Blogs? Carr Says Leave Journalism to the Pros - Page 2

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But hasn't the quality of Wikipedia improved since its inception? Carr admitted that it had, but noted that that improvement came with the addition of editorial personnel who serve as the custodians of the site. Their role, he said, is similar to the editorial staff at a typical publication. Of course, the Wikipedian gatekeepers are still less involved than a newspaper's copy editors and fact checkers, and the quality suffers because of it.

"Wikipedia in terms of quality has improved since [its founding]," Carr said. "It’s still a product that you probably wouldn’t pay for. The writing is still quite poor."

To illustrate the point, Carr drew a comparison with open source software. He said that the mass manpower that crowds of amateurs can provide help solve very labor-intensive problems in each endeavor.

"The crowd can do some things very well, but it’s very limited," he said. "In open source software, they’re very good at funding bugs in very complex software. In Wikipedia they do a good job of summarizing the world’s content."

But when it comes to the production of a polished product out of original content, both Wikipedia and Linux employee editors and managers lend the professional touch.