What is Citizendium?
It is a “citizens’ compendium of everything,” is an open wiki project aimed at creating an enormous, free, and reliable encyclopedia.
The major difference between Wikipedia and Citizendium is one of responsibility of authorship. “Anonymous” can write anything it wants to and upload it to Wikipedia; who knows who “anonymous” is or of its credentials?
The world needs a trustworthy free encyclopedia. We aim to create that by providing a responsibly governed global community where real-named contributors work under expert guidance and all are accountable.
“What is the point of the Citizendium,“ you might ask, “when Wikipedia is so huge and of reasonably good quality? Is there really a need for it?”
There is a better way for humanity to come together to make an encyclopedia.
To put it forcefully: there is a better way for humanity to come together to make an encyclopedia. So we make this appeal to you. If we can do better than Wikipedia—or more positively, if we can pioneer a truly effective way to gather knowledge—then shouldn’t we?
We can do better
We do not think that Wikipedia is “good enough.” We think humanity can do better: Wikipedia is full of serious problems. Many of the articles are written amateurishly. Too often they are mere disconnected grab-bags of factoids, not made coherent by any sort of narrative. In some fields and some topics, there are groups who “squat” on articles and insist on making them reflect their own specific biases. There is no credible mechanism to approve versions of articles. Vandalism, once a minor annoyance, has become a major headache—made possible because the community allows anonymous contribution.