• Wiki: “is a type of website that allows users to easily add, remove, or otherwise edit all content, very quickly and easily”-- an excellent tool for collaborative writing. (wikipedia)
• Wikipedia: is a web-based, free encyclopedia. It is a collaboratively written wiki, allowing most articles to be changed by anyone. (wikipedia)
• Web 2.0: the second generation of web software allowing interactive participation with web pages without any knowledge of html. To be cool you have to say, “That is sooo web 2.0!” (with proper valley girl inflection)
• Stub: a short or incomplete wikipedia article. An article that needs attention.
• Wikifarm: Where you go to find wikis.
• Sandbox: In wikipedia, the place you go to practice editing if you are new or timid.

Websites:

Classroom Ideas:

• Go to Wikipedia’s Community Portal for “To Do” ideas.
• Finish a wikipedia stub article (see Clark College).
• Write a class or group wikipedia article from scratch.
• Build a class or group wiki.
• Pick an existing wikipedia article and fact check, edit the grammar, or provide additional documentation.
• Pick an existing wikipedia article and critically read for bias.
• Have a subject class write a wikipedia article. Collaborate with an English class to edit.
• Have foreign language students translate an English-language Wikipedia article into another language.
• Have ESL/ENL students translate foreign language wikipedia articles into English.

More Interesting Reading on the subject:

• Giles, Jim. “Internet Encyclopedias go Head to Head.” Nature, 12 Dec. 2005, p. 900-901. (hard copy in stacks). Responses:
  --> Johnson, George. “The Nitpicking of the Masses vs. Authority of the Experts.” New York Times, 3 Jan. 2006, p. F2. (ProQuest full-text)
  --> Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. "Fatally Flawed: Refuting the Recent Study on Encyclopedia Accuracy by the Journal Nature." March 2006. http://corporate.britannica.com/britannica_nature_response.pdf
• Levine, Robert. “New Web Sites Seeking Profit in Wiki Model.” New York Times, 4 Sep. 2006, p. C1.
• Pink, Daniel H. “The Book Stops Here.” Wired, March 2005, p 125+.
• Poe, Marshall. “The Hive: Can thousands of Wikipedians be wrong? How an attempt to build an online encylopedia touched off history's biggest experiment in collaborative knowledge.” The Atlantic Online, September 2006.
• “Wikipedia Proves Fertile Ground for Political Shenanigans.” New York Times, 30 Apr. 2006, p.28.