London Wikipedia Academy

Submitted by Dave Roberts on Fri, 25/03/2011 - 09:11

The focus of the day is to start a conversation about how academia and WP should view and engage each other, using as much evidence and as little personal opinion or inferred analyses as possible. The event is being hosted by the first Wikipedia student club in the UK - Wikipedians at Imperial College - and we wish to provide a stimulating and original experience to attendees. We want to reset the tone of discussion about Wikipedia to one which accepts the practical realities of its current widespread use and one which is accurate and precise about Wikipedia's strengths and weaknesses in providing information. This will help Wikipedia by increasing input from academics in London and will help academics as they will be talking in detail about what may be the most widely used, cross-faculty resource in modern higher education.

  • 1200-1400 Students meet and conduct outreach activities
  • 1430-1700 Group editing amongst students - all are welcome
  • 1745-2000 Talks from invited speakers:
    • 1745 Vinesh Patel (introduction) – 5 minutes
    • 1750 Charles Matthews – Wikipedia and academia: Culture clash? - 25 minutes
    • 1815 Professor Henry Rzepa – Wikipedia and the molecular sciences – 25 minutes
    • 1840 Break and discussion with food and drink - 25 minutes
    • 1905 Alex Stinson – Campus Ambassadors and Teaching with Wikipedia, the US experience – 25 minutes
    • 1930 Dr. Jacob de Wolff – Wikipedia and Medicine – 25 minutes
    • 1955 Vinesh Patel (closing speech) – 5 minutes