Why do we need an iQpedia?

Why We Created the iQpedia

Why bother creating an online wiki (like the iQpedia) when there are others that already exist — like Wikipedia? There are advantages and disadvantages to incorporating Cued Speech information into a mainstream resource like Wikipedia. The creation of the iQpedia was primarily to create a place to cull the collective knowledge of the Cued Speech community in an asynchronous way. In other words, we don't all have to work together on the same thing at the same time. The benefit of an online wiki is that it is not static, but evolves over time. It doesn't have to be perfectly written in time to meet a publishing deadline.

Wikipedia over the iQpedia

Incorporating Cued Speech information into a mainstream, widely-used resource is a good thing. This not only increases public access to accurate information about cueing. It also increases exposure and improves our ability to advocate for the system and to reach more people.

iQpedia over Wikipedia

If you look at the history of the Cued Speech article on Wikipedia, you'll find that both cuers and non-cuers have contributed. So while, some misinformation or biased-languaged was incorporated in previous versions, eventually these get revised and improved over time.

The advantage of creating the iQpedia is our ability to provide greater detail on a variety of topics and to comment on related topics with regard to their affect on cueing. If you were to revise the WIkipedia article on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to include its benefits in an introductory Cued Speech class, it is likely to be moved to the generic Cued Speech article or removed altogether as irrelevent. By creating a wiki pertaining to Cued Speech, we allow our users to create an intricate, inter-related web of topics and information to enhance their ability and skill in Cued Speech.

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