Since the Radiation Oncology wikibook was the subject of several comments in this discussion thread, as one of the authors of the wikibook, I'd like to contribute my two cents and perhaps editorialize on behalf of the wiki concept.
First of all, we appreciate and acknowledge the criticisms of having an educational resource such as this out in the open for anyone to edit. Sure, it is at risk for overt vandalism and the introduction of errors, either maliciously or unintentionally. Also, there are no formal editors or owners of the work and there is no peer review.
That while the ability for anyone to edit the wikibook is one of its vulnerabilities, it's also what could potentially turn it into a great resource.
A wiki, which comes from the Hawaiian word wikiwiki for "quick", can be edited on the fly, allowing for the ability to stay constantly updated and fresh. Compare this to the standard textbooks in our field that are already a year or so out of date by the time they get published.
Also, even after going through several steps of peer review and passing an editorial board, many, many journal articles and textbooks still contain errors. Unfortunately, once in print, these errors cannot be readily communicated to the reader. Sure, a journal may bring notice to the errors by issuing printed errata in futurer issues and textbooks will eventually (years later) come up with a revised edition, but those solutions do nothing to change the text you see before you.
A wiki textbook, on the other hand, can be edited by anyone who reads it. So errors can be discovered by any of a number of readers and corrected instantly. In essence, instead of a lack of peer review or an editorial board, there is actually an expanded editorial presence.
I need to stress that the wikibook is a work in progress. It was created two and a half years ago with just a table of contents to serve as a general outline but very little content. There was only one author working on it back then, and the additions were hodgepodge, but began to take shape. Later, others learned about it and helped it to grow with their hard work and vision. It has grown steadily. It now has 245 pages of content and about 265,000 words (this is at least count, several months ago). Although most edits have been made by a handful of regular contributors, 26 registered user names and 60 anonymous IP addresses have helped edit the wiki.
Certainly, the wikibook is much more complete in some sections (e.g. prostate) than in others which are very limited in content. Compared to a standard textbook, it's missing an awful lot. As already pointed out by another user, one surely should not turn to the wikibook as their only resource in researching a topic.
By the wiki concept, if it's missing something, then be bold and add it! Only by the collaborative effort of many people is an ambitious project like this able to succeed. Anything is possible, and I'm hoping for the future that the wikibook will become much, much more than it is today. The MediaWiki software (the brain behind the Wikibooks site) allows for graphics to be added, and graphics are sadly something that's lacking in the Radiation Oncology wikibook (and in a field that's so visually-oriented). I'd one day like to see this wikibook have pictures of port films, isodose curves, tumor pathology, anatomy... the list is endless. As I said, anything is possible with this format. It just takes a lot of work.
So, if you like the wiki and you see something that needs changing or if you think it could benefit by adding something, then we encourage you to help out! If you're bold and would like to do it yourself, just click on the "edit this page" tab at the top and make what changes need to be made. At first, the markup language that MediaWiki uses may appear unfamiliar, but it's easy to learn. If you don't care to get involved in editing but see something that needs to be changed and would like to bring it to our attention, then please contact one of the other authors and we'll do it for you.
The Wiki could turn into a great resource that has the advantage that it's available to everybody. It's truly by the people, for the people. (But only if you're Rad Onc. No Med Oncs!!! just kidding...) The more people, the better it will be.
