Page 62 – WMUK

EduWiki 2012: Wikipedia as an educational resource, now and in the future

The EduWiki conference takes place on 5 and 6 September. Click the logo to register!

What do Dictator novel, Implicit self-esteem and Nuclear energy policy in the United States have in common? Each of these Wikipedia articles has been improved by university students in exchange for course credit.

Wikipedia educational assignments – where improving the free online encyclopaedia is integral to the course – already happen in many universities in the USA, Canada and other countries. Here in the UK, lecturers in the universities of Hull, Southampton, Portsmouth and Imperial College, London have been experimenting with Wikipedia assignments.

It seems that everybody gains from this sort of assignment. The students get a real experience of publication, and are motivated to find reliable sources, write neutrally, avoid plagiarism and seek feedback from Wikipedia’s internal review processes. Wikipedia, and its enormous global audience, get improved articles in academic subjects. The lecturers get help in creating a distinctive and demanding educational experience.

To avoid the potential pitfalls, these courses need planning and coordination beforehand between the lecturers and the Wikipedia contributors. Ambassadors – experienced Wikipedians – assist the courses online or in person. The Wikimedia education portal has tips, case studies and supporting materials.

These projects treat Wikipedia as a set of educational processes, not as a static, fixed resource.

The saying about sausages and legislation is that people who enjoy them shouldn’t watch them being made. With anything that claims to be knowledge, the opposite is true. Learners need to see the process behind it: whether the idea just popped into someone’s head, or survived rigourous testing against alternative explanations; whether it was published directly or went through some sort of review. On Wikipedia, the writing, editing and review processes are all open and on public view. By exploring and taking part in these processes, learners have a chance to develop high-level skills of research and collaboration.

At school level, there are opportunities not only to teach many subjects using Wikipedia’s freely reusable text, images and other media but also to teach a critical understanding of Wikipedia itself. Those of us who write Wikipedia don’t want readers to treat the site as a final authority: we want them to view it critically, as a medium with weaknesses and strengths, just as newspapers, books or television should be read critically.

What would be ideal now is if educators and other staff from universities and schools could get together in a room with Wikimedia contributors, discussing the educational projects we’re each working on and the opportunities for the future. That’s exactly why Wikimedia UK and the University of Leicester are hosting a one-and-a-half-day EduWiki conference on the 5th and 6th of September.

There will be speakers from the USA, Canada and Germany as well as the UK, talking about educational activities that use Wikipedia or other wiki projects. Booking is just £40, with discounts for staff in educational institutions and for Wikimedia contributors as well as some free bursaries for students. A few slots are still available in the programme for people who want to contribute: the conference fee is waived for those who run a session.

Over the past few years, Wikimedia UK has been building relationships with some of the most forward-thinking institutions and individuals in the education sector. The education projects area of our site has more information and the draft education strategy suggests how Wikimedia UK might support education in the long term.

*The EduWiki conference takes place on 5 and 6 September at the University of Leicester. Register for the event now by clicking the button. This post was written by Martin Poulter.

UK Wikipedian debates Wikipedia’s relationship with PR industry

Gemma Griffiths, David Gerard and Philip Sheldrake ahead of the webcast

David Gerard, a prominent Wikipedian and Wikimedia UK volunteer, took part in a live debate on the relationship between Wikipedia and the PR industry this week.

The debate was organised by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and streamed live via their CIPR.tv web channel. The recording is available here on YouTube. The debate broadcast was hosted by Gemma Griffiths, Managing Director of The Crowd & I and someone who has offered pro bono support to WMUK in the past. Representing the PR industry was Philip Sheldrake, Founder of Meanwhile and a speaker at WMUK’s recent AGM alongside Neville Hobson.

During the show the group discussed how the PR industry could interact with Wikipedia. In particular, they spent time looking at some draft best practice guidelines, created by the CIPR’s social media panel and hosted for discussion on our wiki here.

The guidelines remain available for comment so please do get involved. CIPR will be taking a snapshot of the guidelines on Sunday 24 June and circulating them to their members as version one, although the document will remain on wiki for further discussion and evolution.

