Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-12-26/SPV

The role of Wikipedia in academia has been expanding rapidly—and to some extent vice-versa. Periodic stories from student newspapers continue to report mixed attitudes to Wikipedia among college and university professors ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]). But in many courses, especially in writing, cultural studies, and interdisciplinary fields, professors are using Wikipedia as the basis for assignments: writing articles or evaluating and discussing them. Jeremy Tirrell, a

Most Wikipedia writing assignments are relatively small. Typically students are asked to write or revise a few paragraphs to a few pages. For example, in Jonathan Benda's "intercultural communications" course at

However, a number of more substantial course projects have been implemented, many of them in technical fields. In journalism and media studies courses at University of Hong Kong, Andrew Lih and his students worked on an array of current events articles, sometimes over several semesters; Lih's project, among the first, was the subject of a CNN article in 2003. Students in Ellen Cohn's University of Pittsburgh graduate course on cleft palate disorders (assisted by User:Piotrus) created a set of related articles; Kent Norman's students in a "Human/Computer Interaction" graduate course did the same. A Summer "Public Speaking" course at Indiana University used existing articles as the basis for group presentations, with article corrections as extra credit; similarly, a Fall University of New Brunswick English course required editing and presentations on women playwrights. The common denominator of the larger Wikipedia assignments so far has been the involvement of an experienced Wikipedian (usually the professor or teaching assistant).

Only a modest level of attention has been focused on issues related to Wikipedia teaching methods. Earlier this year, Alan Liu of UC Santa Barbara drafted and circulated a statement for students on "Appropriate Use of Wikipedia", which appears to have been well-received among humanities professors. Last fall, Betsy Colwill of San Diego State University implemented a Wikipedia assignment for her "Feminist Thought" course, and presented the results to fellow faculty for the school's People, Information and Communication Technology Project. T. Mills Kelly of George Mason University's Center for History and New Media has been using and promoting Wikipedia assignments for some time, first with graduate students and later with undergraduates as well. Andy Carvin, in his blog and on the educational technology H-Net listserv "edtech", has also initiated discussions about Wikipedia in the classroom.

One interesting development with academia beyond the classroom setting is the new

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Stewards appointed

Following the conclusion of the steward elections last week, the Board of Trustees promoted all 12 candidates who had met both the criteria of having at least 30 support votes and an 80% support ratio. Only three of the 15 candidates in the election - Lar, Mzlla, and Taxman - did not reach those criteria and were not promoted, although each of them had at least 75% support. The appointments were first announced by steward and Board member Oscar van Dillen. Of the 12 newly-elected stewards, four had unanimous support: Dbl2010, Redux, M7, and Effeietsanders; six had above 90% support: Shanel (98%), Pathoschild (97%), Guillom (95%), Bastique (91%), Drini (91%), and Darkoneko (90%). The remaining two successful candidates were Cspurrier and MaxSem, who garnered 87% and 84% support, respectively. A tabular summary of the election is also available.

As of press time, it was not immediately clear if any current stewards would lose their status. Although most stewards had no opposition or negative comments, several stewards did have users opposing their status at the confirmation page. The process of confirmation was detailed as having "the current and newly elected stewards... consider complaints left on this page, and choose to remove stewardship as necessary taking into account both the comments left by community and their own perspective and understanding of the job." Van Dillen, when asked about the issue, commented that the re-confirmation was "a matter for the stewards/community to decide, and not [an issue] for the board."

Fundraiser continues

The Wikimedia Foundation's fundraiser continued this week; as of press time, over

Milestones

After the

• The Latin Wikipedia has reached 8,000 pages.
• The Marathi Wikipedia has reached 45,000 edits.
• The Min Nan Wiktionary has reached 6,000 pages.
• The West Flemish Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
• The Asturian Wikipedia has reached 7,000 articles.
• The Bishnupriya Manipuri Wikipedia has reached 10,000 articles.
• The Hebrew Wikipedia has reached 50,000 articles.
• The Swedish Wikipedia has reached 200,000 articles.
• The Marathi Wikipedia has reached 7,000 articles.
• The Persian Wiktionary has reached 10,000 entries.
• The Turkish Wiktionary has reached 60,000 entries.
• The Romanian Wikipedia has reached 25,000 registered users.
• The Amharic Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
• The Maltese Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
• The Hebrew Wikipedia has reached 30,000 registered users.
• The Marathi Wikipedia has reached 44,000 edits.
• The Cebuano Wikipedia has reached 10,000 articles.
• The French Wikipedia has reached 1,000,000 total pages.
• The Czech Wikisource has reached 1,000 text units.
• The Portuguese Wikisource has reached 6,000 text units.
• The Japanese Wikipedia has reached 100,000 registered users.

Wikipedia mentioned in Time's Person of Year Award

Time named "You" the Person of the Year for 2006 and Wikipedia was prominently mentioned by Time in the article. Time defined "You" as the Internet users whose efforts in creating content is revolutionizing the dissemination and creation of information. The article also cited Wikipedia as the source for historical information on the World Wide Web. See also coverage of the honor in The Boston Globe and other outlets.

Wikipedia's Top 10 Cited Entries

A story in