User talk:Cormaggio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hi there..

Archive 1 Dec 2004-Sept 2005

Contents

[edit] Russborough House

Nice article! - there's lot more nice Irish houses that could do with a few words. Giano | talk 18:36, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Not that quick - you made a link at Richard Cassels, which is one of mine so I spotted that first. Seriously though there are hundreds of Irish landmarks, particularly country houses whose architecture is completely ignored, I'd do them myself, but the Italian ones currently have my priority, can't think why really, must be the weather. Giano | talk 18:49, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Mind Benders

Done- I've removed you from the bot's list. If you wish to be re-added, just let me know; future messages will be one line only, and the bottom notice will also be cut. In addition, you may wish to add the Announcement Board page at WP:MIND onto your watchlist if you are still interested in Mind Benders. Thanks for your understanding. Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 19:30, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Notification Bot

Sorry about that. --AllyUnion (talk) 19:58, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Call for Papers from the Chaos Computer Club

Hi, I'm Henriette from german Wikipedia and I found your name on meta. Do you like to participate in the 22. Chaos Communication Congress? The Call for Papers is here. --62.220.20.108 21:59, 26 September 2005 (UTC) my user-Page

Hi :) I asked WiseWoman if she knows some people doing Wikipedia-Research. And she gave me the link of the meta-site ;) --62.220.20.108 22:24, 26 September 2005 (UTC) (Henriette)

[edit] Online meeting this evening

I may be a bit late for the meeting this evening, and I may have to leave early - I'm on call for work. -- Francs2000 11:49, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Yeah I found the bylaws page but haven't done much with it because work has been manic this week. Sorry. -- Francs2000 11:59, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Manchester vote

I noticed your comments on the City of Manchester page. Please vote about the Manchester - City of Manchester situation at Talk:City of Manchester#Straw poll. G-Man 21:03, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Irish Republic template

A user is trying to have the Template:Irish Republic infobox deleted. Your comments would be welcome. FearÉIREANN\(caint) 22:01, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Quartic messages

Dear Cormac,

Nice wikimania photo on your userpage! If you can lend a hand with the Quarto next week, that would be grand. In particular, a little report on recent Wikiversity discussions, and some help with the Wikimania writeup, would be super; but there's also random photoshop and image work and interviewing to be done. In fact, if you're still interested in interviewing Sunir... there may be more things to talk to him about now that he's done with Wikisym :) +sj + 11:39, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

As for transmogrification; I can't see how that would improve the speed and level of communication across the projects. Better to have more and more frequent reports, which any enthusiastic editor can get involved with; not fewer reports on restricted-access wikis. Which is not to say that sprucing up the WMF site isn't a good idea -- I think the two efforts will complement one another. +sj + 19:32, 10 November 2005 (UTC)
You've got it; the draft page is the best place to link out to an essay. +sj + 18:40, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wikimedia UK

You have expressed an interest in Wikimedia UK. Just to let you know I've posted a draft Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association of the proposed "Wikimedia UK" charitable company on Wikimedia UK/Memorandum of Association and Wikimedia UK/Articles of Association. It is proposed that these will receive initial approval by interested parties at a meeting on 27 November. I will put together a brief agenda for the more formal aspects of that meeting soon. Memo and Arts of Association are a company's constitution, and need to be agreed before the company is formed (though they can be changed at a later date). Please feel free to comment on the relevant talk pages (I'd rather the proposed drafts are left unedited so that it is easy to see what is going on) - particularly if there is something there that you would disagree with at the meeting, details of which can be found on the Wikimedia UK page on Wikimedia Meta-Wiki. Kind regards, jguk 19:14, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] re: IRC meeting reformat

Yes it was me, don't worry though, I didn't do it manually (that would have taken ages, just a couple of quick regular expressions did the trick)

Basicly I only did it because with preformated text any long lines don't wrap leading to horizontal scroll (my screen has a paltry maximum resolution of 1024x768), so I figured if I made it into a table (and therefore leaving the structure) it would be easier for me to read. And since I had found it useful I figured others may too.