Pic for victory! We team up with The National Archives to bring war art to public domain

We’ve recently been working with our friends from The National Archives to bring a collection of 2,000 or so war art images into the public domain. This is the result of a digitisation grant made by Wikimedia UK to enable these works to be shared online.

The first group of 350 or so images is available in this gallery on Wikimedia Commons and includes works from some 120 artists whose work may be freely available for the first time thanks to this project. The collection includes some of the most famous pieces of war art produced in the UK, including the famous Dig for Victory and Careless Talk Costs Lives campaigns.

We think this is a great step forward as these images can, for example, be used to illustrate an important period in world history as well as the biographies of these artists. This story has received some good press coverage too, in publications such as these articles in The Guardian, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun.

We’d like to see more galleries, libraries, archives and museums embarking on projects of this kind. If you represent a cultural institution and you’d like to find out more about working with Wikimedia UK, please drop an email to glam@wikimedia.org.uk or call our office on 020 7065 0990.

Technological landmark for award-winning Birmingham Moor Street station

The below press release was issued to railway-related media over 28 and 29 May for immediate release. It’s likely to be published over the course of the next month or so.

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There’s a new way for visitors to Birmingham’s historic Moor Street station to connect with its past thanks to a clever new technology called QRpedia – in fact, it’s the first railway station in the world to make use of the technology.

QRpedia codes – a variation of QR (or Quick Response) codes – are objects that can be scanned using a smartphone, which then direct you to a Wikipedia page about the object or location, in the language used by the phone – so providing multi-lingual content to overseas and local visitors alike.

A collection of eight of these codes is displayed in the Centenary Lounge cafe inside the station, directing smartphone users to Wikipedia pages about the station itself, the Great Western Railway, the Chiltern Line and the station’s cosmetically-restored GWR 2884 Class steam locomotive, among other things.

Andy Mabbett, a well-known local Wikipedian who installed the codes, said: “Wikipedia has a vast amount of local and railway history. It’s wonderful that the Centenary Lounge is helping to share this with local people and visitors to Birmingham.”

He continued: “The local community can be very proud that it’s host to the first railway station in the world to use this innovative technology. We look forward to working with railway operators and heritage lines across the UK to deploy QRpedia, which is free to use. We also encourage railway enthusiasts to get involved with Wikipedia, creating and editing content on their favourite railway topics.”

Birmingham Moor Street station is a Grade II listed building and is a particularly fine example of Edwardian railway station architecture. It closed in 1987 but was restored and reopened to widespread acclaim in 2002. The restoration project was given the Railway Heritage Trust Award in 2004 and The Birmingham Civic Society’s Renaissance Award in 2005.

Aasia Baig, the owner of the Centenary Lounge, said: “The project gives people a lot of background information on the station, and it’s particularly good for tourists. It makes the station more interesting and shows there’s a lot more to the station than just travelling. We’re even planning to get the codes printed on our menus!”

Birmingham is also home to the first church in the world to use QRpedia codes, St Paul’s in the Jewellery Quarter.

Welcome to the world’s first Wikipedia town

A QRpedia plaque on the Shire Hall, Monmouth — Photo of a QRpedia plaque on the Shire Hall, Monmouth, by Monmouthshire County Council, CC-BY-2.0

You’ve probably heard the saying, “In theory, Wikipedia shouldn’t work, but in practice it does.” Three of the things that contribute to make Wikipedia work are topic-specific WikiProjects (“let’s write about a town), Wikimedia chapters (“let’s organize throughout the United Kingdom”), and unique ideas (“let’s use QR codes to share content”). This week these three things successfully came together to create Monmouthpedia, “The World’s First Wikipedia Town” in Monmouth, Wales.

The idea for Monmouthpedia began at a TEDx talk in Bristol when John Cummings, an occasional Wikipedia editor, suggested from the audience that the UK Chapter use QR codes to “do a whole town.” That challenge was handed to Cummings when the Wikimedia UK chapter backed the idea. He then moved to his home town of Monmouth where he assembled an ad hoc group of supporters who wanted to participate, including the local County Council.

