Year End GSoW updates (Nov-Dec, 2014)

What an amazing year! Really we have been busy. I look back on the last few blog updates and see some incredible work by our GSoW team. We are really making a difference and continuing to grow. The conference season is about to start and lets hope that you will see GSoW members at all the conferences (big and small) as you know we need the outreach in order to be able to recruit new members and gather more citations, audio and photographs of the people and projects from our community.  Yours Truly began the year with the first SkeptiCamp of 2015 in my local skeptic group (our first conference) it was a blast and am already planning the 2016 event. 

Check out this awesome cartoon Kyle Saunders drew for us and it tells the story better than I can. We have really frustrated a lot of paranormal people. I got a tweet last week from someone I don't know that said this...

Well I can only assume this is another person that is upset that we are asking for citations for claims made on Wikipedia. Sorry, but that is just how it works.  Fascinating mentality.  

We have had nine new members in the last two weeks. That is a very good sign, and three others are about to come out of training. I should be able to talk about their final projects next blog update.  

We have several pages that are only sentences away from being finished that are not included here on this update. We want to make sure everything is completed before we release them. So they will be waiting till the next update as well.  So in the meantime, enjoy what our team has created for you, and for the rest of the world. We are truly reaching beyond the choir!

Updates, Updates, Everywhere
GSoW has started to experiment with editing events loosely based around the Wikipedia This Weeks Article for Improvement effort. Many editors working on a single subject with many small improvements can make a huge difference.


Dutch

Leon Korteweg continued his efforts to document all skeptical organisations in Europe by translating Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften (GWUP) to Dutch. This organisation that unifies all German-speaking skeptics in Europe (essentially Germans, Austrians and Swiss), is among the most active and visual skeptical societies on the continent and works together closely with other groups in for example the Netherlands and Belgium. The article was reviewed by Rian van Lierop and Tijmen van Assen.
In the same category, Leon translated European Council of Skeptical Organisations and Association for Skeptical Enquiry that he first wrote in English (see below). Emile Dingemans reviewed the Dutch versions.

Although famous as "The Science Guy" in the United States, Bill Nye is not well-known in the Dutch-speaking world. Tijmen van Assen, assisted by Leon Korteweg, decided to make extensive biographical information about this science educator available in their language.

Coen de Bruijn, Emile Dingemans and Leon Korteweg greatly expanded Flemish philosopher Maarten Boudry's page (Before & After). A rising star within the skeptical movement, he repeated a Sokal-style hoax and succeeded in fooling two Christian philosophical conferences. His thesis on psychoanalysis (that was recently made into an audiobook by Jozef Van Giel), earned him the SKEPP prize for the best research into pseudoscience and the paranormal. He has since organised and spoke at many conferences about pseudoscience.

Catherine de Jong is arguably the most powerful woman in European skepticism. She led the 10:23 Campaign in the Netherlands, became chair of the Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij (Dutch Society Against Quackery, the oldest skeptical organisation in the world), and in 2013 was elected board member of the European Council of Skeptical Organisations. Vera de Kok took her picture and recorded her voice intro, Leon Korteweg wrote her biography, our new member Raymond van Es reviewed it.

Emile Dingemans successfully managed to keep the page about "The Iceman" Wim Hof factually accurate, when Hof's son tried to insert extraordinary claims without any evidence to back it up. Although Hof claims to be able to cope with extreme cold through a mixture of Buddhist, Hindu and other Asian meditation techniques, scientific investigations from two universities provide some evidence suggesting that a particular breathing technique, that has nothing to do with the psyche, but also a genetic advantage, help Hof endure low temperatures rather than any psychological manipulation of the auto-immune system. Before & After

Comité Para was updated by Leon Korteweg after it adopted a new logo and changed its longer official name. Before & After

When the Lijst van skeptische tijdschriften (List of skeptical magazines) was challenged for a lack of reliable sources, Leon Korteweg took the criticism seriously and contacted the Archive for the Unexplained in Sweden, that holds one of the world's most extensive collections of skeptical and ufological magazines. With its database as reference, the page was revised and expanded in both Dutch and English (see below), and saved from deletion in Dutch, having been reviewed by several non-GSoW Wikipedians. Before & After

English

The European Council of Skeptical Organisations (ECSO) coordinates the work of many (trans)national and regional groups in Europe, hosting, organising or sponsoring conferences and symposia, exchanging information and supporting the setup of hew groups. Leon Korteweg collaborated with many others to complete this umbrella organisation's article, including ECSO chairman Gábor Hraskó, ECSO board member Catherine de Jong, former ECSO board member Michael Heap, András Pínter, Susan Gerbic, Vera de Kok (technical support) and Ryan Harding (reviewing). After publication, the page was translated to Dutch (see above) and Hungarian (see below).

