Talk:Explaining

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Combining Explain and Inform

Should we combine the Explain and Inform headings? I find it hard myself to remember which is which and neither page is as rich as the other hub pages. I think one column could introduce Wiki-ed as a project and the other the goal of lectures on the study of education. I'd combine them by keeping Explain as a heading and dropping Inform. What do you think? Robbie McClintock 10:51, 9 January 2007 (EST)

Lecture and peer production

My comments are probably better suited for the discussion page but I might as well place them here for now: What does a lecture have to do with peer-production? When one thinks of a lecture one conjures up the idea of a single person sitting at the front of a room - or some other assembly as in the spirit of Chautauqua - and putting forward ideas that are then absorbed or recorded by others. Isn't this the image illuminated by Barzun's words on the Chautauqua template? What does such an image offer to peer production?

Perhaps question and answer or discussion occurs after lectures, but this isn't peer-production but more akin to something like peer-review - that which, for example, might occur in Salomon (needs to be renamed?).

The use of the word (idea) lecture is confusing. Neil Eckardt 17:33, 24 October 2006 (EDT)

Until Wikipedia the same would have been said of an encyclopedia article. A lecture is a conventional production to disseminate knowledge about a subject in a clear and efficient way. It needs relatively predictable parts, each well sign-posted, comprising a text to be spoken or read, sometimes delivered extemporaneously, that conveys and explains the essentials of a subject. A lecture literally means a reading. The Teaching Company, among others, successfully markets series of lectures on all manner of topics, none of which break new ground in the sense of reporting new research. I suspect that peer production can craft very good lectures, but we will have to try to find out. robbie 18:05, 24 October 2006 (EDT)

But the same would not have been said of "articles" writ large, as peer-production of academic knowledge as occurred for many years in the sciences. Article already had the connotation of being peer-produced as a result; whereas something like "entry" would probably have been used in previous versions of the encyclopedia.

I'm concerned that the concept of "lecture" isn't transformable in the way you envision. Lecture implies a singular production of knowledge in a very strong way. The Wikipedia entry for lecture makes this plain in my view. I actually think something like "seminar" is more appropriate for Chautauqua, for this holds a participatory connotation. Perhaps something like "presentation" is what will happen in Salomon...Neil Eckardt