The project has taken six months of preparation, including a commitment by the town to install a free, town-wide wi-fi network (the first of its kind in Wales). On 19 May the entire town will be bedecked with banners declaring Monmouth as the first Wikipedia Town in the world.

The Monmouthpedia project uses QRpedia to allow visitors to scan QR codes that link directly to the Wikipedia article in their own language. Because of Monmouth’s efforts to provide free wi-fi and implement QRpedia, the town is likely the only place where a visitor can tour in Hungarian, Hindi, Indonesian, Welsh, or numerous other Wikipedia languages using QR codes.

Much of the success of Monmouthpedia comes from its ability to capture the imagination of the Wikipedia community, which has embraced the town virtually. Wikipedia volunteers have contributed nearly 500 new articles in over 25 languages, as well as videos on topics such as the historic Chartists movement.

The project also has a long list of partners, including 200 businesses, several universities and nearly every school and community group in the area. Wikipedia has partnered with museums and other institutions before, as in Derby, but in Monmouth you will see over 1,000 QR codes on every school, every important building, and hundreds of shops. The County Council itself has a QRpedia code in its reception that takes you to their Wikipedia article.

Lest you think this is a passing interest, the town of Monmouth is in it for the long haul. Many of the QRpedia codes are printed on ceramic plaques that should last for decades. The information in articles is backed by the Wikipedia community and will be continually improved and expanded. Physical guides and maps will become outdated, but the Wikipedia articles will always be able to be updated. This potential for on-site access to up-to-date information in any language is what makes the Monmouthpedia model so exciting.

How long can Wikipedia defy the theory and continue to deliver free information to the planet in over 280 languages? We think the Monmouthpedia story provides a very optimistic outlook. If you want to find out more, visit the Monmouthpedia website and take a look at the associated articles on Wikipedia.

Post written by Roger Bamkin, Director of Wikimedia UK (Victuallers )

Wikimedia UK and British Library unveil latest Wikipedian in Residence

Wikimedia UK is very happy to announce the UK’s latest Wikipedian in Residence. Andrew Gray will be based at the British Library’s main site in St Pancras, London from today.

Andrew will be working to establish ties between the Wikimedia community and institutional staff, and to provide training and support to specialists interested in contributing to Wikimedia projects.

It is the latest part of the Wikimedia movement’s collaboration with the British Library, which has previously hosted editing sessions, tours and the 2011 GLAMCamp. The British Library will also host the forthcoming 2012 GLAM-WIKI conference in mid-September.

This position is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), one of the UK’s major research funding bodies. The involvement of the AHRC offers the opportunity for engagement with a wider community of academics working in the humanities throughout the UK. It is envisaged that the program will involve delivering workshops and training sessions targeted both at institutional staff and at AHRC funded researchers, as well as in-house events for the Wikimedia community.

Andrew has worked as a professional librarian in schools and universities for seven years, specialising in digital resources. He is an active member of the UK Wikimedia community, and has been contributing to Wikipedia since 2004. He will be based in London, commuting from Cambridge, but hopes to hold training workshops at a number of different locations around the country.

Doctors use, but don’t rely totally on, Wikipedia

According to recent research that has been shared with Wikimedia UK, use of Wikipedia for medical information is almost universal among a sample of doctors. Many of them praise its accuracy, but they are aware of its faults and that it needs to be read critically.

The investigators conducted an online survey of medical staff at two large hospital trusts in England. Nearly all the 109 responses included free-text comments.

Unsurprisingly, the respondents all consult Wikipedia. The survey was concerned with whether they consult it for medical information and whether it affected their clinical practice.

Ninety percent said they look up medical information on Wikipedia, citing its ease of access and clear, concise layout among its advantages. Among those who denied using it, some commented that they only used Wikipedia for background knowledge: in other words, they were using it.

