Page:Crowdsourcing and Open Access.djvu/24

 Wikisource is a digital library of previously published free-content works. The project’s eligibility criteria are strict; only works that are in the public domain in the United States or are licensed under terms that allow free copying, modification, and reuse (including commercial use) are permitted to be hosted on the site. The requirement of prior publication is intended to ease verification (that is, to make it possible for the site’s geographically far-flung users to confirm that the text posted at the site matches the published original) and to deter misuse of the site for self-publication.

Wikisource’s mission differs from Wikipedia’s in ways that tend to insulate it against some of the criticisms often aimed at its larger sibling. Wikipedia’s stated goal is to describe the world from a neutral point of view —a goal that may be epistemologically unattainable, and at a minimum invites ongoing debate over the “neutrality” of articles published on the site. Wikisource’s polestar, in contrast, is not neutrality, but faithful reproduction of a source text as published. It is easy to imagine users reasonably holding