MEMORANDUM
- To: Sara Lasner
- From: Timothy Sandole
- Date: August 27, 2013
- Subject: Belfer Center Wikipedian Summary
Note: This document was edited for grammar on 03/21/2014 by Timothy Sandole
Purpose: To provide a summary of my experience as the Wikipedian at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Executive Summary: I was the Belfer Center Wikipedian from August 27, 2012 to August 27, 2013. During that time, I made 80 significant edits to 63 Wikipedia articles, with changes ranging from approximately 1,000 bytes to 17,000 bytes per article.[1][2] I conducted three Wikipedia seminar workshops, each lasting approximately 1.5 hours, and privately consulted with five Harvard Kennedy School staff members/fellows and one student to develop a more hands-on approach to HTML coding, which was necessary for editing articles. The seminars attracted 8-25 participants who overwhelmingly provided positive feedback. Many of those interested in Wikipedia at the Harvard Kennedy School wanted to use the platform for self-promotional purposes, which is a violation of Wikipedia guidelines. My seminars, therefore, focused on articulating those guidelines (e.g., conflict-of-interest, notability, verifiability, no-original-research, etc.) so that participants were aware of what constituted a good encyclopedic article and, most importantly, what Wikipedia was not. Elucidating Wikipedia's guidelines was one of the largest benefits I brought to the Harvard Kennedy School community.
Editing international security-related Wikipedia articles: Most of my time was dedicated to improving international security-related Wikipedia articles, of which I edited 63. Of the various ways in which a Wikipedian can contribute to an article—WikiGnome, Copyeditor, Maintainer, Mediator, Illustrator, Formatter, and/or Author—my contributions mostly resembled that of an Author. I added new information to Wikipedia articles from books (e.g., On China by Henry Kissinger; Essence of Decision by Graham Allison); websites (e.g., www.foreignpolicy.com); academic journals (e.g., International Security; Foreign Affairs) newspapers (The Economist; Financial Times; The New York Times) and other credible primary and secondary sources. I kept Wikipedia articles up to date with the latest research from relevant publications, benefitting anyone who was studying those specific topics. My activity caught the attention of Wikipedia users GabrielF, Thincat, and JaGa, all three of whom provided positive feedback and constructive criticism of the articles I edited. I made the most significant edits—between 4,000 and 17,400 bytes-worth of changes—to the following articles:
- Grand strategy (+17,405 bytes): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_strategy
- Targeted killing (+16,105 bytes): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Targeted_killing
- Nuclear terrorism (+15,753 bytes): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_terrorism
- ↑ An illustrative summary of my work can be found at: http://tools.wmflabs.org/xtools/pcount/index.php?name=Timothysandole&lang=en&wiki=wikipedia.
- ↑ See appendix.
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