Learning patterns/Two models for engaging scholars on Wikipedia
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Two models for engaging scholars on Wikipedia
problemWhat models are available for developing sustained scholarly engagement on Wikipedia?
solutionEnlisting faculty liaisons and organizing a speaker series are two models of effective scholarly engagement on Wikipedia.
creator• Breadyornot
created on09:30, 31 July 2023 (UTC)
status:DRAFT
What problem does this solve? edit
Engaging academic experts can be difficult without thoughtful, developed, and sustained support structures. Wikipedia editing is disincentivized by academic reward structures (i.e., "publish or perish" professional cultures) and skeptical attitudes toward Wikipedia. Moreover, moving between the norms and practices of academic scholarship and those of Wikipedia can be tricky to navigate. Issues of collaborative writing practices, self-citation, what counts as original research, and how to signal your expertise to the wider community are just a few of the concerns that emerge. Many academics who do want to engage have trouble getting started and must rely on an underdeveloped, hard-to-find, hand full of help pages for expert-editors.