Wikipedia’s invitational approach to expertise

Through analyzing the Talk and History pages of Wikipedia’s English-language article titled “writing,” I challenge the notion that Wikipedia excludes expertise. I provide examples of ways in which contributors invite experts to help determine what content makes its way to the forward-facing “writing” article. This article seeks to show that valuing subject-matter expertise alongside popular public contributions, what I call an invitational approach to expertise, can result in a successful forward-facing article in Wikipedia and, by extension, potentially model a way for experts and the larger populace to work together in public discourse. An invitational approach positions expertise as dialogic and in process and both experts and non-experts as necessary.