User:WMMartin

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[edit] A Philosophy for Wikipedia ( prototype )

I think of Wikipedia as being rather like a superbly well-read and educated friend - the kind of person you might call for the $1,000,000 question on a game show, but also the kind of person you'd happily invite for dinner with your family. In a sense, I feel Wikipedia should contain all the information that I'd like to know myself, had I but brain enough and time.

Wikipedia is about knowledge, not information. There are a thousand websites where I can get precise information about each sports game in a series, or each school in a state, and there's no need to put them here. My well-read friend will know the result of the latest World Series, of course, and if there was a particularly unusual or interesting game he'll be able to call it to mind when I ask him, but I don't expect him to sit down at the dinner table with me and give me a ball by ball account of the last 10 years of some bush league pitcher's career. Likewise, I expect him to have heard of Groton or Eton College, and to have some idea of their histories and alumni, but I don't expect him to list every school in Peoria.

I expect Wikipedia to be broadly spread - well-read, educated, cultured, and perhaps playful. A well-read man has heard of Pikachu, but he can't name every Pokemon. An educated man is familiar with the Flavian Dynasty, but he doesn't know my family tree. A cultured man can recount the principal events of Wuthering Heights, but he can't recite the plot of every Mills and Boon romance. A playful man can remember who Spock was, but he can't name every red-shirted actor who was ever "... dead, Jim".

In short, what I hope is that Wikipedia will be discriminating.

[edit] Mnemonics

To express e, remember to memorise a sentence to simplify this.