2. Why edit Wikipedia?
1) High visibility
2) Source of information for a growing number of
people and institutions
3) Define what it means to read
4) Share scholarly information and skills
5) Develop teaching opportunities
6) Inspire others to read and write
7) Preserve and communicate cultural heritage
3. Visibility
• One of the ten most-accessed
websites in the world
• Most accessed reference website
in the world
• Search engines: in first 10 results
in 80% of cases
• Free
• Available in over 270 languages,
giving it a worldwide reach
4. Visibility
• Mary Wollstonecraft article translated into numerous
languages, including Chinese
• Jane Austen article received 172,773 page views in
February 2010, typical for a month
1,746th most popular article (out of 3,218,926 )
• Mary Wollstonecraft’s Thoughts on the Education of
Daughters
Main page: 17,000 page views in one day
Normally receives about 20 page views per day
5. Visibility
• Through GFDL and CC-by-SA 3.0 licensing,
Wikipedia’s articles are mirrored and forked
across thousands of webpages.
▫ Ex: amazon.com uses summaries from
Wikipedia’s articles to describe some of its books.
6. Source of information
• 61% of US journalists use Wikipedia as a source
• Wikipedia has been cited in US court decisions,
such as those by the 7th circuit
• The BBC transcludes Wikipedia articles about
animals to its “Wildlife Finder” pages
• US patent appliers increasingly cite Wikipedia
• Over 50% of undergraduates use Wikipedia as a
first resource for research
7. Define what it means to read
• A large percentage of English-speaking readers
in the world are looking at Wikipedia every day.
▫ Shape their experience of what it means to read
and analyze literature by providing clearly
organized, well-written articles based on solid
scholarship so that they can understand the kinds
of questions we ask in this discipline.
8. Enable scholarship
• Help create annotated bibliographies with
scholars all over the world in short amounts of
time
• Write summaries of your specialty for scholars in
others periods or genres
• Help create a description of every book published
in the 18th century accessible to any scholar
• Easy contact with like-minded scholars
9. Research and writing
• Share your research
and writing skills
with those willing to
learn
▫ Copyedit science
articles for
accessibility to the
general public
Old book bindings at the Merton College library, Tom Murphy VII
10. Teaching on Wikipedia
• Assist self-selecting students, ready to learn, who teach others
▫ “Hi; I considered your comments [on the American Beauty
article] carefully, and despite initially disagreeing, I eventually
saw the wisdom of your suggested cuts.…Only in a couple of spots
did I retain tidbits you suggested I cull, but given the information
I've removed today I think I can justify them if you still disagree.
It was only when I started editing this morning that I realised
how bloody thorough your review had been, and how much
thought you put into the suggested cuts. So I really must thank
you again for taking the time to look at the article. As an aside ... I
hope you realise this is all your fault (indirectly, at least). Several
years ago you convinced Erik about the necessity of including
themes and interpretations in our film articles; he convinced me,
and I guess I overcompensated for fear that someone would
criticise the article for not being a thorough enough treatment.
So, thanks for that. :-) All the best”
– User:Steve to User:Awadewit on 15 February 2010
11. Classroom teaching
• Develop new assignments, which:
▫ Have actual readers commenting on student work
▫ Encourage revision
▫ Force students to delve into the minutiae of
research
▫ Make copyediting and grammar vivid
▫ Show the real-life ramifications of plagiarism
12. Inspire others
Nikita Zotov
teaches young
Peter I, painting
by Klavdy Lebedev
(1913)
13. Cultural heritage
• Preserve and communicate our cultural heritage
▫ Core and vital lists
▫ Deletion and inclusion debates
Goethe, one of Wikipedia’s “vital” authors Goethe, Joseph Karl Stieler, 1828
14. …fun!
While you may teach and inspire others, do not
discount the possibility that you yourself may
learn and be inspired! It is, indeed, wonderful to
be in the company of a group of people who want
to share knowledge with the world.
15. Bibliography
• Alexa. “Wikipedia.” 16 March 2010. Web.
• Bates, Don. “National Survey Finds Majority of Journalists Now Depend on Social Media for Story
Research.” Press release. Cision. 20 January 2010. Web.
• Cohen, Noam. “Courts Turn to Wikipedia, but Selectively.” The New York Times (29 January
2007). Web.
• Head, Alison J. and Michael B. Eisenberg. “How today’s college students use Wikipedia for
course-related research.” First Monday 15.3 (1 March 2010). Web.
• “Jane Austen.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 16 March 2010.
Web.
• Laurent, M.R. and T. J. Vickers. “Seeking Health Information Online: Does Wikipedia Matter?”
Journal of the American Medical Information Association 16.4 (2009): 471-9. Web.
• Tancer, Bill. “Look Who's Using Wikipedia.” Time (1 March 2007). Web.
• “Thoughts on the Education of Daughters.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc. 16 March 2010. Web.
• White, Michael. “Wikipedia Citations in Patents Up 59 Percent.” The Patent Librarian’s Notebook
Blog. 7 January 2010. Web.
• “Wikipedia:Statistics.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 16 March
2010. Web.
• “User talk:Awadewit.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 15
February 2010. Web.
