Hi all,
I am not sure that I am going to be able to make it to the first projected
meeting in August - but will try... Heavy load of work at present. If not, be
assured of my support in spirit.
I'd just like to give strong endorsement to discussion of Wikipedia in/by/for
Academia (and related contexts) - and perhaps more especially of the role that
academics/researchers could/should play in ensuring that their respective
subject areas are well covered - because of the use of Wikipedia by people out
there - particularly in a schooling context. I come from a part of the country
which is not well represented in references easily to hand - and even on
wikipedia it is relatively poorly represented. It was this latter issue that
spurred me to get involved. I have some thoughts on all this on my Wikipedia
user page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Blarcrean
All the best
David
David Morris
Archaeology
McGregor Museum
P.O. Box 316, Kimberley 8300, South Africa
Tel +27-(0)82 2224777
+27-(0)53 8392706
Fax +27-(0)53 8421433
________________________________
From: Kerryn McKay <kerryn(a)africancommons.org>
To: wikimediaza(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Sent: Wed, 14 July, 2010 10:38:27
Subject: [Wikimedia ZA] Chapter initiatives going forward - you ideas
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sitting with that rather outdated perception that Wikipedia is a crazy,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(a)africancommons.org
phone me: +2711 486 0211, cell: +27 82 334 6165,
skype me: kerrynmac