While drafting the ECSO, Susan suggested we should contact the Association for Skeptical Enquiry as well. The ASKE is, amongst other things, known for organising skeptical conferences in Manchester a decade before QED originated, distributing the Skeptical Intelligencer and conducting dozens of paranormal investigations, mainly by Tony Youens. ASKE chairman Michael Heap soon aided Leon Korteweg in completing both pages, Vera de Kok helped with picture restoration, the draft was reviewed by Ryan Harding. After publication, the page was translated to Dutch (see above).

After the Dutch version of the List of skeptical magazines was challenged (see above), Leon Korteweg made sure reliable sources were also added in English, significantly expanding the list as well. Before & After

The Last Dragon (2004 film) has been thoroughly cleaned up by Leon Korteweg, after warnings by other Wikipedians that no (reliable) sources were provided had been ignored for more than a year. The text consisted almost entirely of a plot summary without any reference, and seemed to encourage an uncritical view of dragons as more than mythical creatures, and to portray cryptozoology as legitimate science, blurring the lines between fact and fiction, history and imagination, with suggestive categories such as "hypothetical life forms" (which dragons aren't in biology). Critical but honest reviews of the film have been added from reliable sources. Overly important that this page gets the GSoW treatment and has correct information on it.  December 2014 it received over 3 thousand views.  Before & After

Comité Para was updated by Leon Korteweg after it adopted a new logo and changed its longer official name. Before & After

Skepticality - Christine Daley has taken on a much needed update of the Skepticality podcast Wikipedia page. Before & After

Article Montel Williams has been updated with a criticism section by Chris Allen - Williams page now says "Controversial self-declared psychic Sylvia Browne featured frequently on The Montel Williams Show from 1991 until its finalé in 2008. Williams described Browne as "the most appearing guest on a talk show in the history of television" and "the longest running guest in daytime television",^[18][19] and her appearances included particularly controversial incidents relating to kidnap victims Shawn Hornbeck and Amanda Berry. Williams has been criticized for allowing his high-profile show to serve as a channel for Browne, notably by fellow retired military officer Hal Bidlack, with Bidlack publicly asking "Commander Williams, have you lost your honor?". 

The Montauk Project (Chris Allen) rewrite and merge from Preston Nichols's page that was deleted. Before & After  I had not heard of the Montauk project before Chris had taken on updating this page. So I was pretty surprised to learn that it gets a lot of page views, December 2014 it got over 10,000 views. Amazing!

Jan Harold Brunvand This was a really fun and much needed rewrite by Janyce Boynton. I knew nothing about this man, but of course knew all about the term "Urban Legend" which he is famous for. Fascinating man, so happy to see his Wikipedia page go from 3 citations to 73 citations. Truly an amazing page. Before & After

Italian

CICAP, the Italian skeptical organisation, was recently completely rewritten and expanded by Raffaella Vitali. Before & After

Hungarian

European Council of Skeptical Organisations - translated by András G. Pintér from the English article by Leon Korteweg

Origin of Species - András G. Pintér extended the contents of the article and divided it into sections, along with providing more reference - Before & After

Paleoastronautics - An article by Attila Hartai on the theories of claimed historical visits by extraterrestrial intelligence

Hungarian Skeptic Society - (work still in progress) András G. Pintér added an info box along with additional information to the article, backed up by references - Before & After

Tényeket Tisztelők Társasága - A former, no longer existing, unofficial group of Hungarian skeptics (no photo yet, work still in progress). András G. Pintér added more information, backed by references, Attila Hartai made some structural corrections - Before & After


Mentions

GWUP conference - May 2014 - lecture by Michael Steinkellner 

Carbon Dating blog

Leon Korteweg's interview with Dutch Kritisch Denken

Skepticality podcasts - Nov 20, Dec 3 & Dec 24th 

Happy 2nd Birthday GSoW! (and updates)

How very exciting, we are turning TWO!  After the video read on for the latest updates.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efU-2yw0U58&feature=youtube_gdata

                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New French editor Christophe Michel adds the James Alcock page to French Wikipedia, Christophe will also be interviewed as our French representative for Observatoire Zététique.  The OZ has agreed to support us with updates as the French team rolls them out.  

                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Portuguese Team scored our very first non-English DYK on the front page of Portuguese Wikipedia.  Unlike the English page which stays up only 8 hours, the Portuguese DYK remains for days.  So for a week or more in May 2013 Portuguese readers were treated to a photograph and DYK of our very own Neil deGrasse Tyson which they had translated in March.

