Fellows shared in surveys that they felt encouraged to
apply to the program
because their academic associations see it as aligning with their mission
to disseminate knowledge to the public; at the end of the pilot,
participants saw it as professional development in refreshing how to
communicate to the public and learning how to participate in an online
community like Wikipedia. This is certainly not universal across academics
or universities....
LiAnna,
If any of the Fellows responded indicating a differing opinion, please send them
http://ide.mit.edu/sites/default/files/publications/SSRN-id3039505.pdf
especially the part about being 1,700 times more cost effective on
page 32. I am hopeful that you will align your Fellows program
recruiting to match the coverage and accuracy needs of the wikipedias.
And again, I want to take this opportunity to reiterate my
recommendation to establish an essay contest for students on topics
such as economics, or any of Wikipedia's under-represented sciences or
humanities. The last time we discussed this question I did not
understand the reasons that you suggested such an essay contest would
be inappropriate. You not only objected to the idea of an essay
contest, but you asked me to not run such a contest myself, saying
that asking Education Program students, "to write essays would be
counterproductive given the mission of our program, our organization,
and the Wikimedia movement. We will not support this effort, and ask
that you do not reach out to them on your own."
Is that still your position on the subject? You didn't provide any
reasons that the best Wikipedians aren't also the best essay writers
on the Wikipedia projects. You didn't say how you measured the
purported counterproductivity, you didn't say whether the restraint
you asked of my freedom of expression was an official or a personal
request, you didn't offer anything which would make me less likely to
want to run such an essay contest myself, and you didn't say whether
Frank Schulenberg or Katherine Maher agree with your refusal, your
assessment of counterproductively, or your request that I not hold
such a contest.
Best regards,
Jim