Annoying thing is I installed Chatzilla specifically for this, set an alarm on my computer to remind me to log in and join the discussion and then I forgot and went out anyway. I am so crap ;) MrWeeble Talk Brit tv 20:49, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Merry Christmas

I'm not expecting to be online as much over the next few days so...

User:Francs2000/Christmas

-- Francs2000 09:15, 22 December 2005 (UTC)


[edit] m:Wikimedia UK

David, I noticed that you have not yet commented on the mailing list or Meta page about whether you want to come to the next meeting, and if so when you would be able to make it. There is a signup sheet at m:Wikimedia UK#Next meeting which it would be great if you could add your signature to sooner rather than later so we can get things moving. Thryduulf 21:53, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Sorry about calling you David. I sent the message to David first and just copied it, forgetting that I'd started it with "David" - I'll go correct the others now... Thryduulf 22:38, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] prject invite

Hi Cormaggio, I'm messaging you because I see that you are in Wikipedia:WikiProject Community, and so might have interest and expertise to lend to this small project: Wikipedia:WikiProject Fast OrgDev Advisory on Userpages, which will write advisory document in support of the new Wikipedia:Proposed policy on userboxes. Herostratus 07:10, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Marriage

We had a ceremony way back in 2002 in a stone circle in Oxfordshire, and in our eyes we've been married since then, if not by law. We haven't done the legal ceremony yet, partly because there's no rush - we have wills and statutory declarations - partly because we just can't afford to have it done. So in the meantime we're "living in sin" in the eyes of the majority world, but as married as is possible in ours. -- Francs2000 21:39, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

Come live in Tory backwater - you soon get to learn that "these days" only exists in the cities! Are you going to the meetup in London tomorrow by the way? -- Francs2000 22:12, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dylan

Thanks for the correction. I was writing the lyric from memory and I must have mentally merged "hear" and "her" and didn't read it back right.

I don't know that the song was ever on an album until it appeared on "Greatest Hits vol. 2." Back in the olde days it was not uncommon for an artist's work to appear on a single only, esp. if it was a B-side. I kind of stopped following Dylan's new albums after "John Wesley Hardin."

"Tomorrow is a Long Time" is special IMO, in that it is one of Dylab's few love ballads untainted by sarcasm, bitterness, or good old fashioned youth arrogance. It is one of the few times he comes up to the level of some of Leonard Cohen's. In my rarely humble opinjon, of course. Thank for the writing! Cheers, Cecropia 23:12, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

Oh, I get it. "Through A Bullet of Light," is a bootleg (or maybe an "offical bootleg" of early recording sessions. But it must be a fairly recent release. Dylan's first release was the album "Bob Dylan" released in (IIRC) 1963 by Columbia, which was a big deal, since they were almost exclusively a classical label. Then the first major album (IMHO) was the next, "Freewheelin'".
Dylan's focus changed with just about every album, and people marked the changes by when they gave up on him. I pretty much gave up after Blonde on Blonde. -- Cecropia 02:38, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re: You're grammars' terrible

First of all, I have to say that I love the title. Secondly, I would not consider the last comma before 'and' incorrect at all; it is the serial comma, which most North American language authorities recommend, as well as quite a few in Britain, such as the OUP. It is not often seen in newspapers, but apparently, this is to save space. I have always used it, not because some stuffy so-and-so in an office in Oxon or New Hampshire thinks that it is a good idea, but because I think that it eliminates more confusion than it creates, and also because I think that the lack of comma before 'and' is rather clunky, personally, and does not reflect my speech pattern at all.

