Hoi, I have asked and received permission to forward to you all this most excellent bit of news.
The linguist list, is a most excellent resource for people interested in the field of linguistics. As I mentioned some time ago they have had a funding drive and in that funding drive they asked for a certain amount of money in a given amount of days and they would then have a project on Wikipedia to learn what needs doing to get better coverage for the field of linguistics.
What you will read in this mail that the total community of linguists are asked to cooperate. I am really thrilled as it will also get us more linguists interested in what we do. My hope is that a fraction will be interested in the languages that they care for and help it become more relevant. As a member of the "language prevention committee", I love to get more knowledgeable people involved in our smaller projects. If it means that we get more requests for more projects we will really feel embarrassed with all the new projects we will have to approve because of the quality of the Incubator content and the quality of the linguistic arguments why we should approve yet another language :)
NB Is this not a really clever way of raising money; give us this much in this time frame and we will then do this as a bonus...
Thanks, GerardM
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: LINGUIST Network linguist@linguistlist.org Date: Jun 18, 2007 6:53 PM Subject: 18.1831, All: Call for Participation: Wikipedia Volunteers To: LINGUIST@listserv.linguistlist.org
LINGUIST List: Vol-18-1831. Mon Jun 18 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.
Subject: 18.1831, All: Call for Participation: Wikipedia Volunteers
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1) Date: 18-Jun-2007 From: Hannah Morales < hannah@linguistlist.org > Subject: Wikipedia Volunteers
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 12:49:35 From: Hannah Morales < hannah@linguistlist.org > Subject: Wikipedia Volunteers
Dear subscribers,
As you may recall, one of our Fund Drive 2007 campaigns was called the "Wikipedia Update Vote." We asked our viewers to consider earmarking their donations to organize an update project on linguistics entries in the English-language Wikipedia. You can find more background information on this at:
http://linguistlist.org/donation/fund-drive2007/wikipedia/index.cfm.
The speed with which we met our goal, thanks to the interest and generosity of our readers, was a sure sign that the linguistics community was enthusiastic about the idea. Now that summer is upon us, and some of you may have a bit more leisure time, we are hoping that you will be able to help us get started on the Wikipedia project. The LINGUIST List's role in this project is a purely organizational one. We will:
*Help, with your input, to identify major gaps in the Wikipedia materials or pages that need improvement; *Compile a list of linguistics pages that Wikipedia editors have identified as "in need of attention from an expert on the subject" or " does not cite any references or sources," etc; *Send out periodical calls for volunteer contributors on specific topics or articles; *Provide simple instructions on how to upload your entries into Wikipedia; *Keep track of our project Wikipedians; *Keep track of revisions and new entries; *Work with Wikimedia Foundation to publicize the linguistics community's efforts.
We hope you are as enthusiastic about this effort as we are. Just to help us all get started looking at Wikipedia more critically, and to easily identify an area needing improvement, we suggest that you take a look at the List of Linguists page at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_linguists. M
Many people are not listed there; others need to have more facts and information added. If you would like to participate in this exciting update effort, please respond by sending an email to LINGUIST Editor Hannah Morales at hannah@linguistlist.org, suggesting what your role might be or which linguistics entries you feel should be updated or added. Some linguists who saw our campaign on the Internet have already written us with specific suggestions, which we will share with you soon.
This update project will take major time and effort on all our parts. The end result will be a much richer internet resource of information on the breadth and depth of the field of linguistics. Our efforts should also stimulate prospective students to consider studying linguistics and to educate a wider public on what we do. Please consider participating.
Sincerely, Hannah Morales Editor, Wikipedia Update Project
Linguistic Field(s): Not Applicable
----------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-18-1831
This is excellent news. I found this part interesting:
*Help, with your input, to identify major gaps in the Wikipedia materials or pages that need improvement; *Compile a list of linguistics pages that Wikipedia editors have identified as "in need of attention from an expert on the subject" or " does not cite any references or sources," etc;
This shows that the various, often maligned maintenance tags we use in wikis actually can become the core of funding proposals.
I don't personally believe the Wikimedia Foundation should be in the business of paying professionals to edit content on our projects, but at the same time, I think that when done by a neutral, independent third party and managed professionally, this could open up _huge_ opportunities for our projects.
I just came up with your call on updating linguistics Wikipedia and got enthusiastic to take part in it. I'm a linguistics student (MA) of BuAli Sina university of Hamedan, Iran and found that the list of linguists is so incomplete that none of Iranian linguists are included. I can help on the completion of this part.
Moreover, there is another point that I think will play an important role in having a more professional Wikipedia in our field: professors can also be classed as specialization. to be more specific, for example in Pragmatics page, a "Specialists/experts" entry can be added. This way, academics of any kind would have a more practical search experience and access so much information with no need for extra explorers.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards, Zahra (Hana)
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org