As Wikipedia approaches its 10th anniversary, the site is trying to make inroads with an academic establishment that once cast a wary gaze on the free-form encyclopedia.
One of Wikipedia's tactics is the Public Policy Initiative. This program is spread across 14 courses at 10 American universities.
Instead of writing a traditional term paper, students in these classes add to a Wikipedia entry.
We're hoping that through this initiative we'll show that Wikipedia does have a use on college campuses and it's not something that professors should just put 'No Wikipedia' at the top of their syllabi at the beginning of every semester
said LiAnna Davis, communications associate for the program.
Wikipedia started collaborating with schools after learning that professors had assigned Wikipedia articles in place of term papers. Problems such as articles being deleted and students not writing in an encyclopedic tone had occurred, however.
We wanted to create a way for students to have their articles be streamlined into Wikipedia and get the full understanding and appreciation of what Wikipedia can do in the sort of collaborative environment that goes on there, Davis said.
Students benefit by developing a formal tone and learning to source articles well in order to pass Wikipedia's strict content filters, she added.
They're learning how to write for a global audience, Davis said. They're learning how to write in a collaborative fashion - not just a paper that they're going to turn in and get a grade for and never think about it again.
Students in the program contributed to 190 articles during the fall semester, and the project will double in size during the spring semester, Davis said.
As Wikipedia begins reaching out to colleges and universities, the world of academia is developing a level of comfort with the resource.
If I were going to do any research I'd wonder who are the people looking at these entries and making sure they're okay, said Lorraine Wochna, a reference librarian at Ohio University's Alden Library. But it's kind of interesting because in a way part of it is self-patrolled by us.
Self-patrol is vital to the Public Policy Initiative, which helps acclimate students to Wikipedia's sourcing and writing standards by appointing campus ambassadors and online ambassadors.
Davis said that campus ambassadors are faculty or students who live near a school and are experienced Wikipedians. At the beginning of a semester, a campus ambassador will teach a class about the basics of Wikipedia.
After that, the students are assigned an online ambassador to serve as a mentor for the duration of the project. Online ambassadors are available at any time of day and can help with all aspects of an article.
The evaluating sources part of it is really key, Davis said. If you put an article on Wikipedia and it links to a blog post that got a hundred readers that fact is probably going to get deleted because Wikipedia has very strict standards for what a reliable source is.