I love MTV makes me want to smoke crack too. Do you like much of Beck? It was one of the first copies of it that made me a lifelong devotee to Beck; it's such dexterous social commentary, but when Beck does that, he keeps it subtle, rather than throwing his woes, patronisingly, down the throat of the listener. It is a shame that it is so comparatively rare, although, saying that, my favourite Beck songs are live one-offs. --It's-is-not-a-genitive 19:49, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProjects

Thanks for the heads-up on education WikiProjects (1 and 2). About two years ago I went to Science education and had a bad experience. I guess I should get my courage up and make another attempt to work on that page. --JWSchmidt 00:17, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Schon/Schön

I'm not convinced that he usually gets the German-style spelling (see for example this page [1], where Schön is in the background). But importantly, the history now at Donald Schön suggests you copied-and-pasted, rather than moving the page. This very obviously destroys the page history. It's against good practice. Charles Matthews 17:46, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Fixed. Don't ever do this (cut and paste moves) again, please. —Nightstallion (?) 14:32, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
Ok, thanks for doing this, but I've already learnt my lesson and eaten humble pie. There's a nice way of saying this (see above your comment) and a not so nice way (your comment). Cormaggio @ 17:29, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
Sorry, it's my standard message. It's just meant to make it absolutely clear that cut-and-paste moves are one of the most horrid things to happen in a GFDL environment, AFAIK. And how's a factual statement, accompanied by "please", not so nice? shrugs —Nightstallion (?) 18:46, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
Well, saying "Don't ever do something" is pretty much an authoritative order in my book, regardless of whether there's a please (which just looks tagged on). Saying "please don't do something" is better; explaining why that something is wrong is much better. I think I made it clear I knew I did something wrong, so that's why I got irritated. But no biggy. Cormaggio @ 20:38, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
Mh, okay, in retrospect I can agree that it was phrased unnecessarily despotic. My apologies. —Nightstallion (?) 22:42, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
Yeah, that's cool. My apologies too. Cormaggio @ 22:57, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image copyright problem with Image:Wikimania_party.jpg

Thanks for uploading Image:Wikimania_party.jpg. However, the image may soon be deleted unless we can determine the copyright holder and copyright status. The Wikimedia Foundation is very careful about the images included in Wikipedia because of copyright law (see Wikipedia's Copyright policy).

The copyright holder is usually the creator, the creator's employer, or the last person who was transferred ownership rights. Copyright information on images on Wikipedia is signified using copyright templates. The three basic license types on Wikipedia are open content, public domain, and fair use. Find the appropriate template in Wikipedia:Image copyright tags and place it on the image page like this: {{TemplateName}}.

Please signify the copyright information on any other images you have uploaded or will upload. Remember that images without this important information can be deleted by an administrator. You can get help on image copyright tagging from Wikipedia talk:Image copyright tags. -- Carnildo 08:25, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

I've emailed her now to get clarification. Cormaggio @ 12:27, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Templates, templates, templates?

Continued from Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Education#Templates, templates, templates?

The editor in question is Rfrisbie (contr.). I don't want to criticize his efforts, or discourage his contribution in any way. All of his work certainly looks well-intended and some of it is quality, constructive content. But much of it involves building and distributing templates, working on the Portal:Education, and creating new categories (adding to the already overwhelming and chaotic list of education-related categories which needs, in my opinion, to be completely overhauled and trimmed way down before even more random categories are added). Again, I love the fact that we have such an enthusiastic new editor--so I don't want to sound too aggressive and offend him, but we need to get everyone involved in the team aspect of the project. Maybe I'm wrong--what do you think? Thanks, Master Scott | Talk 22:17, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks

Cormaggio, thanks for leaving the note. I have been getting the notes, and am a passive listener for now, as I'm in the middle of a move to Beijing (!) so I hope I plan to make it online for the Sunday meeting, for now. Cheers. -- Fuzheado | Talk 08:40, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] No, don't mention whales until AFTER the wedding dress

Girls always get sensitive about comparisons to whales before buying a wedding dress :P Kidding. Thanks for your well wishes Cormaggio! - Ta bu shi da yu 12:41, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Haha! Nice one. Also nice that the first thing you mention on your user page is my study you participated in all those wikimoons ago... Cormaggio @ 13:12, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Version 1.0 "Release Version Qualifying"

Hi, I'm interested in your feedback on Wikipedia talk:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Release Version Qualifying. It's essentially an idea to use a process similar to WP:FAC to identify and handle articles and lists that would go in a release version. Maurreen 19:49, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your note. That was thoughtful. I understand we all have multiple demands on our time. :) Maurreen 16:51, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WP 1.0

I thought since you are interested in this project you might be interested to see a CD version of en now exists see Wikipedia:Wikipedia-CD/Download & 2006 WP CD Selection. This is being discussed on the 1.0 project pages but progress breeds enthusiasm so I thought I would let you know. --BozMo talk 09:14, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wha?

