User:Ragesoss has been doing a lot of great work in publicizing Wikipedia collaborations within his (and my) relevant academic communities. Aside from creating a History of Science Wikiproject, he also sends notices of the History of Science Collaboration of the Month to the largest listserv in the profession. I think this is a great thing to do. It not only bridges much of the gap between academics and Wikipedia (it makes it clear that academics DO work on Wikipedia as well -- it is not just something "external" to academia), but it also encourages further participation from experts as well as normalizing the idea that an academic might find it worthwhile to contribute. He also puts his own name and reputation on the line, since he does not edit anonymously and makes his academic affiliations very clear. I think steps like this are the sort of thing which can help build a better, or at least less one-sided, rapport between Wikipedia and relevant expert communities. Even though Wikipedia is open for all there is no great reason that experts should be discouraged from participating. We have a lot of academics at Wikipedia, it would be great if they were willing to defend it to their relevant communities, especially since it appears to have a fairly low standing in academia (due to its sloppy use as a source by sloppy students -- the problem here is not Wikipedia specifically; they'd probably use uncritically whatever came up first in Google, and we happened to be it). FF On 8/5/06, Steve Bennett <stevagewp(a)gmail.com> wrote: