Wikiversity:Colloquium

Start your discussion here Please sign with -- ~~~~

Welcome You have questions, comments or suggestions about Wikiversity? That's what this page is for! You can also find some general information at What is Wikiversity? Wikiversity's Scope Questions about the Mediawiki software Communication: Chat · Mailing list

Purge Cache - Colloquium Archives

3 September, 2006

Short report about English-language Wikiversity

Hello folks. Recently, Frank has written a short report about the German-language Wikiversity. English-language Wikiversity is almost 3-week-old, and it would be great if someone could write a short report about it. Please keep in mind that the shorter the report is, the easier it will be translated into other languages. This is really important because this report is aiming at letting people from other languages know about en: Wikiversity. Please post this report on the dedicated section on Wikiversity Beta. Thanks a lot, and go on doing such a good work! guillom 09:51, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

I was thinking something like this, feel freee to clean it up, I have to run right now:

• The English wikiversity was set up on August 15, 2006, and as of September 3rd, is has:

• 2,511 pages with 195 "content" pages (what is the def on content?)
• 782 users with 9 "custodians"

• The mass import of pages from wikibooks and meta is still on going, though most of the key "school" :pages have been moved
• The title administrator was changed to custodian and a system of metorship for the job was taken up
• Policy debates are on-going and early on there were more policy pages then actual content pages. :School and department pages now make up the majority.
• A naming scheme is still being hammered out. Currently it is Portal->School->Topic (for divisions :and departments)->Main (for lessons and projects)
• As for content, the following project have been proposed and worked a bit on

• bloom clock project
• Wikiveristy the moive
• (add here)

--Rayc 22:41, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

5 September, 2006

Some news from Wikiversity Beta

Hello

Wikiversity Beta is now 10 days old and I think the time has come to give some news. I have decided to organize it as a list of FAQ. Feel free to ask questions I have not thought about at Babel.

Just to remind you, Wikiversity Beta is a global platform aiming at coordinating Wikiversity projects in several languages. This multilingual coordination intends to deal with Wikiversity's mission and general guidelines of the project's scope (for example, about original research). Wikiversity Beta is also a place where Wikiversity projects which don't have a subdomain yet can develop. English-language Wikiversity participants should take an active part in discussions on Beta, since those discussions are going to concern all Wikiversity projects, including the English-language one.

You will find more information in the FAQ. You can also take a look at the reports to get some news from Wikiversity projects in all languages.

guillom 09:57, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

I still think the idea of a "Beta" or "Meta" Wikiversity is ill conceived and lacks individuals who truly wanted to see it get developed. There was some talk once upon a time to have independent "meta" discussion areas for each one of the Wikimedia projects, but instead there is until now, only one "Meta" wiki for all Wikimedia projects. And that metawiki has served as a very useful tool. So why is it being duplicated in this instance and what will beta.wikiversity offer over meta?

In addition, I don't see a strong effort to removed content from say pt.wikibooks to beta.wikiversity but rather an effort instead to create pt.wikiversity. And again, why use beta.wikiversity.org when incubator.wikimedia.org is already available to do exactly the same thing?

The multi-lingual coordination does need to happen in some area, but I think having a whole seperate wiki dedicated to just that mission is not strictly necessary, and something that is going to be much more prone to vandalism. I also didn't see any significant effort to address the objections to the creation of this seperate sub-domain of wikiversity but instead a strong push to simply deny that those objections even existed. This is a needless duplication of effort for other Wikimedia projects that already exist elsewhere. --Robert Horning 18:29, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Signature

Hi, can anyone tell me how to get my Wikipedia signature to work here, with a link to my talk page?

