Re: [ARSCLIST] Whacky-Packia outed for what it is -- Amateur Hour in Siberia

[Karl Miller <karl.miller@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
   
  ***although that might be too much of an insult to Siberian amateurs!

***http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17661199/site/newsweek/

***Posted on this forum because I believe one of the great services of proper archiving is storing and preserving factual knowledge and cultural touchstones.

I would agree, but how does one know what is fact and what cultural touchstones are worth preserving? Who is qualified to make such decisions? What background and skills do they need?
   
  As to what is fact, consider the Hatto recordings... how many "Stravinsky" recordings were conducted by Craft.  What about all of those violin work actually written by Fritz Kreisler, which he credited to Vivaldi and others. Thanks to Ernest Lumpe we have identified some of those pseudonomous performers. By the way, his web page seems to have disappeared! Might not ARSC be a good place to host some of this sort of information...dare I once again bring up the idea of some wikidiscographies....
   
  I guess I also wonder, how does one insure authenticity. Yet many internet sources appear to be excellent...like Frank Hamilton's Maria Callas discography and performance chronology.
   
  It just seems to me that responsible agencies, like academic institutions, and professional organizations, should redirect some of their resources to taking a more active role in oversight of online publishing. ARSC, for example, could consider listing online discographies it has reviewed...certainly a major undertaking, but it seems like it might be a worthwhile activity...and a responsibility that could be shared with the membership.
   
  If a wikipedia exists and is finding an audience, there must be a reason. 
  What seems most interesting to me is that for a majority of the online searches I do, like it or not, a wiki page is often within the first few hits. The wiki concept works, on at least one level, visibility, within the context of the online information environment. Again, the question for me is, how does one make the digital environment work better?
   
  Karl