Wikipedia:Kennisnet20050202Eng
report of a meeting between Wikipedia - Netherlands and:
-
- Kennisnet.nl
held at Zoetermeer, 2005-02-02
present:
- from Wikipedia - Nl: oscar, GerardM, SanderSpek, Jeroenvrp, Dick_Bos (report)
- from Kennisnet: Jan-Bart de Vreede
(A Dutch version of this report - Nederlandstalig verslag: Wikipedia:Kennisnet20050202Nl)
[bewerk] Beforehand
(for those not yet familiar):
- Kennisnet is an internet organisation for educational purposes.
- More in particular for:
- primary education (PO)
- secondary education (VO)
- vocational education and adult education (BVE)
- More in particular for:
The division in these three sectors is essential: already at the homepage of Kennisnet.nl (www.kennisnet.nl) can one find it. Two main groups can be discerned within each of the three sectors: students and tutors. Another distinct group is the school management, and special attention is devoted to so-called “green” vocational education.
http://corporate.kennisnet.nl for information about the Kennisnet organisation.
Kennisnet is not the provider of the infrastructure; Kennisnet is an active mediator for content for educational purposes and offers a number of related services like: portals, username-entry, Thinkquest (knowledge contest), guidance, Davindi (search engine), etc.
Kennisnet is a public corporation that tries not to have a spoiling effect on the market. Hence the great interest in Open Source.
A first tentative discussion between Wikipedians (GerardM and Oscar) and representatives of Kennisnet has been conducted on the 15th of December 2004 (see the abridged report)
A few possibilities for cooperation have been further scrutinised as a result of the first session, with the aim of taking stock of liablie possibilities and processing these into a proposal.
[bewerk] 1. Dutch cache-server (mirror) for Wikimedia
This can best be compared to the French cache-server. The database will remain in Florida. The property will legally remain with Wikipedia. Wikipedia must retain root-rights for the server.
Cf. the support of Tucows for Kennisnet: http://tucows.kennisnet.nl
An issue is whether a Dutch legal persona is necessary for this. See also under 2.
[bewerk] 2. Financial support
For Kennisnet the case is usually that support is given through the creation of facilities or direct cooperation in projects. Eg.: making cache-servers available. A condition for the possible cooperation seems to be that Wikimedia exists as a Dutch legal persona. This “Foundation Wikimedia Netherlands” does not need to have any content related duties. Ideally, this will be a contractor who can represent the Wikimedia Foundation in the fixing of conditions, facilitating of Wikipedia-projects and supporting the Dutch Wikipedia community.
Cf. the support that Kennisnet gives to Edu Standaard: http://www.edustandaard.nl
[bewerk] 3. Mediawiki Software
Kennisnet has expressed interest in the installation of the software; to gain experience in using it, to find out whether internal use could be made and to find out whether contributions to the development could be made.
Pros:
- offers feedback (toward Wikimedia foundation)
- broadens expertise in two directions
- communal use of servers.
Concrete arrangements have yet to be made.
[bewerk] 4. Kennisnet Specials and Wikinews
Kennisnet Specials (http://specials.kennisnet.nl) are put together 10-15 times a year. Kennisnet offers no content, this must be delivered by tutors, social organisations, students, etc.
Kennisnet is thinking of a possible integration with Wikinews. Jan-Bart will devise a (Dutch) prototype, embedded in the Kennisnet-environment. He will also call on Wikipedia for participation in a specimen-project.
[bewerk] 5. Kennisnet-editors on Wikipedia / Wikinews
Jan-Bart will stimulate that the editors of Kennisnet will be recognisable as such in Wikipedia, eg. by choosing a recognisable username.
[bewerk] 6. Targeted groups
The groups targeted by Kennisnet are extremely broad, covering the entire educational spectrum from primary education, secondary education, vocational education and adult education.
Wikipedia, Wikinews, etc. will mainly target senior students of secondary education and vocational education, etc. A spin-off from the recently started WikiJunior is regarded as a possibility for younger students. see: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikijunior
[bewerk] 7. A new participation project of Kennisnet: Teleblik
For your information: Kennisnet is one of the participants in a new project for the unlocking of a great amount of old video- and audiosources: www.teleblik.nl
[bewerk] 8. Wikipedia at school
Within Wikipedia, arrangements are made that a start will be made in the systematising of information about the possibilities of Wikipedia in education (and the relevance of education for Wikipedia). The form in which this would be presented is still in discussion; first of all ideas, experience and expertness will be sought within Wikipedia. Another source might be abroad, eg.: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Eichendorffschule
Kennisnet will devote attention to Wikipedia in newsletters and such.
Special information, on vandalism and tackling this issue, will be given to tutors / mediators. A database with user adresses could be useful in the struggle with vandalism from schools.
[bewerk] 9. Training of editors
Kennisnet uses three types of editors:
- internal editors: 4 - 10 persons
- external editors: ca. 50 persons: people from outside the Kennisnet-organisation who contribute, mostly within the scope of co-operation. Eg.: employees from publishing companies etc.
- tutors who contribute to subject-realted communities, and who judge sources for Davindi: 50 - 100 persons
The internal as well as the external editors will get the opportunity to attend a Wikimedia-training, headed by volunteers. A good opportunity for acquanting with the third group of editors is the annual “relatiedag” (meeting), held in March / April.
[bewerk] 10. Legal support by Kennisnet
Kennisnet will provide its knowledge on both the forming of a legal persona Wikimedia Netherlands, and on copyright issues.
[bewerk] 11. Wiktionary (nl: Wikiwoordenboek)
A monetary input of about €5000 is necessary for the incorporation of the ecological and medical EC-thesaurus. Kennisnet will find out whether the necessary means are present. (cf. the www.ziekenhuis.nl dictionary)
There are similar ad hoc-projects.
Another possibility could be a spin-off like the OpenOffice thesaurus.
[bewerk] 12. Davindi and Wikipedia
All links used in the Davindi search-engine of Kennisnet must first be judged by tutors / editors. References to Wikipedia are already used regularly. A tighter integration of Davindi and Wikipedia could be established, and a proposal to this end will be composed by Kennisnet.
[bewerk] 13. Expert qualitycontrol of Wikipedia-content
The future looks bright: a brilliant product could be present in five years. How exactly this would be done is not known, neither how the Kennisnet-contributions will be made visible.
A first possibility exists in the use of the patrol-function.
For the near future, a rating system migt be a useful tool, however, the experiences of other language Wikipedia's are important.
thanx to Joost Bos for translation in English.
