Dear Henry,
Thanks for this concise summary of Wikipedia.  For the reasons you
state, and several others, we are building the Thomas Jefferson Wiki,
using the same software upon which Wikipedia is built.  TJ-Wiki will be
totally open to the Internet public with opportunity to ask questions
and make comments, BUT with editorial policies and a controlled list of
individuals given rights to create and edit contents.  
Stay tuned for announcement of the public launch of TJ-Wiki.

Cheers,


-- jack

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
Jack Robertson  ||  Foundation Librarian
Jefferson Library  || Thomas Jefferson Foundation
PO Box 316  Charlottesville, VA  22902
434-984-7545  ||  http://www.monticello.org/library/index.html

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Henry Wiencek
Sent: Friday, April 13, 2007 8:24 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: "Americans" and Wikipedia

I hate to sound dogmatic, but I never use Wikipedia for anything but
rock-star bios. It's a giant trash heap. I have looked at entries
relating to TJ, GW, the Rev War, Civil War -- things I know something
about -- and errors are everywhere. Putting on my editor's hat, I once
tried to correct a simple, totally non-controversial factual mistake in
the TJ entry--I had at hand the latest, gold-standard research from the
top expert at Monticello--and some idiot kept restoring the wrong info.
I gave up. It's all amateurs over there, playing around.

Henry Wiencek
Charlottesville