Citizendium goes live in beta

A new online encyclopaedia, widely regarded as an attempt to correct the shortcomings of Wikipedia, has opened its doors to the public four months after the pilot project began.

Citizendium , or “the citizen’s compendium of everything”, is from Larry Sanger , co-founder of Wikipedia , who said the use of academic-quality articles and contributors’ real names would make it more accurate and accountable than its predecessor.

“The modest success of our pilot project shows that there is hope that we can correct exactly the sorts of abuses that people demonise Web 2.0 for,” said Sanger, the project’s editor in chief, who left Wikipedia in 2002.

“You don’t have to choose between content and accountability. We can be open to all sorts of participants but still hold people to higher standards of content and behaviour as a community.”

Those working on the Citizendium project include authors, who write the articles, editors, who are expert in their field and have the final say over any disputes, and constables, who “make sure the community runs smoothly”.

More than 180 expert editors and 800 authors have already been recruited, and over 1,000 articles are ready to view.

Members of the public can visit the beta edition of Citizendium.

The word “wiki” has already entered the online Oxford English Dictionary .

Originally the Hawaiian word for “quick”, wiki is now defined as “a type of web page”