School of Election Science on Wikiversity

[Michael Allan]

I chose you as my proxy, Abd:
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Delegable_proxy/Table

What happens next?

-- 
Michael Allan

Toronto, +1 416-699-9528
http://zelea.com/


Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote:
> this has been posted to the electionscience and election-methods 
> mailing lists, but a Delegable Proxy trial is being set up on 
> Wikiversity. Please consider participating, link to your resources, 
> etc. I'll assist as I do all Wikiversity users, but this is a special 
> opportunity.
> ************
> 
> I'd like to invite any interested in developing educational resources 
> on election science to register on Wikiversity and participate in the 
> School of Election Science. (Wikipedia accounts should work there if 
> they've been linked as a Single Unified Login (SUL) account, but some 
> people do register real name accounts on Wikiversity, it's far more 
> like academia than Wikipedia.)
> 
> Wikiversity isn't like Wikipedia, the comparison would be between a 
> university and an encyclopedia. On Wikipedia, there is a constant 
> struggle for space in a page on a topic, there can be only one page, 
> and Wikipedia mainspace does not allow subpages.
> 
> Wikiversity handles conflict, where users cannot agree, by forking. 
> It is required that content be, overall, neutral, but individual 
> pages can express opinions, and can be placed in a hierarchy for 
> overall neutrality. Subpages may be used. Original research is 
> allowed, even encouraged.
> 
> As matters stand, Wikiversity is very small compared to Wikipedia; 
> however, I (and some others) predict that Wikiversity could 
> ultimately be much larger. Compare a university library with an encyclopedia!
> 
> It has been very difficult to make Wikipedia articles reflect what is 
> well-known in the field of election science, because often what is 
> well-known isn't found in sources that Wikipedia considers standard 
> reliable source. A great deal of the development of election science 
> took place on mailing lists, over the last twenty years.
> 
> Many new users on Wikipedia run into trouble because they want to 
> discuss the topic. That's strongly discouraged on Wikipedia. It's 
> part of the process on Wikiversity, just as students in seminars in a 
> university are encouraged to discuss the subject.
> 
> Further, it is, in theory, a standard practice, where Wikiversity has 
> resources on a topic, to place an interwiki link to the Wikiversity 
> resource in a corresponding Wikipedia article. This can provide a 
> method for Wikipedia readers to find deeper material, including 
> interactive learning, than is possible on Wikipedia.
> 
> Wikiversity could also serve, and has served sometimes, as an 
> incubator for better Wikipedia articles, because scholars on 
> Wikiversity may freely cooperate on better-written articles, multiple 
> versions if they can't agree, which can then be proposed as 
> replacements on Wikipedia, thus bypassing the excruciating one edit 
> at a time process that can make it very frustrating to edit 
> Wikipedia. (If you make major changes to a standing Wikipedia 
> article, be prepared to see them all reverted, quickly. But an RfC on 
> Wikipedia could decide to choose an alternate version, and the 
> decision, showing consensus, would stick.)
> 
> Take a look at 
> http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/School:Election_Science, I just 
> started that resource.
> 
> Drop on by http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:Abd, my Talk page.
> 
> And, while you are at it, take a look at 
> http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Delegable_proxy
> 
> Hopefully, this will be the first substantial application of 
> Delegable Proxy beyond Demoex and Votorola. It was proposed as an 
> experiment for Wikipedia about three years ago, and was, essentially, 
> crushed. But Wikiversity is very, very different. I'm currently an 
> administrator on Wikiversity, just to give you an idea. I can't use 
> that to favor any position, but I've been working for well over a 
> year to insure that Wikiversity stays open and free as a cooperative community.