Asking Students to Write for
Wikipedia
J P Evans

A Wiki world
Rank

Rank

Site

Site

- Forte, Andrea, Vanessa Larco and Amy Bruckman. (2009)
Decentralization in Wikipedia Governance. Journal of
Management Information Systems. 26(1) pp 49-72.

Unique
Visitors
(users)

Reach

Page Views Has
Advertising

1

facebook.com

Social
Networks

2

youtube.com

3

yahoo.com

Online Video 800,000,0
46.8% 100,000,0
00
00,000
Web Portals 590,000,0
34.4% 77,000,00
00
0,000
Search Engines490,000,0
28.7% 84,000,00
00
0,000
Web Portals 440,000,0
25.8% 20,000,00
00
0,000

4 live.com
Unique
Category Visitors
Reach
5 msn.com
(users)

‘Wikipedia is ‘an organization with highly refined policies, norms, and a technological architecture that supports organizational ideals of consensus building and discussion’ Category

Page
Views

880,000,0 51.3% 1,000,000, Yes
00
000,000

Has
Advertisi
ng

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

6

wikipedia.org

Dictionaries & 410,000,0 23.7% 6,000,000, No
Encyclopedias 00
000

7

blogspot.com

Blogging
Resources &
Services

8

baidu.com

9

microsoft.com

10 qq.com

340,000,0 19.6% 4,900,000, Yes
00
000

Search Engines300,000,0
17.5% 110,000,0
Yes
00
00,000
250,000,0 14.5% 2,500,000, Yes
Software
00
000
Web Portals 250,000,0
14.7% 39,000,00
Yes
00
0,000

Uses and abuses of Wikipedia
• Veracity
• Plagiarism
• Nonsense
BUT
• Students use it…. And so do I…
• Origins… Crit-Geog-Forum thread Jan 2011

The course
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Theories in Environmental Governance
25-50 students per year
M-level
Covers established and emerging approaches to governing society’s relations with the environment • Original assessment = 4000 word essay

Rationale
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•

Appropriate to course topic?
Gaps on Wikipedia?
More stimulating?
Improve quality of work?
That guy who pops up on Wikipedia making appeals? • Valuable skill?

The assessment
• Contribute to a Wikipedia page (500 words)
• Create a Wikipedia page (2500 words)
• 500 word reflective commentary for each

Support
• Detailed handout
• Must relate to Intended Learning Outcomes and marking criteria
• Session in week 4 devoted to introducing coursework • Time in class every week to discuss
• Discussion threads on Blackboard
• Postgrad support

Working on Wikipedia
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•
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•
•

Topic selection
Style and Wiki-etiquette
Sandpit
Usernames
Gatekeepers
The challenges of Web 2.0
Submission of work: post on wiki as well as submit a single pdf

Examples of work
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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•

Contributions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watershed_management#Governance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_rift http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_sovereignty#Food_Regime_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoengineering#Justification http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Reporting_Initiative#Global_Reporting_Ini tiative_and_the_Environment Pages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_environmental_policy_instruments http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Urban_Neighbourhood http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorialisation_of_carbon_governance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGO_Accountability http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodification_of_water Positive student feedback
• “Wiki-based projects are challenging yet fruitful”
• “Very nice experience to have the honor to contribute to
Wikipedia”
• “Help on the Wikipedia assignment was thorough to ensure everyone was on board”
• “I thought doing a wikipedia entry/contribution was