[[User:Daniel575|Daniel575]] | <small>([[User_talk:Daniel575|Talk]])</small>

I don't understand why it won't work. I already tried a few modifications with brackets, a | in between etc, but it keeps moving the ]] after Daniel575 back to the end of the signature. --Daniel575 15:36, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

I assume that you checked the 'raw signature' box? That would be the most obvious culprit.--digital_me 04:22, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

No, I didn't. Also, it shows up like this: [[User:Daniel575|Daniel575 | <small>([[User_talk:Daniel575|Talk]])]]</small> Notice that the first ]] get moved to the end of the signature. I have no clue why this is happening. Could you, or anyone else who has a link to their talk page in their signature, please copy that code you use here with nowiki tags around it? --Daniel575 15:14, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

This is as close as I was able to get... --User:Rayc|Rayc | [[User talk:Rayc|Talk]] 02:59, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

The code seems to be geared up to place what ever your sig is in [[User:Name|"Your sig"]]. Must be the metawiki code. Can anyone edit it?--Rayc 03:02, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Actually, not checking the "raw signature" box would be the culprit. I've got your sig to work find then.--Rayc | (Talk) 03:07, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Let's give it a try... --Daniel575 | (Talk) 15:38, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

IT WORKS!!!! Thanks! --Daniel575 | (Talk) 15:38, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

6 September, 2006

Still lots of stuff on WB

See this page, from #606 down is mostly wikiversity pages. Are these wanted, or are people just making new pages? If any pages are wanted, add them to Wikiversity:Import, or if they're stubs/junk, just mark them for deletion on WB. --SB_Johnny | ^talk 18:15, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

I'd say that all should be imported, and improved or deleted based on their merits here. - Trevor MacInnis 02:10, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

I would go for some unrealted import section of wikiversity that people could move pages out of. It's getting confusing when they are moved into places that already have pages, and are not merged.--Rayc 02:51, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Pages such as b:Wikiversity:School of Medicine:Internal medicine:Oncology that only have one or a few authors could be copied from Wikibooks and pasted to Wikiversity with the author(s) listed on the new talk page at Wikiversity. --JWSchmidt 03:16, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

It's getting confusing when they are moved into places that already have pages -- aye, thars the rub. I think the best thing for now is to just wait for individual requests. I check Wikiversity:Import at least once a day and will bring over any listed page... maybe it's better to just work on the page on the wb side until it get imported (hopefully within a few hours or less). I just don't want to import a bunch of stuff and create a big orphan page problem here :). --SB_Johnny | ^talk 08:59, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

"a big orphan page problem here" <-- You can make use of Help with the migration of Wikiversity pages from Wikibooks. --JWSchmidt 10:13, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Reminder: Motto and logo polls

This is mainly a reminder/alert that the Logo proposal process enters the voting stage tomorrow, and the banner at the top of the pages could be changed to "Please vote to choose the new Wikiversity logo on Meta" or similar... Smurrayinchester 20:20, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

Capitalization

One comment I haven't seen anyone make: We probably should use "sentence style" capitalization (i.e., capitalize only first word and proper nouns thereafter) as much as is reasonable. Thus: Lesson:In statics the sum of the forces is equal to zero (for example) instead of Lesson:In Statics the Sum of the Forces is Equal to Zero (however, in this particular case, I would opt for a much shorter title — say: Lesson:Sum of the forces equals zero, or even: Lesson:Net force equals zero). Using "title style" capitalization is just asking for trouble because of the inevitable confusion that will arise over what words should be capitalized (for example, in the "title case" version of the example page, "is" should be capitalized, even though it's a short word, since it's a verb). - dcljr 22:52, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

Motto and Slogan Contest: Round 2

Please list your support of a motto and slogan here: Wikiversity:Motto contest.

Please consider revising your choice.

Many motto and slogan options were listed in Round 1. Hence, we need other slections round(s) to arrive at consensus choice(s). The following is hopefully a simple and flexible process for inclusion of the most input. It will take some time.

For additional rounds, rather than the idea of an instant runoff which was floated before, it is suggested that we proceed in a simple step-wise way:

• Round 2 (which starts today): Invite more people to list their user id in support (and support changing) of options with at least one person supporting
• Round 3: Unless there are overwhelming favorites with very strong support and no other choices with more than two votes, invite more people to list of support (and support changing) on options with at least two persons supporting. An additional step is suggested: discussing the merits of each option. This round invites discussions that aim to arrive at a rough consensus, as arrived at by the community and, if necessary, experienced custodians.

Timeframes:

• The first selection round started on August 23 and ended on September 7, 2006, after 5:00 pm GMT.
• The second selection round (which includes the openness of the first round) starts on Septermber 7 ends on September 22, 2006, 5:00 pm GMT.
• If necessary, the 3rd round and discussion process would start on September 22 and last as long as needed.