Why did it get removed? It's an original source I though. Ah well, definitely tell me where it is when it gets there :-) Ta bu shi da yu 14:13, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks for the welcome!

I took on one of the requested articles today to introduce myself to the project. I hope to do things in here with some regularity. Best, Kukini 23:10, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks for Wikisource Links!

Thanks for adding Wikisource links to the Blind Men and an Elephant article I did. I didn't even think about doing that! I know you're a major Wikipedian, and it's cool that you'd help a Wikipedia newby! Binky The WonderSkull 04:50, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re: General User Survey

I don't know Perl, but I am grad student in sociology and know some theory about surveys. Looking at what we have now I think we are really, really close. The questions are almost done, assuming we accept my corrections there are ready. The only two things that needs to be done is 1) work out how the questionnaire will look to the end user and how the answers will be recorded (simple way is to have a subst:template that each respondent would copy, save, fill, and save; more ambitious one is something with scripts and buttons) and 2) figure out how to advertise the thing on Wikipedia (and hopefully other projects). Translation would be nice, very nice even, but I am not sure if any script will do, machine translation sucks for anything complicated. Still, we may get some volunteers: I can translate the survey into Polish, and since it is basically Likert scale, we don't need much to worry about translating user's comments back to English. PS. Yes, I will be at Wikimania, looking forward to seeing you :) --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 16:08, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

If we can get somebody to write the nice script with buttons, fine, but if not, I think the most important thing is 'to get this show on the road' rather then dwell on bells and whistles; I think with clear instructions using a subst template is easy, and after all we will be addressing people who already know some basics of wiki. In instructions, either on every project or visible on meta, we tell people to copy subst part and go to a specific wiki (meta). There they create a subpage, just as they would do during a FAC or PR process, with the title being a number of survey. On that subpage they paste the subst template, and click save. Survey appears. They edit it, fill it out, save again, and presto! - we are done. In addition, we can caution them before they start editing that if they want to be anonomius they should be logged out of wiki they are editing. If you think it's a sound idea, I can have a draft version if it ready on meta soon.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 16:24, 13 July 2006 (UTC)
Are you sure I participated in your study? I don't recall it :( Your MT looks interesting. Do you intend to publish it? Are you still working on similar issues, perhaps for PhD? I myself am now working on MT with will look at Wikipedia (WP:V policy development) as a case study in the growth of bureaucracy and evolution of decision making (I will be relying on Iron Law of Oligarchy theory, I think), as a preparation for a PhD about Wiki (I am not entirely sure what it would be about, but it would likely involve some coparisons between Wiki and some other organizations). I am also working on 'Wikipedia as a teaching tool' article (and I will have a presentation on this at Wikimania). If you are in any teaching position, I would stronly recommend you try to use Wikipedia as a teaching tool and convince as many of your peers as you can that this is a good idea :) --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 16:26, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
Yep, that's masters, and my second to :) There are few people working on studying Wikipedia. Wikidemia doesn't seem to active, at least judging by amounts of edits and virtual lack of replies to msgs posted at talk :( It's a shame, I think we should really try to revitalize this page. The Wikiversity/Modified project proposal would be better if it clearly stated what the proposed changes are. Btw, I have done some edits to the GSU/Q yesterday.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 17:12, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
I can send you my current draft of MT proposal if you want.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 04:30, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Have a nice Wikimania

Hi there! Just to let you know that due to my thesis writing and my unwillingness to enter the U.S. territory, I will not attend Wikimania this year. If you are, I wish you the best of times; you are amongst the people I was most looking forward to seeing again. See you next year maybe! Sam Hocevar 11:18, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Community News

Community WikiProject • News • July 2006
community Portal

The Community WikiProject has had an overhaul and new developments are afoot! We are putting in place some tools for classifying, categorizing and assessing community-related content on Wikipedia. Please have a look at the Tools section on the project page.

