To Join Wikipedia or Not To Join Wikipedia …
For a long time, I felt like not joining Wikipedia was the right thing to do because it meant I could possibly remain more objective in my reporting of Wikimedia Foundation activities and appear more objective.
However, now, I’m beginning to feel conflicted. In my attempts to continue to learn about the Wikimedia Foundation projects, I’ve become involved in several of them, like helping to organize the Boston Wikipedia group and working on the big conference this summer, which many people call Wikimania. There’s a push now for people in the Boston group involved with Wikimania to create identities on Wikipedia.
Can I establish an identity and still remain objective? I don’t think what I’ve been writing/reporting/saying about Wikipedia is going to change if I create a username/user page there. I can’t imagine overnight I’m going to suddenly believe Wikipedia is the ultimate encyclopedia everyone should use and begin campaigning thusly.
One of the advantages to me having an identity over there is that you’ll have a clearer idea about what my involvement with Wikipedia is: my edits, my work with the Boston group, what I’m doing with Wikimania, etc., etc.
Dear readers, what do you think?
January 23rd, 2006 at 12:45 pm
I say join. I agree with what you said completely — that you can establish a presence on the site and still look at things objectively.
January 23rd, 2006 at 1:29 pm
I agree with Amy. I think to understand Wikipedia enough to discuss and work with others involved in it, you should establish an identity. I think the collaborative nature of it as a reference source precludes any issues with objectivity. Go for it! Woo!
January 24th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
I never fully understood why you felt you couldn’t have a Wikipedia identity. IMHO the increased transparency about your involvement that would come from having a username that you regularly log in with would only increase your ability to claim the elevel of abstraction you need when you need it. It’s impossible for you to say you’re not involved; you are. So why not be able to point to exactly how you’ve been involved - even use it as a tracking tool of what you’ve learned through your involvement - rather than have people need to guess.
April 26th, 2006 at 7:47 pm
You have to. Many research on Wikipedia lacks basic knowledge of internal structures just because you have to be part of it to understand it. Writing about Wikipedia without participating is like writing about the internet without using email.