The website Livius.org has been awarded the 2010 Oikos Prize for popularizing Ancient History by the Dutch national research school of classicists. In his acceptance spech titled “Ancient History, Poor Information, and the Internet” the site owner, Jona Lendering explains why the quality standards of information about ancient history have fallen over the years, and what needs to be done to improve the situation.

His key points are that academics should not be tasked to speak or write about topics outside their subject area, and that quality information should not be locked away behind paid gateways, so that it can be easily referenced. “On the internet, which is a battlefield between good and bad information, real scholars fight with their arms tied.”

Ancient History Encyclopedia and Livius.org aim to help particularly with the second problem: Quality information needs to be free in order to allow people to be informed, educated, or proven wrong. Sadly, mistakes are inevitable, which is why peer review is so important. Ancient History Encyclopedia is actively looking for peer reviewers and academic content contributions, so please do contribute to making the internet a better place for historical information.

Disclaimer: Some Ancient History Encyclopedia content is provided by Livius.org.