Don't know what took me so long to get this out, but I'm finally getting this up on YouTube.
Paper Presentation at TAM9. Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpUd9uwVjqA
Its been a pretty exciting month, promoting Guerrilla Skepticism. Thanks to John Farquhar and Tim Farley I'm going to volunteer (if they will have me) for the Wikipedia Ambassador Program. As I learn more about this I will pass the info on.
I was just on Rational Alchemy podcast last week with Jeff Wagg, Mark Edward and Brian Walsh. I promise to let you all know when it airs. It was really really exciting, they let me rant on and on for some reason, but the best part was when Jeff said something like "as much as we are talking about Wikipedia here tonight, I know we are are completely underestimating the importance of Wikipedia to skepticism". Jeff was with the JREF for years and he has seen it all. If Jeff says that this project is important then it is.
I'm also going to be featured on a few other skeptical blogs here hopefully soon. I've been invited to do a couple more podcasts (just waiting to hear back on a date and time) and I'm totally open to doing more, it they will let me rant on and on about Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia.
Also Mark Edward came up with an exciting idea to get more people editing Wikipedia. A 24-hour Edit-A-Thon. The idea has changed several times in scope but I'm still loving the idea, and am working with Tim Farley on how to make this happen world-wide over a weekend. Don't panic, it isn't the same person editing 24 hours, but groups and solo people editing and posting their edits to a single area so others can watch it happen in real time. Pretty exciting, if you would like to get involved, please let me know, details will come soonish.
In the mean time, keep editing. We are going to need far more than a weekend to finish this project.
Susan
P.S. here is the link to the Rational Alchemy Podcast mentioned.
http://rational-alchemy.com/home-page/1127-rational-alchemy-09132011-guerrilla-skepticism-released
I love the idea of group editing sessions, with everyone working together to attack one area or subject. My colleague, Piper Klemm, believes that the social editing approach will also bring more women to the conversation (http://sciencereview.berkeley.edu/wikiwomen-a-new-kind-of-party/). So this could be a good opportunity to improve gender balance in both wikipedia editing AND the skeptic community.
ReplyDeleteThanks Anna! I read her blog which is really interesting, I knew that women represented a small portion of editors on Wikipedia but as low as 15%? Wow!
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to see if there is enough interest in getting a world-wide weekend of editing. I'm currently testing a way to use one place to log-in all the edits (and the time that we are doing the editing) so that we can virtually be all together at once to jump start the editing process.
Using other methods like chat and skype are also possible.
I'm saddened at how little editing is actually being done on Wikipedia at the moment (by our community) that I'm cautious about this project unless I have enough interest.
At the moment I have a interview on Rational Alchemy podcast that should release any day now. Plus two articles, one for SI and one fore Swift pleading for more help, those won't hit for sometime yet.
Looking for more avenues to get the word out. I'm very open to helping anyone edit, but I rarely hear from anyone. I will skype, chat, email whatever you want to help you out...please...please contact me.