Michigan State offers course on WP adminship, should be an easy A if you suck up to the right people Options

[Ego Trippin' (Part Two)]

According to this, Dr. Jonathan Obar, assistant visiting professor in the Michigan State telecommunications department, "is teaching a course this semester on how Wikipedia is governed and how administrators are selected." The students' coursework will be based in part on interviews they will conduct with Wikipedia admins. About 25 admins have already signed up to be interviewed.

A previous thread discussed an article by Obar which sung the praises of using Wikipedia in the classroom. I guess he's progressed from teaching students to use Wikipedia to teaching students about Wikipedia's inner functions. Unfortunately, I suspect that Obar will teach the course with a pro-Wikipedia slant.

I was unable to find a course description on MSU's website. Presumably it's out of date.

What do you think the sourcing standards are like for papers in this novel class? Surely there's not much out there in the way of peer-reviewed literature about Wikipedia's governance.
More to the point, is this the first time you've heard of a college course being taught about Wikipedia's inner workings?

[thekohser]

I've been in e-mail correspondence with Dr. Obar, and I encouraged him several times to join WR. Glad to see that he's going to take that step. Please treat him kindly, as he says he has not made any final decisions about the value of Wikipedia.

[Web Fred]

I've been in e-mail correspondence with Dr. Obar, and I encouraged him several times to join WR. Glad to see that he's going to take that step. Please treat him kindly, as he says he has not made any final decisions about the value of Wikipedia.

And who has made their mind up about the value of Dr Obar?

[TungstenCarbide]

I've been in e-mail correspondence with Dr. Obar, and I encouraged him several times to join WR. Glad to see that he's going to take that step. Please treat him kindly, as he says he has not made any final decisions about the value of Wikipedia.

And who has made their mind up about the value of Dr Obar?

You're an idiot, Cunningly Linguistic.

Greg, I agree it's a good idea to invite these people whatever their opinions on Wikipedia. There's all kinds of things he'll learn here that are censored and forbidden to speak of at Wikipedia.

This post has been edited by TungstenCarbide: Sat 11th February 2012, 11:26pm

[Web Fred]

I've been in e-mail correspondence with Dr. Obar, and I encouraged him several times to join WR. Glad to see that he's going to take that step. Please treat him kindly, as he says he has not made any final decisions about the value of Wikipedia.

And who has made their mind up about the value of Dr Obar?

You're an idiot, Cunningly Linguistic.

Well technically I'm a genius, but you have your viewpoints on everything and I doubt I can dissuade you of any of them.

Given that I am technically a genius I seem to be able to see the hole in the erstwhile Prof's plan, ie given that the average 13 year-old admin took roughly 10 mins, give or take, to suss out how one goes about becoming an admin. Which is of course to:

• Spend about 6 months making friends whilst simultaneously kissing the butts of some of the most power-hungry admins (and of course identifying them in the first place).
• Take on the task of wiki-gnoming to up one's edit count whilst not running into trouble whilst creating content (whatever you do, do not try creating content, you'll only piss people off in the process).
• Just revert obvious vandalism, leave non-obvious vandalism. Don't even try repunctuating anything or you might run into international differences and as a result piss someone off.
• If, in spite of everything, you do accidentally piss off someone, apologise effusively then do your best to make friends with the person.
• Oh yeah, agree with whatever Jimbo says and be as obsequious as possible in the process.
• Then start an RfA in which one only gives answers that are expected and none that involve truth.
• Then sit back and wait for all your 'friends' to !vote your ass into a lifetime of power.

Now how the Prof intends to create a semester course out of that I have no idea, but then some people will do anything for a job...especially gypsy profs. Mind you, he can save himself some ground work and just point his prospective students at this post.

Greg, I agree it's a good idea to invite these people whatever their opinions on Wikipedia. There's all kinds of things he'll learn here that are censored and forbidden to speak of at Wikipedia.

All of which are entirely inconsequential and unimportant in the real world.

[TungstenCarbide]

I've been in e-mail correspondence with Dr. Obar, and I encouraged him several times to join WR. Glad to see that he's going to take that step. Please treat him kindly, as he says he has not made any final decisions about the value of Wikipedia.

And who has made their mind up about the value of Dr Obar?

You're an idiot, Cunningly Linguistic.

Well technically I'm a genius,

maybe you and Ottava have more in common than what first meets the eye.

This post has been edited by TungstenCarbide: Sun 12th February 2012, 2:42am

[SB_Johnny]

I've been in e-mail correspondence with Dr. Obar, and I encouraged him several times to join WR. Glad to see that he's going to take that step. Please treat him kindly, as he says he has not made any final decisions about the value of Wikipedia.

And who has made their mind up about the value of Dr Obar?

You're an idiot, Cunningly Linguistic.

Well technically I'm a genius,

maybe you and Ottava have more in common than what first meets the eye.

Shall we lock him in the whine cellar and watch the cage match?

[Fusion]

Shall we lock him in the whine cellar and watch the cage match?

Would that not be cruelty to children?

(Please do not argue that they are old enough to be deemed adults!)