Issuepedia:Role

How is Issuepedia Different? – Issuepedia's role within the greater wikisphere

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Issuepedia may at first seem similar to other wiki-based projects, but really they are all like pieces of a larger puzzle.

• Our projects:
  • Issuepedia draws upon the more complete and (more or less) unbiased information in Wikipedia, and possibly anecdotal and practical information in HTYP. Issupedia's job is to extract the "bones" of the issue from the surrounding "matrix" of related facts, opinions, and arguments in Wikipedia and elsewhere.
  • InstaGov (currently in development) will allow groups of people to coagulate around points of view on which they can agree, and then eventually to engage in inter-group negotiations to create voter blocs on particular issues (etc.) It's not yet clear how InstaGov will relate to Issuepedia, though it will certainly draw on Issuepedia's content.
  • HTYP is for documenting practical and undisputed (or not heavily disputed) information, including both the technical and the everyday. When issues get into details that aren't highly loaded on an ethical or emotional level, the discussion can go off into HTYP.
• Other projects:
  • Wikipedia, while generally not regarded as authoritative, can be thought of as reasonably thorough and even definitive; if anyone disagrees with its statements on any given subject, there will almost certainly be discussion to that effect on the "talk" page. No significant stone will be left unturned, and many insignificant ones will be checked as well. Wikipedia may not have all the facts, or even have them all correct (though it generally does a pretty good job), but it can at least be a guide to what pieces of information there are which might need verifying and where one might find more definitive information. Its only flaw, for our purposes, is excess: there is much information which, though clearly on-topic, is not immediately relevant to the under discussion.
  • Campaigns Wikia is geared towards information about particular political candidates. As such, it will have a lot of useful information upon which Issuepedia can draw. It differs from Issuepedia, however, in that the latter is geared towards general discussion of issues; discussion of current candidates is a part of this, but not the whole picture.
  • see Internet-based infrastructure and Issuepedia:Related Projects for more

Long-term, we would like to find some way for Issuepedia and HTYP (and possibly other resources) to share a common content database while presenting it in different ways; see htyp:subwikis for further discussion.