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