[Foundation-l] Analysis of statistics

[Henning Schlottmann]

John Vandenberg wrote:
> On Sun, Jul 26, 2009 at 3:27 PM, Henning
> Schlottmann<h.schlottmann at gmx.net> wrote:
>> And if there are kids with knowledge and understanding
>> on these or other topics, they will be fascinated by Wikipedia and find
>> the project on their own. We don't need to recruit these prodigy childs.
> 
> Contributors, both young and old, do not need to be interested in the
> topic they contribute to - they need to see the value of the skills
> that they acquire in the process.  And we can help them learn about
> the benefits.

Well it certainly helps if you have a deeper understanding about the
topics you cover. And Wikipedia once was about people who have certain
knowledge and enjoy to share it with the world. It was originally not
about recruiting people to do research into topics they would never have
researched without Wikipedia.

> On wikimedia, bilingual young people can improve their mastery of
> second languages by translating articles into different languages.

Oh yeah - that is how most translations look like. A bilingual kid
trying to improve their mastery of a foreign language. Without even
understanding the topic of the text he or she is translating. We already
have too many of those "translations".

> On wikimedia, young people learn how to properly reference an article,
> which will help them as they progress in their education.

Originally Wikipedia was about People, who could already write academic
papers and did not need tutoring or learning those abilities on
Wikipedia for their future life.

> Young people have the most to gain from participating, because the
> skills that they acquire on wikimedia will stay with them, helping
> them in their many years to come.

And what does Wikipedia get from those young people? We don't have the
man power to nanny them or teach them academic writing. We all are
authors, first and foremost. I'm not going to change the diapers of any
promising "young people" who would like to make their first attempts of
focused writing on Wikipedia.

Ciao Henning