Education - OU Community Online

Why? Dr Panagiota Alevizou is a researcher in the Open University's Institute of Educational Technology who is trying to find out.

She and other academic volunteers on the Wikimedia Foundation Research Committee are running a high-profile survey to uncover the barriers to scholarly participation –  and they want to hear from as many OU folk as possible. 

"We would like to hear from experts in their field,  who do not contribute, what has deterred them from participation. But we'd also like to hear what motivates people who do participate, either randomly or actively, and gain an insight into the opportunities this offers. 

"It is important we have a large volume of respondents to get a representative sample, so we're hoping as many as possible will take part. The online survey only takes about 15 minutes to complete." 

She said the anonymity of Wikipedia may be an issue for some academics because they can't get credit for their postings. But it is precisely this anonymity is which motivates many people to participate.  

Other possible deterrents could be technical difficulties interfacing with Wikipedia, and not being able to cite particular academic resources because they are not open or accessible to all. 

Some academics continue to be sceptical about Wikipedia's credibility as a source of accurate information, she said. "A lot of people say they do not like Wikipedia, but it is a very popular site and it has masses of information, which can be vetted.  

'It's like any other resource in that, if you're doing research, you don't just rely on one book or one encyclopedia. An encyclopedia is an entry point to research."

Take part in the Wikimedia survey here. 

Useful links 

• Experts to underpin Wikipedia’s open wisdom? 
• Why don’t more scientists contribute to Wikipedia? 
• Wikipedia Comes to Age
• Time to Underpin Wikipedia Wisdom
• Come out from under that bushel
• PlagiPedia shows the web is passionate about correcting its own follies

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