Comments? Reswik 19:06, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

8 September, 2006

School of fictional universes??

Would it be acceptable to create a "School of fictional universes"? because I'm sure that someday some trekies will want to make a "Star Trek universe course"... I've had a somewhat crazy idea related to that but I want to know if it would be Wikiversityish to do something of the sort...? --Halyks 00:59, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Maybe the first learning project in the "School of fictional universes" could be: Star Fleet Academy - scholarly analysis of the science, sociology and languages of the fictional Star Trek universe. --JWSchmidt 02:52, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

I think my first post was on what to do with this sort of stuff...--Rayc | (Talk) 02:57, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

It was your third Wikiversity edit. --JWSchmidt 03:19, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

I Only gave the idea of StarTrek as an example... someone someday will want to do it.. lol i'm not really a Star Trek fan myself but I know some of those "Trekkies"... lol My question was "Would a School of Fictional Universes be accepted in Wikiversity" because i've never seen a school with those type of courses other than some Literature classes... I'ma FAn of the Harry Potter universe and making classes relation to that universe would be something i'd work on, and i'd try to get people from the Wikipedia Harry Potter Project to join in.--Halyks 16:04, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Wikiversity aims to have learning resources for all ages. Many young people are excluded from "real world" affairs and encouraged to explore fiction. We can welcome the participation of people who are interested in fiction while we also encourage a scholarly approach to knowledge. Some people never grow out of their interest in fiction while becoming explorers who create and discover new knowledge about the "real" world. --User:JWSchmidt 19:06, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

ok... acording to what I understand, this is possible and acceptable considering the goal of wikiversity... right?? lol we'd have to choose a better name than "School of Fictional Universes though.. I personally don't feel the name... if anyone has suggestions post them here! :) --Halyks 03:49, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Interiot's edit counter

It's available here. If there are any problems (outside of it not working with IE :P), let me know.--digital_me 04:20, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Wikiversity and books

There is, it seems, currently a problem within wikiversity. Whilst the links to resources on the web provide useful educational materials for teachers and students, problems arise when wikiversians are directed towards books that they may not have access to or be able to afford. It seems here that until all such texts are freely available online (something I don't see happening under capitalism) an approach is needed to provide free access to wikiversians (and other learners). Here are five approaches I can think of:

1. Wikiversity local groups - wikiversians in certain areas can club together to purchase books and establish an informal library which all wikiversians in the area can access, and can perhaps be administrated at meetings or online. The local group can also club together to pay for one of the group to have access to a university library and/or journals online.

2. Join a learned society - I am a member of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. This gives me access to the private library of the society. Also membership of such societies may allow you to befriend certain people who may be prepared to lend you specialist books.

3. Request the book from a public library - request that your local public library (or at least one of the libraries in your local network - in England the libraries are run by local councils and therefore each county/metropolitan borough has a library service in which libraries swap books) purchase a copy of textbooks that are required by wikiversians. I would suggest here that due to the restricted budgets of public libraries there is some community discussion on the most important books to request so libraries don't get inundated with requests and decide to ignore them all, or purchase books of lesser import to wikiversians.

4. Propose a partnership between your local library service and the nearest university, so the public libraries, perhaps in times when certain modules aren't running at the university and so not all copies of module core texts will be needed, can carry and lend books owned by the university. Perhaps computers in the library may be able to access journals that the university is subscribed to as well. Public libraries might have to pay the universities for this access (or maybe do something for the university as well, such as promote it, give students and academics free use of library seminar rooms for meetings or do something else for the university, especially if the library service is part of local government - maybe the council could give the uni some land if the public libraries get access to online journals and books not in demand permanently).

5. Approach the author and ask them if they would like to contribute to wikiversity by allowing the online publication of their work, freely accessible (with maybe voluntary donations to the author's charity of choice). More likely is requesting that a previous edition is made available in wiki form, with encouraging messages advising people to buy the latest edition (in other words we offer the author advertising in exchange for their work being freely available, not ideal I know). The beauty of making the old edition available in wiki form is that wikiversians can update it themselves.

I would welcome some debate on this issue, which I think could be of growing importance as wikiversity develops.

