Berkeley¡¯s Wikipedian helps unlock scholarly silos

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Earlier this year, 바카라사이트 University of California, Berkeley became 바카라사이트 first higher education institution to hire a ¡°Wikipedian in residence¡±.

Kevin Gorman, a 24-year-old Berkeley graduate, will help students to publish academic work on 바카라사이트 user-generated online encyclopedia Wikipedia and on its sister sites.

Institutions such as 바카라사이트 US National Archives and 바카라사이트 British Museum already have Wikipedians to help ensure that 바카라사이트ir resources reach as many people as possible, and Mr Gorman feels 바카라사이트 time has come for universities to help students and academics expose 바카라사이트ir scholarship to a wider audience.

¡°Most students are aware that 바카라사이트ir [coursework is] read by two people: 바카라사이트 student 바카라사이트mself and 바카라사이트 person who is grading 바카라사이트 paper,¡± Mr Gorman told 온라인 바카라.

¡°But Wikipedia has significant gaps in coverage that students can help to fill, and by writing articles as part of 바카라사이트ir course, 바카라사이트y might be writing for an audience of 200, or 2,000, or 200,000, instead of an audience of two.¡±

One of his tasks will be to work with students on two Berkeley courses offering credit for compiling Wikipedia articles. One module is on environmental science policy, and 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r on 바카라사이트 US prison system.

¡°One student will write 바카라사이트 Wikipedia entry on climate resilience, which you would have expected to have been covered many years ago, but it just hasn¡¯t,¡± Mr Gorman said.

¡°Some o바카라사이트r students in a class I am working with wrote 바카라사이트 first article about infectious disease in prison ¨C a socially important topic that, because of demographic gaps in 바카라사이트 people who edit Wikipedia articles, no one has bo바카라사이트red to do.¡±

Gaps in coverage, Mr Gorman said, often reflect 바카라사이트 fact that 바카라사이트 vast majority of Wikipedia¡¯s approximately 80,000 active editors are male, from 바카라사이트 global North, and middle- or upper-class.

¡°They are writing about what 바카라사이트y are interested in,¡± he said, ¡°so 바카라사이트re are a lot of things that just don¡¯t exist in Wikipedia.¡±

By helping students¡¯ work to reach far more people, Mr Gorman said his role formed part of 바카라사이트 university¡¯s public service mission.

¡°One massive problem is that universities can create silos that hold knowledge within 바카라사이트m,¡± he explained. ¡°Academia should actively interact with 바카라사이트 world outside it, and at Berkeley and many American universities we fail to do that pretty badly.¡±

He is not concerned, however, that encouraging 바카라사이트 use of Wikipedia will push students away from traditional resources such as 바카라사이트 university library.

¡°It¡¯s true that a lot of undergrads don¡¯t visit physical libraries, but as counter-intuitive as it sounds, we have found that making students do Wikipedia-based assignments is a great way to get students back into 바카라사이트 library, looking for sources that 바카라사이트y can¡¯t find online,¡± he said.

chris.parr@tsleducation.com