Hoi, Sometimes something good comes out of unfortunate affairs. Have a read of this e-mail that I forward to you with permission. Thanks, GerardM

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Africa WikiProjects Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 12:40:00 -0500 From: Martin Benjamin, Editor swahili@yale.edu To: Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijssen@gmail.com References: 43940170.8050504@gmail.com

Hi Gerard,

There is a discussion right now on an academic Africa list about how and why to use Wiki in class and scholarship. I'm copying the discussion clips below. What comments do you have that I can pass along to the list? Particularly, how would you (or your colleagues) advise a professor to approach a Wikipedia class project? What tools are available to make the job easier? Are there links that offer particularly helpful guidance?

Many of the people who might be inspired to join the project have very limited computer expertise - think email, web clicking, and the ability to use Word. How can such people be eased into the world of Wiki?

Here are the comments to this point:

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Pursuant to a discussion on H-Luso-Africa on the topic of Wikipedia, an internet encyclopedia much in the news in a rather negative way lately, I decided that rather than gripe about the misinformation there, I would add something myself. To that end I have completely modified the article that relates to the Kingdom of Kongo and have added a kinglist to the somewhat inaccurate one that is found on one of its links. Both my article and the kinglist are as up to date and accurate as I can make them given the limitations of space and the format of an encyclopedia article. Indeed elements of both are based on unpublished manuscript and archival sources, though the format does not allow footnoting.

I am hoping that the article may spin off and help to create more accurate information in cyberspace about Kongo, given that Wikipedia is growing in popularity and more and more widely used in spite of our serious and well placed misgivings.

I would love any feedback that others might give me on the utility of doing this, either on line or off.

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I think it is extremely important for the Africanist community to edit and create articles for Wikipedia and other popular sources of information about Africa. Wikipedia articles are often the most widely consulted source of info about the history of an African country and the information contained in Wikipedia articles is copied and freely used (syndicated) during the creation of thousands of multiplying websites. It is unfortunate that universities have often not yet come to appreciate the information revolution which is taking place and thus have not come to terms with the need to encourage scholars to actively participate in this revolution since it is part of our vocation, I would argue, to provide easily accessible information and analysis based on our research to the general public and not just scholarly articles for our colleagues. In any case, even scholarly articles are increasing being made available on websites for the general public as well as for fellow scholars, and so the distinction between scholarly articles for colleagues and informative articles for the general public is not as sharp as it used to be. I recently checked a Wikipedia article on a country I study and found much of the information very outdated. For those who argue that this is one indication of the unreliability of Wikipedia articles, I would remind them that such information often comes from books on African history which are still widely consulted but very dated. For example, Pierre Kalck's books on the Central African Republic are still very much consulted by people wanting to find out about or write a short synopsis of the history of the country, and while the sections in his books on the colonial and post-colonial period are still very useful, his chaptes on precolonial history are now full of misinformation which is unfortunately used by people constructing websites. The revisionist literature about precolonial Central African history is not as accessible because it exists in books and articles which most people cannot easily get their hands on. So one of our tasks, I would argue, is to share our knowledge of the most recent revisionist literature on topics with a wider public by editing and updating Wikipedia articles. For those that argue that conspiracy theorists and others often include false or dubious information in Wikipedia articles or other websites, I can only remind them that books are published every year which are full of dubious and inaccurate information on every topic under the sun. We need to do what we can to help improve the quality of what is available on the internet instead of only complaining about it or discouraging our students from using internet sources.

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Thanks to John Thornton and Richard Bradshaw for bringing up the subject of Wikipedia and articulating the reasons why African studies should treat it as a serious resource.

I would add three quick thoughts: 1) Adding and improving content relating to Africa on the Wikipedia might be framed in terms of outreach.

2) It might be possible to work with students in the context of courses on Africa to add to the Wikipedia. For instance an assignment to critique and if necessary update/correct/complete Wikipedia entries. One imagines this could have some interesting spinoff effects, such as motivation (not just writing an assignment for a grade, but disseminating something for others to use), and initiation into a kind of scholarly publication (I know that sounds stretched, but for undergrads and beginning grad students it would likely be the first time they "publish" anything serious on the web or anywhere else). Sure there's a risk of introducing less than ideal material into the system, but in theory at least, if enough people are doing this, poor quality content will be improved - and the quantity of information available on Africa will also increase.

3) Although the vast majority of Wikipedia's content is in English, it is expressedly a multilingual resource with currently a small amount of content in some African languages. So another area for contribution might be entries in these and other still-unrepresented languages of the continent. In addition to contributions by African and Africanist scholars, advanced students of African languages might also be a source of additional content (under guidance of their instructors, and perhaps as part of what they are graded on in their language courses).

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Let me step out of editor mode for a second here, and say that the more I

think about Donald Osborn's suggestion regarding having students in African Studies courses update the Wikipedia, the more I like it. Such a plan provides students with an opportunity to dabble their toes in the production of knowledge, but does so with at least a modicum of academic oversight.

Perhaps we should dub this the "Osborn Initiative"?

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In a course on the history of the Central African Republic this term, I specifically encouraged my students to write such good research papers that they could use them as a basis for a Wikipedia article and attach their full paper to the site as a link. For example, one student conducted research on the history of the exploitation of diamonds in the CAR and the Kimberley Process, and I have encouraged him to write a Wikipedia article on diamons in the CAR and to attach his research paper as a link. Another student wrote about Protestant missions in the CAR. Same thing. Another on the role that NGOs are playing in the CAR. Ditto. I did not make it a requirement of the course this time, but I plan to do so in the future. I must say that the students were generally very dubious about their ability to write a paper which would be good enough to be attached to a Wikipedia article, but some seem interested in trying it.

One real advantage of Wikipedia articles is the links that can be attached to it to lead the reader with a click to more detailed information on the topic. For example, an article on the history of the Grace Brethren mission in the CAR might include a link to triune baptism, dispensationalism and other topics which would help the reader under-stand what distinguishes the Grace Brethren from other Brethren groups, what is taught in their seminaries in the CAR, etc. The main article is just a take-off point for links which let the reader go anywhere she or he needs to in order to gain a deeper knowledge of the topic. When I was studying the Brethren I found the Wikipedia articles on dispensationalism very helpful since I am not a theologian and was only vaguely familiar with the difference between Covenantalism and Dispensationalism. Since Dispensationalists usually have a very pro-Israel orientation, one has to wonder how Brethren teachings in the CAR has, or will eventually shape, the views of Central African church leaders toward the Arab-Israeli conflict (or whatever one chooses to call it). Thus, the difference between Covenantal and Dispensationalism may be of interest to historians who examine the conceptual framework within which Central African Christians view Southwest Asian affairs. Well, enough said for now.