Hi,
Jimmy Wales asked me to act as a moderator for this mailing list. Since
its purpose and scope has never been fully defined, I have tried to
supply such a definition and added it to the mailing list page. It
currently reads:
--<snip>--
The purpose of this mailing list is to discuss scientific research into
the content and the communities of the Wikimedia projects: Wikipedia,
Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikisource, Wikiquote, Wikinews, Wikispecies,
Wikimedia Commons, and Meta-Wiki.
Research into the technology of Wikimedia, MediaWiki, should primarily
be discussed on wikitech-l instead. For content or community research
projects with a strong technological component, cross-posting to both
lists may be advisable.
Please note that only people who are actively involved in research on
Wikimedia projects should post to this list. Typical on-topic posts include:
* announcement of a new research project
* discussions of methodology
* questions and answers about related projects
Mailing list traffic should be kept at a reasonably low level. The list
is softly moderated, and individuals posting off-topic material
repeatedly may be removed.
This list is not directly associated with the Wikimedia Research
Network, though members of the Network are welcome to post here if they
are involved in research projects relating to content or community.
Internal Wikimedia matters, discussions of new projects and similar
threads should be kept off the list.
--<snip>--
I would appreciate comments on this definition.
I have avoided the word "academic" because I see no reason to exclude
non-academic researchers as long as we consider their input valuable.
However, I would like to *strongly* emphasize the distinction between
research into content and communities, and technological research. The
latter really needs to go to wikitech-l, where the developers can follow
the discussions and provide input. The subscription page for that list
is at
http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
As Jimbo said, this mailing list is intended to be low volume. But low
volume is not "no volume". So please do feel free to introduce yourself
and describe your current research projects insofar they fall under the
above definition.
I would also like to systematically invite researchers to join this
mailing list. I will inform the members of the Wikimedia Research
Network about it, which currently includes some people involved with
academic research as described above, and will also try to go through
the list of individuals on
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research
So please add any missing names to the list under the heading "Who is
currently doing research ..".
As for the Wikimedia Research Network itself, it is at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research_Network
and open for anyone to join. It will likely be split into three main
teams, "Technology", "Sociology", and "Content Analysis".
The latter two
are relevant to this list where their efforts are not purely internal.
I apologize that these structures may be a bit confusing at the present
time, but we're only just now adding an organizational level to
Wikimedia research, and we will need some time to find the best models
of work and collaboration.
Please don't hestitate to contact me by private e-mail if you have any
questions or suggestions.
Sincerely,
Erik Möller
Chief Research Officer, Wikimedia Foundation