Also, the Community article has been identified by the Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team as a Core Topic, one of the 150 most important articles for any encyclopedia to have. This article is undergoing a massive collaborative rewrite in which you may want to be involved!
You have recieved this newsletter because you are listed as a participant at WikiProject Community.

[edit] Location maps

Hey mate, just letting you know I replied to your message on my talkpage --Dom0803 22:17, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

That sounds excellent mate. Let me know once you get it going in full swing. --Dom0803 16:04, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
If you think I could teach well, just let me know whenever you need me, man. More than happy to give a helping hand :) --Dom0803 21:11, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

I noticed that Wikiversity is setup and running. I was wondering perhaps you would like a Locator map page explaining the locator map, how it works, and ultimatley how to create and use one? --Dom0803 16:19, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Board Qs

Answered. --Improv 12:42, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Board candidate questions

Hi Nicholas, I'm glad to see you're running for the current board elections. I have some questions that I think would be good to know - please answer (or ignore) them as you see fit. Thanks. Cormaggio @ 11:22, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Dear Cormaggio: Thank you for your pertinent, and very interesting, set of questions; below, please find my answers, which I hope might provide a clearer profile of myself as a Board candidate to you. If there are any points in what I have written that you feel could benefit from further clarification, or should you have any further questions for me, please do not hesitate to let me know. Best regards, --NicholasTurnbull | (talk) 01:07, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
  1. What do you do in real lifeTM?
    Real life? You mean that actually exists? :)
    Joking aside, I do all sorts of things. In terms of my career, my work is mainly related to IT; I work as a freelance project manager and management consultant, mainly in solving management problems relating to systems development and team management. I also do the odd spot of systems development myself, as I actually very much enjoy coding, and occasionally I also do systems analysis work. I am in the process of starting a new management consultancy business at present with a colleague of mine. Professional work aside, I am a classical pianist and harpsichordist; I also compose the odd piece of music as a matter of interest. Academically, I am a Computing student, and will be studying Computing with Artificial Intelligence at the University of Sussex in this coming academic year.
  2. What personal/professional experience would you bring to the board, if elected?
    A large proportion of my professional work is basically acting as an intermediary between what would be ideal in running projects, and what is actually practical - and, probably most importantly, working out methods of achieving the best possible outcome despite resource constraints and the inevitable calamities that happen along the way. The other crucial part of it is dealing with people; managing strengths and weaknesses, sorting out disputes, providing a gentle hand of assistance where necessary, and also occasionally carrying out the somewhat less gentle task of either rehabilitating or removing team members who are not pulling their weight.
    A lot of what I have learned in project management applies, I think, very well to a larger focus of a project-focused organisation like Wikimedia as well - my experience in dealing with variables affecting a project, and using them to produce solutions, is the essence of what I would like to achieve as a Wikimedia board member. It is these elements, I think, that the Wikimedia Foundation as a whole would benefit from improvement in, and it is this expertise I would, to the best of my abilities, bring to the Board.
  3. What do you see as the role of a board member?
    In a volunteer-dependent organisation such as the Wikimedia Foundation, I believe the duties of a board member are three-fold: 1) to provide an interface to the outside corporate world for the volunteer communities, and the handling of organisational issues, enabling Wikimedia projects to operate and ensure its operational needs are met; 2) to tabulate, analyse and remedy issues affecting the communities of Wikimedia projects, by gathering, developing and implementing solutions to those issues; and finally, 3) act as a guardian of the Foundations's focus and interests, and provide strategic leadership to the volunteer projects, taking responsibility for the Foundation's activities.
  4. Do you have any personal aspirations you would like to pursue through a tenure on the board?
    It has always been my primary mission in life to make a difference wherever I can in the world, and I believe the Wikimedia Foundation does exactly that - by providing free, comprehensive information on a diverse range of subjects to the world. Thus, I feel that by assisting the Foundation as a Board member, I shall be able to work towards the goal of summarising the world's information into an excellent series of educational resources, for both those privileged enough to have Internet access and also in print form for those who do not, in developing countries. My aspiration is, thus, to contribute my management expertise to the Foundation, participating in ensuring its long-term success and satisfaction of goals; and at a finer degree of working focus, to make a difference to the Foundation projects and those who contribute to them through application of what I know.

