[Wikipedia-l] An idea

[Joseph Reagle]

On Monday 06 June 2005 16:11, Ray Saintonge wrote:
> > In a world that is moving to greater transparency, wikipedia is, in 
> > fact, a model. Consider being able to earn one's degree by writing on 
> > wikipedia. Edit articles, have a thesis advisor review contributions, 
> > and score credit appropriately. Adding bibliography, annotation and 
> > other activities which "polish" wikipedia would be part of assignments.
> 
> Not only that.  The work has meaning because it is available to 
> everybody.  Once finished, and the degree granted, it is no longer 
> relegated to gathering dust in  inaccesible library stacks where nobody 
> ever visits.

Having just completed my 2nd year comprehensives and writing a couple of 
Wikipedia articles in preparation (which probably need some editing in 
order to make them a little more accessible) I actually think the 
literature reviews done by students in advance of the dissertation would be 
of use. Of my fellow PhD students, there are numerous "lit reviews" that 
don't even sit on library stacks. One couldn't plug and play them, but they 
might be a great resources for bibliographic information and the related 
summaries. Having a repository of those for mining by editors is an idea 
I've been turning over in my head.