Even the keen users of Wikipedia stressed that they never base clinical decisions on Wikipedia alone. They saw it as a starting point, to be read critically and consulted alongside other sources. Representative quotes include:

“I use Wikipedia to gain a quick overview of a subject/topic that I am unfamiliar with or to jolt my memory of a subject. I would never base management or treatment of a patient I find there – for that I use my own knowledge, hospital protocols/guidelines, textbooks and advice from colleagues.”

“Most Wikipedia articles explaining diseases/disorders have been copied from a credible source such as a book or journal. Hence for the most part disease descriptions tend to be accurate and can be trusted. However I would nevertheless check it from other sources.”

The research, “Doctors’ use of Wikipedia in clinical decision-making” by David Matheson, Catherine Matheson, Nicholas Campain, Tom Price, and Patrick Collins, was presented as a poster at the Association for Medical Education in Europe conference 2011.

Contrary to what you might expect given that Wikipedia can be edited by anyone at all, a look at the list of Wikipedia users who focus on medical articles reveals a great many with some sort of medical or bioscience qualification, or who are studying for one. An event in Coventry at the end of August will bring together Wikipedians from this group with medical practitioners and researchers who are interested in contributing. Wikimedia UK has been working with the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK and individual medical academics to get experts checking and improving Wikipedia’s medical articles. Last year, The Times observed that patients use a combination of Wikipedia and official sources to inform their choices about treatment (article behind a paywall). The newspaper praised experts who improve Wikipedia, saying their work helps to empower patient choices and give them confidence in their treatment.

This summary by Martin Poulter. Thanks to Suzanne Hardy of Newcastle University for bringing the research to our attention, and Dr David Mathieson of the University of Nottingham for help with this summary.

Changes to the Wikimedia UK board – A message from Roger Bamkin

Roger Bamkin (right) with Stephen from Wikimedia Kenya — Roger Bamkin (right) speaking with Stephen Wanjau from Wikimedia Kenya

One year on from our previous AGM, I have decided to stand down as Chair of Wikimedia UK. I’m becoming a consultant and as I’m proposing to take Monmouthshire County Council (Wikimedia UK partners for the Monmouthpedia project) as a client, I feel that the conflict of interest is too high for me to remain as Chair, hence my decision.

I have actually served for one year and Fae (Ashley van Haeften) will be taking on the Chair’s role until the AGM, while I remain as a Trustee.

In other board news, Andrew Turvey has sadly stood down as Treasurer. Andrew has done a fine job as Treasurer, as well as taking a leading role in ensuring we achieved our goal of recruiting four staff members this year. John Byrne is assisting as a temporary treasurer.

You will soon see from our annual report that the board has delivered on what it set out to achieve a year ago. I hope to see you in Monmouth, but if not, at our AGM in May.

Wikimedia UK’s Communications Organiser

We’re happy to announce our fourth employee at the UK chapter – Stevie Benton. Stevie will be taking on the communications role for the charity. He has worked in non-profit communications for over eight years in a variety of disciplines, including internal communications, press, online and multimedia. He believes that education and access to information are fundamental to the development of humanity.

He’ll be working from the office in Old Street, but believes in being very hands-on and is looking forward to getting out and meeting as many Wikimedians, volunteers and partners as possible. Stevie is interested in all kinds of art, literature and music, enjoys video games and is a long-suffering fan of the Philadelphia Eagles NFL team.

Over the next few weeks Stevie will be working with Wikipedians to promote the Monmouthpedia Project in April and our AGM in the Science Museum in early May.

Wikimedia UK’s new Events Organiser

We are really pleased to be able to introduce Daria Cybulska to the Wikimedia community as the Events Organiser of Wikimedia UK.

Daria was selected after a highly competitive recruitment process: 61 people applied for the job, and Daria impressed the interview panel with her understanding of what makes Wikimedia UK tick and her experience of supporting volunteer-led events. She has worked for a number of charities tackling such diverse issues as sustainability, unemployment and diabetes, and was focusing on increasing volunteer involvement and building lasting relationships with supporters.

Her interests include music, philosophy (especially aesthetics), Edinburgh and derelict buildings. She is also fluent speaker of Polish!

She will be based in the office in Old Street but hopes to get out as much as possible to meet the community.