[R] Input appreciated: R teaching idea + a way to improve R-wiki

[Matthew Keller]

I appreciate the input. Off-list, someone suggested that I set up a
class wiki, and have this be the first sieve. I could do some quality
control there first (perhaps sending the link to this list serve at
the end of the semester for others to check over), and then post the
final manuals on the R wiki. I think its a good idea and am mulling
it, but part of me asks: why not just post the (perhaps imperfect)
manuals on the wiki and allow the wiki to do what wikis are supposed
to do?

I guess I resonated with Ricardo Pietrobon's point: the essence of a
wiki is that it is evolving and self-correcting. Even to get something
started over there would be an improvement. If people wait until they
are 100% certain that everything is 100% accurate, a much diminished
pool of people would post... The accuracy of wikis improves as more
people post. In other words, I think that it is the number of posters,
and not necessarily the signal:noise ratio, that drives wiki
accuracy...

Matt


-- 
Matthew C Keller
Asst. Professor of Psychology
University of Colorado at Boulder
www.matthewckeller.com