American Sociological Association launches Wikipedia Initiative
The American Sociological Association (ASA) has started a “
Wikipedia Initiative”, inviting its members to enhance Wikipedia articles, and to incorporate Wikipedia editing into their classroom teaching, in collaboration with the Wikimedia Foundation’s
higher education program. In a
feature article for the scholarly society’s monthly newsletter, ASA president Erik Olin Wright described the initative as a “call to duty”.
Follow this series of brief news on enhancing Wikipedia participation via RSS, on Tumblr, or on Wikipedia.
Watch how Wikipedia newbies feel about editing
Since a few months, the “MoodBar” function has invited new users on the English Wikipedia to indicate how they feel about their first editing experiences, and why. Today, the
Feedback Dashboard was
launched, an experimental live stream displaying these comments. Take a look to find out what makes new editors Happy, Sad, or Confused!
Follow this series of brief news on enhancing Wikipedia participation via RSS, on Tumblr, or on Wikipedia.
Setswana Wikipedia Challenge kicks off
Programmers worldwide participate in Wikipedia’s Coding Challenge
The October 2011 Coding Challenge has begun! Programmers are invited to enhance MediaWiki, the software that powers Wikipedia, by one of the following features:
- Mobile Photo Upload - upload images and video via smartphone
- Making Wikipedia More Alive - surface change in real-time
- Wikipedia Slideshow - showcase Wikipedia’s beautiful multimedia
After less than a day, 500 contestants from 80 countries had already signed up to participate, but submissions are still welcome until November 7.
Follow this series of brief news on enhancing Wikipedia participation via RSS, on Tumblr, or on Wikipedia.
Editing Wikipedia to help conserve fungi
An article in the journal of the International Society for Fungal Conservation calls upon its member to become involved in Wikipedia (“Raising the profile of fungi on the Internet: editing Wikipedia” PDF, p. 54-60).
Yalla, Arabic Wikipedia!
A young filmmaker from Saudi Arabia produced this video which explains how to participate in the Arabic Wikipedia. (click “CC” for English subtitles)
Queen Rania of Jordan highlights it: “154,000 Arabic Wikipedia entries. 374m Arabs! How can we learn when we don’t share what we know? Yalla, wikiArabic!” The Arabic Wikipedia can be found at ar.wikipedia.org.
Engaging Wikipedia participation - introducing the “participation progress log”
Today we are starting the Wikimedia “participation progress log”, a series of very short postings highlighting news, progress and activities related to sustaining and increasing editor participation in Wikipedia. This is one of the two priorities of the Wikimedia Foundation’s 2011/12 annual plan. Follow this channel on the Wikimedia blog, on Tumblr or on Wikipedia itself to stay updated on what is going on in the Wikimedia movement to address this challenge, and to find possibilities for getting involved. Jay Walsh, Communications
