Everyone can help build one of the wonders of the modern world
Dr. Lydia Le Page is a postdoc at the University of California, San Francisco, where she images brain metabolism with MRI to understand Alzheimer’s disease. In our recent Wiki Scientists course sponsored by the National Science Policy Network, she was excited to improve Wikipedia pages that will help voters and policy-makers make the best use … Continued
Reading Wikipedia’s editorial culture
With three terms of Wikipedia writing assignment experience already under his belt, Dr. Josh DiCaglio reflects on having students understand Wikipedia’s editing culture by participating in it. He is an assistant professor in the department of English at Texas A&M University. Although many instructors have used Wikipedia in class projects, these assignments usually focus on … Continued
Wikipedia’s gender inequality tackled by Rice students writing ‘activist’ articles
Jewish women are underrepresented on the reference site — but not if this class has anything to write about it Wikipedia is the most popular reference site on the internet, with nearly 20,000 articles added every month. Yet an estimated 85% of its editors are male — a problem of gender imbalance the site’s founder, Jimmy Wales, … Continued
Changing Wikipedia for the better
Katherine Lopez is a PhD candidate in neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medicine. After completing our recent Wikipedia training course sponsored by the National Science Policy Network, she’s ready to take her new science communication tools into her career. Wikipedia is my go-to location for quickly finding an answer to those random questions I have throughout … Continued
How “Join the open data movement: a beginner Wikidata course” changed our view and use of collection data
Digital Collections Associate Lisa Barrier and Digital Collections Manager Kathryn Gronsbell from Carnegie Hall explain what to expect when taking Wiki Education’s beginner’s Wikidata course and discuss their linked data plans for the future. Introduction We both started Join the open data movement: a beginner Wikidata course with limited Wikidata knowledge. While we understood the … Continued
Remembering the unnamed women of history as a Wiki Scholar
Dr. Bridget Marshall is an Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and recently completed one of our Wiki Scholar courses with faculty at her institution. The Wikipedia training course is part of an initiative at UMass Lowell to build digital literacy teaching capacity and address the gender gap on campus and in Wikipedia. … Continued
On becoming a Wiki Woman Scientist
Dr. Jyoti Patel is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at NYU School of Medicine. She recently completed our Wiki Scientists course with the New York Academy of Sciences. Growing up in the UK during the 70s, long before the Wikipedia era, I was fortunate to have received a completely free education. I … Continued
The value of being a Wiki Scientist
Within academic circles, Wikipedia is often looked down upon, and is not considered a credible source of information. Yet, it is one of the most widely visited websites in the world and is often the first link to pop up when you conduct a typical Google search of a topic. With much of scientific information … Continued
How to share an oral history collection more widely
Jake Kubrin is Metadata Librarian at the Stanford Law School Robert Crown Library who recently completed our intermediate-level Wikidata training course. Here he shares what linked open data makes possible for his work. The American Bar Association (ABA) began conducting a series of oral history interviews of leading women lawyers, judges, and legal professionals in … Continued
Wikipedia as a platform for Science Policy
Daniel Puentes is a Graduate Research Assistant at Michigan State University and recently completed our Wikipedia training course sponsored by the National Science Policy Network. Wikipedia is one of the most popular online resources for anyone to get information that they’re interested in learning. During election years, voters will use Wikipedia to read about different … Continued