[edit] Communitas!

Hi Cormaggio. Thanks very much for your interest and participation in the Communitas project. I've created a spot for your spin on the whole thing in our new Embedded Communitas! workspace at Wikipedia. (shhhh - don't tell anyone about it ;) Your space has a main section and one subsection. Just go to town with it if you want to. Make a whole section for Wikiversity if you want to, but scroll down and note that I have seeded some interest areas that are very Wikipedia-centric, which is how we must be in this workspace.

Take a look also at the little "learning objects" that Surf and I have come up with. Ain't they kewl? Two more things — Our COTM is the Virtual community article (it's a bit of a mess) and the Fasttrack to sources subproject. • CQ 01:23, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks for the sushi!

...and for your kind words about the Toshio Iwai article, Cormac - I've been really into his work since seeing Resonance of 4 at the Barbican in '97. I noticed last week that his page was pretty minimal, and realized that a wealth of info about him had appeared on the web since I last Googled him 18 months ago, so I couldn't stop myself from making my first major contribution! Thanks for the raw fish - I've got pretty much all my favorite types there! Just need a nice pint of Sapporo, now... :-) Cheers, Rich. Rich Lem 05:46, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

> I saw him recently showcasing his magical musical instruments (including Tenori-on)
Fantastic! Were you at that Futuresonic gig with Battles and Fennesz? And thanks for the delishus beer!!! Rich Lem 17:21, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] From Conventional Classrooms to Online Workshops

Hello, my name is Adrian and I would like to contribute to the development of collaborative strategies for the integration of virtual and physical classrooms.

I think that the wikiversity could provide an interface between real life learning communities operating within regular universities and virtual spaces/communities such as those growing around the wikimedia sister projects. You seem to be the best person to point me in the right direction.

I posted this proposal a couple of weeks ago in a blog hosted by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Since then I have received some interesting feedback, and the idea is developing rather fast. Right now I would like to figure out how to promote this thing more effectively. Sorry for dumping so much text in your talk page. You can contact me directly at aldenis@ucla.edu

thanks

From Conventional Classrooms to Online Workshops

My name is Adrian Lopez Denis and I am a PhD candidate in Latin American history at UCLA. In the last two years I have been looking for ways to incorporate the open source model to collective forms of historical production. From the beginning, encouraging professional historians to contribute to the development of the wikipedia project emerged as the most obvious approach. Most professional historians are both researchers and educators. Besides conducting their own specialized studies, they are often expected to provide hundreds of undergraduate students with a relatively wider understanding of the past. Completing a history course usually requires writing research papers, journal entries, annotated bibliographies, or book reviews. Students are expected to produce a certain amount of pages that educators are supposed to read and grade. There is a great deal of redundancy and waste involved in this practice. Usually several students answer the same questions or write separately on the same topic, and the valuable time of the professionals that read these essays is wasted on a rather repetitive task.

In the process of essay writing, students use an array of resources, from the overpriced textbooks and readers they are expected to purchase to more readily available online tools like wikipedia. Some of us would perhaps push for deeper levels of inquiry involving books on reserve, open library searches, or even the occasional dive into local repositories of primary sources. In most cases, however, the entire process will be a mockery of actual research. As long as essay writing remains purely an academic exercise, or an evaluation tool, students would be learning a deep lesson in intellectual futility along with whatever other information the course itself is trying to convey. Assuming that each student is writing 10 pages for a given class, and each class has an average of 50 students, every course is in fact generating 500 pages of written material that would eventually find its way to the campus trashcans. In the meantime, the price of college textbooks is raising four times faster that the general inflation rate.

