With regards the other thread; below is the summary + link to the survey that has provoked
the Guardian article. If you can, please help distribute this around the UK education
sector.
> An increasing number of university students
worldwide use Wikipedia for “pre-research”, as part of their course assignments or
research projects [1]. Yet many among academics and scientists refrain from contributing
expert knowledge to Wikipedia, despite a growing number of calls from the scientific
community to join the project. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the project, the
Association for Psychological Science launched an initiative to get the scientific
psychology community involved in improving the quality of articles in their field [2],
while biomedical experts called upon their peers to help make public health information in
Wikipedia rigorous and complete [3] and in the United States 31 doctoral programmes of 22
major Universities currently have students contribute to Wikipedia's Public Policy
articles as a mandatory part of their postgraduate training [4].
>
> The Wikimedia Research Committee [5] has just launched a survey to understand why
scientists, academics and other experts do (or do not) contribute to Wikipedia and other
collaborative projects, and whether individual motivation aligns with shared perceptions
of Wikipedia within expert communities. We hope this may help us identify ways around
barriers to participation. We hope that results will also help us understand issues
regarding power surrounding collaborative cultures, popular communication of science and
public engagement.
>
> The survey is anonymous and takes about 20 min to complete. Please help us circulate
the link among your colleagues and collaborators:
>
>
http://bit.ly/ExpertBarriers
>
>
> [1]
http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/125899/
> [2]
http://bit.ly/e9HWOI
> [3]
http://www.jmir.org/2011/1/e14/
> [4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_United_States_Public_Pol…
> [5]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research_Committee