Erik Olin Wright announces American Sociological Association's "Sociology in Wikipedia Initiative" :
"A Call to Duty: ASA and the Wikipedia Initiative Erik Olin Wright, American Sociological Association President
This autumn the ASA is launching a Sociology in Wikipedia Initiative. This project has two main purposes: first, to improve the sociology entries in Wikipedia by making it easier for sociologists to become involved in writing and editing them, and second, to facilitate professors giving Wikipedia-writing assignments to students in their courses....
Wikipedia has become an important global public good. Since it is a reference source for sociologically relevant ideas and knowledge that is widely used by both the general public and students, it is important that the quality of sociology entries be as high as possible. This will only happen if sociologists themselves contribute to this public good. The basic goal of the new ASA Sociology in Wikipedia Initiative is to make it easier for sociologists to do this. (See the ASA homepage for more information at www.asanet.org)"There will be many contested entries, I suspect. Imagine what the entry on, e.g., Marx, will look like! Perhaps sociological discourse will more, like that of many fields, from the seldom-read-but-essential-for-tenure journals to Wikipedia discussion forums, blogs, twitter and other public media. Erik Olin Wright's initiative seems to mark this shift in the locations of the public(s) and audiences for sociological knowledge.
Erik Olin Wright's Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Olin_Wright
And his more complete website: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/