The solution to this conundrum is rather simple. Small teams of students should be the main producers of course material and every class should operate as a workshop for the collective assemblage of copyright-free instructional tools. Because each team would be working on a different problem, single copies of library materials placed on reserve could become the main source of raw information. Each assignment would generate a handful of multimedia modular units that could be used as building blocks to assemble larger teaching resources. Under this principle, each cohort of students would inherit some course material from their predecessors and contribute to it by adding new units or perfecting what is already there. Courses could evolve, expand, or even branch out. Although centered on the modular production of textbooks and anthologies, this concept could be extended to the creation of syllabi, handouts, slideshows, quizzes, webcasts, and much more. Educators would be involved in helping students to improve their writing rather than simply using the essays to gauge their individual performance. Students would be encouraged to collaborate rather than to compete, and could learn valuable lessons regarding the real nature and ultimate purpose of academic writing and scholarly research.

Online collaboration and electronic publishing of course materials would multiply the potential impact of this approach. Users outside the class, the country, or the continent could benefit from the work of the students. Course projects could be run on relatively closed websites associated to traditional scholarly institutions. The output from these sites could be periodically uploaded into larger repositories based on a more open model of intellectual collaboration along the lines of the wikipedia project. An even bolder move would be to base entire courses on the creation of actual wikipedia entries. Under this principle, the interaction between classmates and larger online communities could be immediate and continuous. Students could run a wikiportal, write a wikibook, or even be fully integrated in an electronic course within the wikiversity. Discussing the advantages, disadvantages, and larger implications of the wikimedia model of collective intellectual production could be a valuable educational experience in and on itself.

Changing our approach to in-class writing assignments could be rather significant. We could produce a huge repertoire of dynamically evolving instructional materials, created by students and for students, professionally edited and collectively reviewed, free and copylefted. It could be very difficult to convince many of our colleagues about the practicality of dumping the results of their promotion-giving, sabbatical-swallowing, and ultimately unwelcome original research into such an anarchic pool of information as wikipedia is today. It would be easier to alter our current approach to essay writing in the history class, recycling an otherwise dull operation into a socially productive and intellectually stimulating practice.Aldenis 22:00, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Porposal for Waldorf Project

Hello, I have proposed to make a project about Waldorf education because the page is a mess and under constant edit wars. I have proposed it as a project, but don't wish to duplicate efforts- would you prefer that we make this a sub-project of your alt ed project? I have asked this question on the alt ed project page several days ago and thought I would write individual project members since nobody has seen it. We now have 4 people who have agreed to work on the Waldorf project. Wonderactivist 13:11, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Waldorf project admin questions

Dear Longhair and Cormaggio, Thank you immeasurably for your help with the Waldorf project so far. As you will note below, I am planning shortly to move the project pages to within alt ed - just want to clarify structure first. It is currently at User:Wonderactivist/Waldorf Project Team Page

With your admin experience, and the amount of back-n-forth this article has undergone - actually speeding up since the proposed project - I would like your opinion on strategies to manage the project if you should have time.

I see two major issues:

1 there are "sides" within the group instead of a single focus on creating a good article. While this is somewhat to be expected, I also expected a greater level of professionalism. Is there a known strategy to begin to turn this around?

2 Unbelievably, I think,we have actually reached almost a consensus on the Introduction. I would like to focus on this positive and if possible have it become a springboard for examining just one section at a time. 3 On the current project page, a format for the article has been proposed, while the person actually rewrote the whole article, I propose taking just the OUTLINE - the section names 0- and beginnning with agreeing upon the sections.

Other than the administrative questions, my project strategy will be to set up two pages within the alt ed project:

1 to lay out a structure - outline only - for the page 2 to finalize with formal agreement, the introduction. 3 ONLY begin work on the next section when we have agreed upon the above two, then moving just one section at a time.

