Hi everyone
Thanks Ian for introducing all of us.
I would like to start a discussion following on from a couple of discussions with some Wikipedians. Lourie - The Extremist - and I had a great phone conversation last week. He is on staff at Stellenbosch University but was on holiday in the Northern Cape and only had dial-up to connect which made it basically impossible to get online. So we had a good old fashioned telephone conversation :)
Anyway, Lourie was talking about *Wikipedia in Academia* and the need for academics to really understand the value of Wikipedia. In South Africa we are sitting with that rather outdated perception that Wikipedia is a crazy, error-riddled platform which can offer no support to academics or students. As this notion has been brought up by Nhlanhla Mabaso who is at Wits University, I think that this could be discussed in the Chapter workshop as one of the initial projects/ vehicles that could be undertaken.
I'd like to vote that we start a thread here getting everyone's feedback on this idea, and also on other issues that you think should be discussed at the workshop in terms of goals in taking SA Chapter forward!
Cheers
Kerryn * * * * KERRYN MCKAY director, The African Commons Project
email me at: kerryn@africancommons.org phone me: +2711 486 0211, cell: +27 82 334 6165, skype me: kerrynmac