[Foundation-l] Wikipedia as "pro bono" work for Academics

[Andrew Whitworth]

>From: "David Gerard" <dgerard at gmail.com>
>http://www.mazar.ca/2007/05/07/wikipedia-as-community-service/
>Much as lawyers have a certain pro bono obligation, so academics could as 
>well.
>How to sell this one to academia?

en.wikibooks has had good success with attracting academia, even if only for 
short-term projects. We have had several classroom projects on our site. 
Typically, the professors give guidance while the students write the content 
for a grade. Although, we have also had projects where professors and 
graduate researchers have written books pro bono. Because many professors 
are interested in instruction, Wikibooks is the perfect place for them to 
contribute.

Regardless of the venue, we definately should push the angle that people who 
know should feel some obligation to share that knowledge freely. A 
modification on the "If something's wrong, you can fix it" mantra, such as 
"your students are reading wikipedia/wikibooks, don't you owe it to them to 
make sure what they read is correct?" would probably be persuasive.

--Andrew Whitworth

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