My hope is that it will disarm the ongoing wars over fine points and pet projects.

What is your opinion?

And thank you from the bottom of my transplanted Texas heart! Wonderactivist 04:14, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Project has been moved

Now at Wikipedia:WikiProject Waldorf Project Wonderactivist 04:55, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Waldorf Project Organization

Dear Longhair,Cormaggio, and Fergie, I know there's already been so much controversy surrounding it, but plan to proceed with the Waldorf project. Thank you all so much for your help so far.

I have organized the pages better, centering on the page Longhair set up at Wikipedia:WikiProject Waldorf Project and have a proposal on the table for how to proceed in a very focused, organized fashion. I truly believe that this is the only way the project can progress. I would like to invite your ideas and comments on the organizational structure, and the proposals, and anything else! Wonderactivist 17:44, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Oops on Waldorf

Oops! I stand thoroughly corrected. For the Waldorf project, I have actually sought out the opinions of one admin, one unbiased Wikipedian, and one involved, yet highly experienced and demonstrated-to-be-fair Wikipedian.

Cormaggio has made an excellent point: several of the ongoing editors of the Waldorf page have chosen not to take part in this project. It may be that mediation is a better choice. I am happy to spearhead a project, but just as happy to turn it over to mediators. Considering the conflict you have witnessed in the past month, which do you recommend? Personally, I would just like for the edit wars to stop and for the page to be just a bit more stable. Wonderactivist 20:47, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Scandinavian activity theory

Hi colleague,

just fyi: I have cut the original Activity theory in two chunks; the other one is the subj. Yasya 05:05, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and my best wishes for 2007. --Frank Schulenburg 16:36, 25 December 2006 (UTC)
Merry Christmas and my best wishes for 2007. --Frank Schulenburg 16:36, 25 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hi There

Hi, my name's Nathan from Florida.I'm lookin' for more friends on wikipedia;especialy ones with experance,as I am kinna new.Read my user page.I'm also trying to make my own site but it's not up and running yet.I have an interest in Irish history,Celtic history and basicly all things Irish.I wanna go to one of these wikimania events,or have one started in my area.Write me back on my talk page.Natthegreat 16:28, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Manchester Meetup

Hi, just getting in touch because you expressed an interest in the meetup here. Some people have expressed a view that they would be able to make it were the date moved from Fri 8 June to Sat 9 June. Obviously its now getting pretty close, so I thought a quick poll would be the best the way to find out the better day. If you're still interested, it would be great if you could say whether you can make either or both days here. Thanks, WjBscribe 16:49, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] University of Saskatchewan

Noticed you were a member of Wikiproject Canada - Education.... Celebrate the Centennial University of Saskatchewan Anniversary in the year 2007. Would you please go to Article Collaboration and Improvement Drive and vote for this University of Saskatchewan article!!! Tell any and all other editors / U of S students you know who wiki to vote also please!!! Please help Celebrate the Anniversary of the U of S University of Saskatchewan Academics Talk Please help to bring the article to feature status !!!SriMesh | talk 03:02, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikiproject homeschooling

Hi Cormaggio!

I noticed you were a member of WikiProject Alternative Education, and thought you might be interested in WikiProject Homeschooling. In this "WikiProject," we have been together working on the collaboration of Homeschooling-related articles. As a member, I really hope you can join, and let me know if you need any help signing up or with anything else. If you have any questions about the project you can ask at the project's talk page. Cheers! RC-0722 communicator/kills 23:29, 22 February 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Alternative education

There has been a proposal brought forward [2] regarding a merger of WikiProject Alternative Education, and as you are member of that project, I am notifying you. Thanks. Twenty Years 13:30, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Alternative Education merger

Thanks for your input on this merger. I have also responded to comments made by Sherurcij which included misleading information. DiligentTerrier and friends has smiled at you! Smiles promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by smiling at someone else, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Cheers, and Happy editing!
Smile at others by adding {{subst:Smile}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

18:50, 14 March 2008 (UTC)