Students now have a new Web resource - the UCSD wiki – where they can post questions and announcements about campus for other members to see.
A wiki is a group of interconnected Web pages that provide compilations of information about multiple subjects.
Users can edit that information and share additional thoughts – the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia is perhaps the most famous of such Web sites.
A few hundred e-mails were sent out last month by the site’s creators, and since then many students have invited their friends to join the online community.
The campus has 1,370 registered users thus far, making it the most active in the collegewikis.com network.
UCSD’s wiki has two ways of getting information: Students can either check the site online to see what information has been added and post their questions, or all communication can be done through e-mail.
A user can sign up for a variety of e-mail lists and then view questions and comments in those categories from their inbox. All of this information is then compiled into a Web page for future users to reference.
The idea for college-specific wikis came from Joe DiPasquale, a 2006 Stanford alumnus, who had an e-mail listserv available to him during business school. Students asked each other questions via e-mail but the information was never saved anywhere.
“”We launched a successful Stanford wiki (stanford.collegewikis.com), and then wanted to bring it to other schools,”” DiPasquale said in an e-mail.
He and Jill Faulkner, a 2006 University of Connecticut alumna, are both residents of Connecticut and avid users of Wikipedia. They then came up with the idea of combining the e-mail list with a wiki. The lists were organized by dorm, courses, class year or any other topic students wanted, to keep busy students in the loop.
“”Questions and topics relevant to students, and not monitored by the school administration, felt like a great idea so students could get the information they really wanted to know,”” Faulkner said in an e-mail. “”There is also a really great events section to keep students in the know of what is going on around campus.””
Including UCSD’s version, the team has now started about 30 college wikis.
The wiki provides a forum for students to honestly share their opinions. Faulkner said that student posts are only monitored for vulgarity and to ensure people aren’t posting advertisements and solicitations.
In addition, all students who post on the Web site must be registered members.
“”We want it to be a trusted community,”” DiPasquale said. “”We didn’t want e-mails from people that aren’t part of the student body.””
Collegewikis.com provides the service free of charge for the benefit of the students.
“”We are hoping that people will like the idea and use the wiki,”” DiPasquale said. “”That’s why we chose a wiki, because they are created by their users and the more people use it, the better it will be.””
Students can e-mail [email protected] to become a representative for their school and once they invite 15 other users who register, students are automatically made administrators on the site.
“”Our goal is that it will be the ultimate information source for students,”” DiPasquale said.
Recent activity on the Web site has included inquiries regarding Cantonese language classes, off-campus housing, studying abroad, bear gardens, summer school and UCSD’s branch of the Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots and Shoots program.
