[Cz-biology] Auto-created articles about genes

[Larry Sanger]

Thanks much to Chris and everyone for comments so far.  David raises a good
question, one that has been on my mind.  Other than our use of subpages, how
might our articles/clusters differ from Wikipedia's?  If they wouldn't
differ appreciably, is that a reason for us not to do it (or, indeed, to
insist on doing it)?

Here is another point raised by someone else--a non-biologist who wrote me
personally.  I'd be curious to hear your reaction to this.  See below.

--Larry

Re Novartis

It is to be watched whether a pharma company might have any commercial
interest, even one not evident to you, in influencing the content in any way
of an article they are involved with. 

For example in the Bibliography - is the article covering all aspects of
competing views on current scientific research, or might they be (even
slightly) toe-ing the corporate bandwagon in some way.

Not saying they are doing this, however the long term integrity of the
Citizendium reputation is the project's most valuable asset, and greatest
chance of growing long term success--far more valuable than a quick
injection of new articles.

If indeed there was even the slightest hint of these articles being in any
way tainted by way of corporate involvement, it could pose a serious PR
threat to the survival of CZ.

At the very least I think any organisation wanting to assist that way should
be required to meet certain absolute commitments to substantiate that their
involvement is on totally neutral grounds, and their commitment should
become a part of the discussion page for every document in question
verifying that there has been no influence on the article content whatsoever
by the involvement of the commercial entity.

Immediate questions that concern me are

What is the relationship between the research institute
http://www.gnf.org/about/ and the Novartis corporation?
http://www.novartis.com/

How independent are the many sources cited in bibliography of the example
article you sent http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/APP ?

Does any of that article, its references or any associated content in any
way link to the Novartis company in even a tangential manner that may be
non-neutral, ie positive, towards Novartis products, services, treatments,
research etc?

I am quite concerned by the potential real, and the even stronger potential
'perceived' risks in this--especially given that in matters of credibility
and PR, perception alone can be sufficient to badly damage credibility -
even where reality may be quite different than perceptions.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: cz-biology-bounces at mail.citizendium.org
> [mailto:cz-biology-bounces at mail.citizendium.org] On Behalf Of 
> David Goodman
> Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 1:45 AM
> To: Cz-biology at mail.citizendium.org
> Subject: [Cz-biology] Auto-created articles about genes
> 
> 
> I fully agree that this is an important project. Experience
> with similar projects in biology (and chemistry)  has shown 
> that the information to fill the articles is very quickly supplied.
> 
> I ask , though, since a parallel effort is intended at
> Wikipedia, if the intent will be substantially different? I 
> would suppose most people would want to add material in 
> parallel to both.
> -- 
> David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S. 
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