Looking over the stats from that period you can see that the Tyson page was averaging about 100 views each day.  There are spikes of over 1,000 each day during the time he was featured as a DYK.  But as you can see, the views every day since the DYK are averaging about 300 views.  I'm not sure what the reason is, we released this page in March and it could be from a combination of things.  All we know is that his page views are over 3x's what it was receiving before our involvement.  A win for science!  

Even more interesting.  Look at the stats for Carl Sagan's Portuguese page for the same time period.  Averaging under 100 views each day, now it is averaging 500 a day since our involvement.  The same effect is happening (though smaller) on the Cosmos page.  

                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CFI was kind enough to send me to lecture to the Portland CFI group in May, there I found 3 new editors.  One of which has just finished a re-write of the Rationalism page.  View the before page. Now the after.  Great work Joshua Filmer!

                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leo Igwe was just given the high honor of receiving 3 new pages in one week.  German, Dutch and Russian.
                            

                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

English editor Bill Grieb re-wrote the page for Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy book.  Yes, even books can have their own Wikipedia page if they are noteworthy enough.  This is such a well written page, that others on our team will be using it as an example for other book pages they are currently working on.  So stay tuned.  

Before and After

As you know, we try to get our pages noticed outside the skeptical community.  So Bill managed to get the Bad Astronomy page on the front page of Wikipedia for 8 hours as a DYK.  Here are the stats during that period.  

When I knew that the DYK was going to appear, I wrote to Phil Plait to tell him.  To my surprise he wrote a blog about it for Slate Magazine.  That article gave us several new editors. Thanks Phil!  Here are the stats for the Plait WP page.

                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

English and Dutch editor Wim Vandernberghe has translated the English ADE 651 page into Dutch.    Maybe some governments will benefit from a good Google search before they invest in their next "bomb" detector.    

                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Josh Hunt (from Cleveland, OHIO Skeptics) took issue with the Gore Orphanage Wikipedia page.  As you look at the before page you will see how it was depicted as if this orphanage was really haunted. Many Ohio ghost-hunting groups venture out to the ruins of this orphanage to report back on all the "activity" they find.  Funny that, as Josh discovered that there was no such place called Gore Orphanage, only a Gore Orphanage road.  And even more odd, there was no Orphanage.  At least not one that had been burned down killing children.  Seems that this is all a urban legend once you look into the story, wonder how the ghost hunting groups explain this?  

Because Josh wanted a complete story, he and his wife went out to the site where this was supposed to have happened and photographed the marker.  Awesome job Josh.  After page

                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This page has been a long-awaited re-write.  As I've said before, I do not assign projects.  People choose something off the list or come up with something on their own.  Shane Vaughn for whatever reason selected Phillip Klass for a re-write, and I'm very pleased to show you the Before and now the After.   

                                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've had a few interviews since the last update.  Skepticality Podcast continues to allow me a few minutes each episode, and editors roll in after each one airs.  All of them long-time listeners to Skepticality, I'm told they have been wanting to get involved in a project that  can be done from home that makes a real difference in the world.  They all tell me they have found it with GSoW.  Thank you Derek Colanduno for your support.  

CFI and the JREF have been very supportive of this project, with publicity, retweets, and opportunities to lecture.  Thank you for supporting us.  

There are many other people to thank, including my vast group of Facebook friends who step up when I need something Photoshoped or advice about some bit of research.  The comments, retweets and shares really help our team succeed. 

If you look at our last update you will see that I have had many interviews and shout-outs the last few months.  Everyone has been so nice and supportive even though I tend to ramble.  Skeptical Connections Podcast is just starting out and allowing me a segment to talk about on-line activism as often as I want.  

So that is it for this update.  There are many more projects that are in varying stages of completeness.  We don't just churn these pages out, it can take weeks of research to re-write (or create) a page.  Add in the formatting and code associated with writing for Wikipedia, and you will see this is a very difficult chore we are taking on.  I don't want to scare away potential editors, we do train.  Everything is discussed throughout the process, positive feedback is given and nothing is released onto Wikipedia unless it has been reviewed by several editors.  I promise we won't allow you to blow up Wikipedia.  

I should mention that not every person on the team is involved in research.  We have people who support pages by copy-editing and photography.  Some people caption videos.  Some are involved in small edits that only take a few minutes to finish.  There is a lot of work to be done.   We are in this together, so please consider joining our team.  Friend me on Facebook and I'll get you started.  Lets Go!

Happy Birthday GSoW!