Re: NPOV and NOR as a local or a global policiesonWikibooks?

KH wrote:
> I read the link thoroughly.  I can see a gap in your definition:  A reading
> textbook used in the elementary school level.  All texts at very early
> grades are fiction to motivate and relate to very young readers.  Plus early
> grades are still learning sounds so you have to make up stories that contain
> only sounds that have been learned.  So the definition is most definitely
> not complete. You would not find an early reader on the fiction bookshelf at
> a store.  They are purchased as a textbook.
>
> Not to be a welt on your tush but I am not convinced of the definition of
> what a wikibook is.
>
> -Kathy
>
>   
The very definition of a textbook is something that has been something 
of a major discussion from time to time on Wikibooks.  While there is 
certainly some grey areas that can be explored in detail, nearly 
everything on Wikibooks usually has to have some sort of educational 
goals of some sort or another as justification for remaining.  And the 
stronger the case that you can make for educational applications of the 
content, the more likely it will remain on Wikibooks.  This is precisely 
the issue that has revolved around video game guides, something that has 
been removed from Wikibooks recently in large numbers.

Keep in mind that the purpose for establishing Wikibooks in the first 
place was to help provide a place to write a chemistry textbook that was 
otherwise inappropriate for Wikipedia.  Karl Wick, the original 
"founder" of Wikibooks, started writing this textbook on Wikipedia and 
the content was voted off of Wikipedia as being "not encyclopedic".  
Jimbo Wales, the big chief at the time, encouraged Karl to continue to 
develop the idea and agreed that a new project should be started.  That 
is why this mailing list is called the "Wikimedia Textbook Discussion" 
instead of "Wikibooks Mailing List", as this mailing list pre-dates even 
the establishment of Wikibooks itself.  Even before the name "Wikibooks" 
was chosen as the name.  BTW, other names have been considered, 
including the name "Wikiversity" as the name of this project.  
Wikiversity as an idea has been transformed from another name for 
Wikibooks to its own completely independent project.

As I pointed out earlier, there may be some room for fictional content 
of this very limited nature, but it must be designed with strict 
criteria intended to meet specific educational goals.  Perhaps even 
meeting explicit core curriculum objectives of specific school districts 
or state boards of education.  That doesn't seem to be the proposal that 
is being offered here, but rather an attempt to expand the scope of 
Wikibooks to include any sort of fictional content.

-- Robert Horning