Wiscipedia Hackathon

The Hackathon was very successful! Seven of us had over 500 edits in 2.5 hours! Wow! I think if we had a couple more of these and people spent some random amounts of their free time contributing we'll have some great stuff once we release Wiscipedia.

Unfortunately, on the IT side of things the situation has been rather deadlocked (like it has been for the past few months). Speaking with all of the different campus staff with very different ideas almost feels like a microcosm of the problem Wiscipedia wants to address: finding the right person to help you. It has been hard to find a sponsor for us who is willing to carry on such a lofty project.

The current goal is to try to find the RIGHT person at DoIT. Hopefully this will happen soon so we can take the Wiki off the CBE server and give it a nice URL and make sure its always maintained. Speaking to the wonderful IT guys at Biochemistry today, we learned that theres a possibility we can get DoIT to virtual host our wiki in their servers. This will be perfect because then we can deal less with the server end of things, something that is not particularly the Wiscipedia group's strong suit.

Professor Dave Nelson has graciously said he will foot the IT bill- Wow! Thank you!

On the exciting side of things, we have a really enthusiastic new member: Sajia Hall. She's going to add her communications expertise to our very science-y group. Yay!

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For those who missed the hackathon:

1) Go to cbe.wisc.edu/wiscipedia
2) On the upper right, create a username/password (remember the password b/c it doesn't get emailed to you!; you dont have to use your real name)
3) Click on edit and start editing!

Notes:
* Look at reference pages for editing ideas/syntax. A good page to look at is click on "Special Pages" on the left side bar of wiscipedia and click on "Articles with the most revisions" then you can clikc on "Edit" in those articles (upper part of page) and see how that type of syntax was done.
* In general, you just need these simple steps: http://144.92.111.242/wiscipedia/Contribute
* Avoid uploading pictures for the time being until we move to a better URL
* Save often especially if you have a bad internet connection!
* Before you start a new page, use "search" to see if that page already exists
* Play around, click on random stuff, and have fun! Its especially a good idea to try out the different links on the left side of the website.

Backtrack: Student Org Fair

The student org fair was also a WILD success. Students were extremely excited about the project and many of them rushed to the table declaring "THIS IS PURE GENIUS!" We're really happy about the large campus response, even grateful for the hundreds of students who walked by the table silently rolling the word "whisk-eee-pedia" across their tongue.

One thing we did was have a Facebook-like wall that allowed students to write down what they wanted to see. From this we realized that there were a lot of students interested in more information on campus life, something we have since added to Wiscipedia.

It was extremely exciting to see a subsection of the student response. Just shows that once we're out there, we're gonna be huge.

Wiscipedia 09/01/08 Meeting Notes

Wiscipedia Moderators:
Jia Luo
Daniel Lecoanet (co-chairs)

Charlie Burns
Matt Vogt
Tyler Braasch
Mary Chen
Ziyi Wang
Anna Williams
Brian Lee

Event:
Wiscipedia Hackathon (an intro)
FRIDAY SEPT 19
Rm 2257 College Library (classroom)
5-8 p.m.

STUDENT ORG FAIR - Next Tuesday 5-8pm Kohl center
(disclaimer: some of us are busy advertising other student orgs during our shifts but try to be at your shift as much as possible)
Set up: Jia and Daniel
4:50-6pm - Daniel and Mary
6pm-7pm - Jia and Charlie? Brian?
7pm-8pm - Jia and Tyler Matt?

Goals:
We will focus on advertising that our website is coming soon and show ppl the youtube video
We will make a list soliciting topics to underclassmen.
We will have free candy
We will make a mailing list of ppl interested to help us edit/contribute and email them once Wiscipedia is launched

Here is the main points of the meeting:

BUDGET
- spend $$ buying a new server?
- for the core wiscipedians $ for core content and eventual moderating
- future handouts/ keepsakes (i.e. magnet, lanyard)
- food
- posters for advertising
- launching party?
- $$ for doit to add content?, let us upload pics, login?

MEETINGS
- check on progress, keep track of staff
- check wiki/ links
- allocate topics
- consolidate info and check on resources
- budget
- hackathons
- everyone is free monday nights at 6:30pm
- initially more frequent meetings but fade to 1/month

Wiscipedia Summer 08 Accomplishments

Accomplishments Summer 08 and prior:

- Spoke to Dr. Alan Wolf about getting a new server or switching Wiscipedia URL to wiscipedia.wisc.edu
- Spoke to Dr. Ann Groves-Lloyd about Pathways Program and how it could integrate with Wiscipedia
- Spoke to members of CRC about their involvement with CRC classes
- Spoke with English grad student Rik Hunter about Wiscipedia
- doIT approved switch to wiscipedia.wisc.edu
- Created YOUTUBE video describing both use and ease of editing (common craft style!)



- Discussed extensively the login/logout security functions of Wiscipedia.
Final conclusions:
1) have students log in with NetID/password
2) have NetID/password question not asked until after making an edit - have it look like commenting on blogger to encourage students to edit the page and then decide "oh, NetID/password is pretty easy to throw in at the end"
3) allow the student to decide to post with an alternative username instead of NetID but NetID will be default username
4) after commenting once, student will be logged in under NetID/password until he/she clicks "logout"
5) these parameters will still allow moderators to block student if he/she is not contributing appropriately to wiscipedia, not allow random spamming yet give students a certain amount of anonymity
- Met with new Wiscipedia staff to get everyone on the same page
- Made Wiscipedia an official student org
- Made plans for light advertising at student org fair

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.