Wikipedia: no innovation please

Although I knew it would be met with resistance, I have attempted to get some mention of the particle panel concept into the Wikipedia article on solar thermal collectors.  This process has been interesting and is worth discussion, because it gets to the heart of innovation, self-interest and public interest.

Wikipedia is here to serve us all, and its massive daily use by million of people has changed the world for the better.  I am a proud supporter of Wikipedia (both financially and vocally).  The problem of self-interests is a huge problem for Wikipedia, and I have no doubt that wiki editors are constantly zeroing in on self-interest edits and deleting them (like they did with my addition), much to the benefit to all.  However, this leads to an interesting problem when it comes to documenting ongoing innovation of technology.

The problem is that when I read about Solar Thermal Collectors (or any other technology), I want to see two things.

First, I want to understand what it is, how it works, and why it is useful.  I do not want to be exposed to a bunch of commercial spam mascaraing as fact, pointing me to all the companies out there vying for control of one market niche or another.   Wikipedia is doing a good job with this.

Second, I want to know what is currently being done and the new paths being explored.  This is intimately tied to commercial interests.  In many ways, this is what is most exciting to people (or at least me).  I want to see the cutting edge of the field, because this is where the goldmine of information is.  If you understand what new ideas are being explored you will have a better appreciation of the problems being faced by current approaches, and you will have a chance to discover a solution for yourself.  Since Wikipedia is all about its ability to build itself and is increasingly finding itself as the first place people go to learn about a topic, it would be a fantastic place to showcase innovation as it is happening.  These new ideas need to be clearly labeled as such, the problems they are trying to address needs to be clear, and the way they work needs to be fully disclosed.  Beyond that, they deserve a space along side the status-quo.

I would really like to be able to see all the self-interests working on any particular field documented in Wikipedia.  It would help everybody and encourage innovation.  Consider the comment of the wiki editor Jojalozzo:

"My interpretation of WP:OR policy is that a technology needs to be developed and become accepted in the industry or in the DIY community before it is suited for reference here. It's the originality, novelty and fringe nature of your work that is problematic."

In other words, if its original and novel, it has no place in Wikipedia.  You can read my little discussion with the offended Wikipedia editor here.  I (reluctantly) agree with his choice to remove my addition.  However, this experience has made me realize how much we need a public forum for innovation...A place where people can come together around ideas and move ideas forward quickly and with public involvement.