<CPOV> UvA students create new Wikipedia entries and blog about it

[Joseph Reagle]

On Wednesday, October 06, 2010, Geert Lovink wrote:
> I am always surprised how few young people contribute to Wikipedia.  

From my own anecdotal experience I've found, particularly a few years ago, that many students didn't even know that it was user editable. And now that more do there is still the same hesitancy that you note. Interestingly, one of librarians at the Brooklyn Public Library enjoyed speaking to me about Wikipedia. She would tell me how she absolutely loved it, and then I would ask her does she contribute? And she would respond "oh, no" and beg off. It would seem to me that she is the perfect type of contributor... And, personally, I don't blame her given the kludgy-ness of the interface and the syntax. (And then if you get beyond that, you have to deal with the rules and policies.)