User:Wolf530/Educating Academia

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I was reading an article today (found here) about how people in Academia don't really participate in Wikipedia because they don't believe in the project. Some of the reasons cited included skepticism about the factuality of the articles, and also the fact that Wikipedia doesn't place any emphasis on material created by "experts." This is, of course, the main reason why Larry Sanger forked with Citizendium.

So, two things occurred to me:

  1. Wikipedia needs experts. Jimmy Wales has stated he wants Wikipedia to focus more on quality than quantity, now. So we need folks who are experts in their fields to help edit Wikipedia, and also become active contributers.
  2. Experts and people in Academia need to come to understand that while we need their expertise, they are going to need to learn the "Wiki way" and put the "good of the many" ahead of the "good of the few" (or the one).

Basically, people in Academia need to be aware that, while this isn't something that's going to go on their resume, it is something that is going to contribute to the good of humanity. They need to know the good things that Wikipedia is doing, and how they can play a critical role in taking Wikipedia forward. I don't think it would hurt to mention that they can also strive for positions within the Wikimedia community, as well -- like being a part of the board, and so on, if that's what they're looking for.

I also want to make the point that while some of the Academic community is very techno-savvy, there are a great many who are not. We need to find a way to bridge the gap to those people who would be interested in helping the project, but are without the know-how (or knowledge of Wikipedia) to get involved.

[edit] Ideas

All that being said, it came to me that there is a way we can meet these challenges, if anyone is interested. The general idea would be to reach out to people at Universities and Colleges by holding seminars for educators and students.

My first thoughts on this would be that people holding the seminars would post a few fliers around campuses, and also try and get the word out via college news channels (radio, e-mail, etc). The seminars would be held at a communal location on campuses, open to all. The person holding the seminar would need to be fairly knowledgeable about Wikipedia, and probably also be an active contributor. I'd like to see a group put together a full seminar packet so that it's a simple walk-through, but I'll get to that in a moment...

Seminars would probably last 2-3 three hours to cover the range of Wikipedia, and perhaps also include a short introduction to other Wikimedia projects.

The seminars would progress something like this:

  1. Introduction to wikis
  2. Introduction to Wikipedia
  3. Nuts & bolts of editing
  4. Principles of participation
  5. "Sticking to it"
    • Don't be discouraged if people don't accept your edits. Use talk pages to back up your changes, etc.
  6. Other ways to participate

[edit] Seminar packet

If this were to go forward, the best way to get it off the ground is to create a comprehensive "How To" for the seminar. This would be a detailed area where people who are interested in holding a seminar would learn how to publicize, how to hold the seminar, and how to follow up.

The main component would be a seminar packet which would include materials like a publicity flier, perhaps a PowerPoint presentation of some type, and a loose script.

[edit] Where to start...

I guess to get this going, we need to gauge if there is any kind of interest in the project. Then I'd need someone to tell me where to best create a project area. I know WikiProjects are intended for article creation/cleanup type projects. Then we'd need to put together the seminar packet, and get more folks involved.

As always, thoughts on the Talk page.

--Wolf530 18:32, 28 October 2006 (UTC)