The Beginning

The idea of Wiscipedia first began when Dr. Dave Nelson of the Biochemistry Department and student Jia Luo sat down and discussed the variety of science majors that were available to undergraduates on the UW-Madison campus. They talked about how students ultimately made their selection (Jia got lucky and picked a good one she eventually stuck to) and the dauting task of choosing one major over another. Simply choosing between biochemistry, molecular biology, biology, and biology with a neurobiology focus is already rather difficult!

They then spoke about the possibility of creating a wiki for the campus to use. After Jia met with a few of her friends, several of them were very supportive, citing their "could've-done-this-if-only-knews" and "could've-done-that-if-I-had-found-outs." They came up with the idea of creating Wiscipedia.

Then there were several months of extensive planning and discussing what would be on the website and what would not be. What students were looking for and even web searches through the available resources. Eventually, the Dr. Alan Wolf and Dave Augustine in the Center for Biology Education graciously donated some serverspace and Wiscipedia was able to gain a temporary server, which is still its temporary URL. Then there was the need to find funding. This resolved itself once the L&S Honors Department expressed great interest and helped with it's trust award of $3000 and Associate Dean Ann Groves-Lloyd helping us match that. Dr. Dave Nelson said that he would donate a portion of his Biochemistry textbook sales.

At a recent meeting about the web 2.0 program Red Rover on the UW campus, Kevin Prentiss of Red Rover suggested that Wiscipedia create a blog documenting what it has accomplished so far to share with others looking to be pioneers in the college wiki scene, so here we are. The official Wiscipedia blog. Enjoy.