Jimbobalina2005 14:21, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

These are great suggestions, and thanks. I would say that finding local public sources of texts, such as libraries and/or universities, and using gentle but collective force to gain better access to texts is a really practical suggestion. Another, obvious suggestion is to collate all the freely available online peer-reviewed journals in various disciplines so that people can use Wikiversity as a one-stop place to find quality sources (amongst other things). One final thing that we may consider as a community - and one where the Foundation may be of help - is to use our growing leverage in the world of open access to knowledge in order to encourage archives, museums, libraries, galleries etc to make some or even all of their content available for Wikimedia, and hence the world. I know of at least four such high profile institutions in the U.S. that are in the process of either donating their archives to Wikimedia or figuring out how to do so - and this process can be encouraged, nationally, around the world. It may be an idea (where applicable) to do this through the national "chapters" (like Wikimedia UK, for example) - some chapters, particularly the German "Verein", have already had success with such requests. Cormaggio 15:15, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Deletion of userpages

I disagree with this policy; I think it would be good to have templates for these etc. What does everyone think?? --Hotrocks 16:34, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

We do not need shrines for vandals. Nor do we need pages so they can have something to link to as proof of their "great deeds". And we certainly do not need custom templates for each vandal so they can be even more excited about vandalizing here.

Vandalism is a nuisance and will be addressed as such but it's not a big issue, nor should it be made into one. -- sebmol ^? 17:07, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

I completely agree here. I have agressively deleted these vandalism user templates when found, and certainly don't think we should be glorifying individuals who are counter-productive to the mission of Wikiversity and Wikimedia projects in general. --Robert Horning 18:34, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Just throwing in my lot with sebmol and Robert Horning, I agree that we shouldn't be glorifying vandalism, and I have deleted several of these templates.--digital_me 22:22, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

I've taken a moment to write up an essay describing the position on vandals. It's suitably located at WV:SHRINE. -- sebmol ^? 21:43, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Email

We have a few people who provided their email on the wiki pages, like School of Mathematics:Introductory Real Analysis. What should we do with them, email them as ask them to help or delete it so that the spammer don't get to them?--Rayc | (Talk) 05:07, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Good question. Maybe change the addresses so spammer bots can't read them as easily and put a warning above it not to post e-mail addresses. -- sebmol ^? 08:37, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

What if it's an email address set up for using this Wiki only?? --82.42.145.158 09:56, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

They might still get spammed. There are constantly programs running through web sites collecting e-mail addresses to spam. This page is definitely on the sites to visit for those programs because of its association with Wikipedia. -- sebmol ^? 11:04, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Multilingual projects

How to handle projects/courses that are from their very beginning meant to be mutilingual? Think e.g. of a course teaching a language. Much of its content will be in the language itself, much of its content will be media files of some kind, in addition there will be bits and pieces in several languages that learners already know. People understanding several languages will be asked all the time to utilize parallel ressources in as many languages as possible.

There seem to be three basic ways of dealing with that under current premises:

1. Have (almost) identical copies of the course in language.wikiversity wikies for all instructional languages.
2. Put almost everything on Commons and use it by reference or transclusion in the language wikies.
3. Put all multilingual and non-specific media on Commons, all language-specific stuff into an appropriate language wiki, if non exists use beta, and let learners do wiki-hopping.

None of those three seems to be very promising though, since ressources are scattered over so many wikies, and the most central course materials end up duplicated or outside the scope of Wikiversity. Note that this will be all examination-, feedback- and QA related files. Note also that learners must be discouraged from using talk pages in language wikies for (at least) part of their possible themes, since primary course designers might not be watching those, or even unable to read them, while translators of the bits and pieces would possibly not closely or not at all watch them, since they regard their jobs done.

Particularly self-study courses may thus suffer from structural complexities.

• Not a currently planned option would be to centrally host such stuff on beta or www.wikiversity, and simply include links to it in individual language Wikiversity course lists and directories.

-- Purodha 12:12, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Jimbo Wales (talk • email • contribs • stats • logs • global account)

I think this may be a fake one... but it could be genuine, either way. --82.42.145.158 13:34, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

The account has been blocked pending confirmation of identity. -- sebmol ^? 13:45, 9 September 2006 (UTC)