMT" pgfnum="14215" text="&lt;a href=&quot;http://explainer.net/about/&quot;&gt;Jay Rosen talks&lt;/a&gt; about the idea of explainers. "></outline>
			<outline created="Sun, 27 May 2012 14:36:09 GMT" pgfnum="14217" text="&lt;img src=&quot;http://scripting.com/images/2012/05/27/clarinet.gif&quot; width=&quot;55&quot; height=&quot;414&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;float: right; padding-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 15px;&quot; alt=&quot;A picture named clarinet.gif&quot;&gt;People say they use Wikipedia as the source of explainers. I realize I do too. Now the question is this -- is Wikipedia the best we can do? Because what it does is necessary."></outline>
			<outline created="Sun, 27 May 2012 14:36:55 GMT" pgfnum="14218" text="For example, in my &lt;a href=&quot;http://scripting.com/stories/2012/05/27/itsNotAllMobile.html&quot;&gt;previous piece&lt;/a&gt;, I wanted to link to an explainer about &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodwind_instrument&quot;&gt;woodwinds&lt;/a&gt;. If there was a good one, I wouldn't have to say anything more, which as a writer I appreciate. As a reader I appreciate it too. The link is much better than a one or two sentence inline summary. Maybe I'll find the topic very interesting and want to explore it in more than a passing way. So a link to a good explainer is a great deal. Esp if it presents the information in a tiered way. First the two-sentence explainer. Then a little deeper. Then finally full depth."></outline>
			<outline created="Sun, 27 May 2012 14:37:43 GMT" pgfnum="14219" text="When I saw the Wikipedia page on &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodwind_instrument&quot;&gt;woodwinds&lt;/a&gt;, I thought to myself that we can do much better than this. "></outline>
			<outline created="Sun, 27 May 2012 14:38:09 GMT" pgfnum="14220" text="The most important thing about woodwinds, imho, that you need to say right up front in a clear and visual way, is there are two families of woodwinds, flutes and reed instruments. That way if you know your instruments but not the classes, you've got everything you absolutely need to know what the term means. At least that's what I was looking for from the explainer."></outline>
			<outline created="Sun, 27 May 2012 14:38:49 GMT" pgfnum="14221" text="I would like to see that communicated both in words and in an illustration with pictures of all the instruments, in a format that could be clipped and pasted into my story (with a link back to the article of course)."></outline>
			<outline created="Sun, 27 May 2012 14:50:48 GMT" pgfnum="14225" text="The value of Wikipedia is they've got an editorial system that millions of people use, and a process that gets some remarkably good reference information in one place where you need it. But the presentation lacks something, and honestly, their vetting process lets some pretty egregious stuff through. And unless you're committed to constant online bickering, you can't easily add your knowledge to the base."></outline>
			<outline created="Sun, 27 May 2012 14:39:24 GMT" pgfnum="14222" text="Wikipedia is good for where we are now. But it isn't as good as we can do. "></outline>
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