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

[Felipe Ortega]

On Miércoles, 6 de Octubre de 2010 16:43:15 Geert Lovink escribió:
> The Ortega curve, if I may call it like that, should be of great  
> concern for us all. The initial response of the Wikimedia Foundation  
> and some individual Wikipedians to the stagnation of editor numbers  
> etc. was one of initial denial. Maybe understandable but not very  
> clever on the long run. The inclusion of Wikipedia in courses like  
> these is one of possibly many ways to break out of the current threat  
> of social closure.

Thanks, Geert, but definitely that curve is not like a physical constant... :)

It's true that it received strong criticism at first, amplified by some news 
coming from mass media. However, I think the message was ultimately received 
by both the community and WMF.

The first example are some comments on this WMF document, summarizing the 
conclusions of the Wikipedia Strategy Plan for Wikimedia Chapters (2nd 
paragraph from bottom, page 3):

http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AChapters_Wikimedia_Strategy_Plan_Summary.pdf&page=3

Then, they launched the Former Contributors Survey, presented in Wikimania 
2010 by H. Fung:

http://wikimania2010.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Why_Do_Editors_Leave_Wikipedia.pdf

Interestingly, they applied the very same criterion for identifying a former 
contributor (editor who ceased her activity over the next 3 months) for which 
we received most of the critics to our initial study :) :

http://wikimania2010.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Why_Do_Editors_Leave_Wikipedia.pdf&page=6

WMF is also starting an ambitious Ambassadors Program, specifically targeted to 
academia:

http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Ambassador_Program

I think this is indeed what Wikipedia needs, and a perfect example of the type 
of initiatives that must be fostered from both Wikimedia community and 
academia (scholars, students, R&D institutes, etc.). Unfortunately, AFAIK it 
has been only launched in USA, so far. I'm trying to pay attention to the 
future schedule, to learn when it will reach EU and other continents. I'm 
pretty sure that many people will help with this, most probably with better 
support from the growing network of local Wikimedia Chapters.

Best,
Felipe.

-- 
José Felipe Ortega Soto          | Researcher & Project Manager
Tel: (+34)-91 488 8105           | 
Fax: (+34)-91 664 7494           | GSyC/Libresoft - U. Rey Juan Carlos
jfelipe _at_libresoft_dot_es     | Edif. Departamental II - Office 106
http://libresoft.es/             | c/Tulipán s/n 28933 Móstoles (Madrid)
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