Wikipedia activity as part of our service learning

Per your suggestion, I raised the issue in our last class, and it met with quite positive reception from Prof. Shulman - he encouraged us to try this, and noted that time we dedicate to it will count toward our service learning. Thus I am going to illustrate what I had in mind below - feel free to ask questions, offer suggestions and critique - and of course, participate in the project :)

As we all know (I hope!), Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia whose content is created by volunteers. It is now in Top 10 most popular sites online, comes up in many Google searches and as such, understanding and even familiarity with the site are increasingly becoming a basic requirements for any 'digital citizen'. If we can improve the coverage and quality of Wikipedia's topics, we will succeed in several basic tenants of service learning:
* we will create content useful for others; hence benefiting the online community (and I don't mean only the Wikipedia community of editors, but the online community of all people using Internet, who increasingly rely on Wikipedia for being their primary source of information)
* we will become more familiar with Wikipedia ourselves, thus gaining some important skills and knowledge

I suggest we target the digital divide article - a core concept in our course, and certainly an important concept overall. Unfortunately, the article is in sad shape:
* as far as I can tell, based on our readings, it is hardly comprehensive - it doesn't mention many key arguments or concepts
* it lacks inline citations
* it doesn't follow Wikipedia Manual of Style
And this is just a tip of the iceberg of the problems this article suffers from.

How can we improve it? It's easy. You can learn how to edit Wikipedia - which is hardly more difficult than learning how to use a text editor - by spending a few minutes following the Wikipedia Tutorial. Next, create an account - it takes only few seconds - and add yourself to the list here. What next? Well, you can review the current article; list 'to do' tasks, discuss it on its talk page, or just be bold and start editing the main article.

I hope we will be able to cross two important milestones in the next few weeks:
* reach the status of a Good Article
* reach the status of a Featured Article

For now, I have done a few technical tasks, such as creation of the 'to do' list and submission for the peer review. I have also used a script to generate some suggestions for improvement - see the peer review. So, let's waste no more time and start editing!

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me - by email, Wikipedia message system, replies to the blog or via one of many instant messengers I use (see my Wikipedia user page for my contact info).

Library Update

Well, it's time for an update on my Carnegie visit. Which is "not much" - but here's the full story.

I approached one of the librarians, introducing myself and the concept of our class (i.e. that there is a group of grad students willing to help them in teaching computer literacy skills, and that some of us can also lecture/offer aid to the librarians on topics of our particular interest, such as Wikipedia). The librarian noted that they don't need courses, as they are already experts on things like Wikipedia (I wonder if any of them actually edited it), and suggested that I go upstairs and talk to people from "Job something Center" to see if they would need extra help in the courses they run for visitors.

People upstairs were polite but they firmly stated that their courses are run by paid employees and they see little need for volunteers. They promised to pass my contact info to a person who may be interested in our help (I am still waiting for any sign of life since last Wednesday...).

So overall, I am a little disappointed with the librarians at Carnegie. Of course, maybe I just talked to the wrong people - but the presumption that they know all and we cannot teach them anything, and that they have no need for free volunteers to assist them with teaching others, is rather... surprising. I wonder if any of you tried approaching the Carnegie library yet? It's such a big place, close to were we are, that it would be a shame to let it 'pass' so easily. We could do much good there - even if they don't realize it :)

PS. I did get one possibly useful piece of info: apparently somebody at Allegheny County Library Association may be interested in our help...

PPS. I tried Carnegie again on Thursday. If we don't try... again, I am waiting for them to contact me.