Exciting times in Berlin May 2012. The 6th World Skeptics Congress will be hosting a wide array of speakers. Some of them I'm already very familiar with, others I have no idea who they are. So off to Wikipedia to discover who these people are that are representing the skeptical community.
Regular readers already know where this is going... The We Got Your Wiki Back! project aims to support all the skeptical spokespeople's Wikipedia pages. Because we know that people outside of our community are going to access these pages shame on us if we don't have their backs. If we don't care about our spokespeople then why should anyone else?
So I'm going to access the pages of these speakers to see what the rest of the world is seeing when they do the same. An added challenge, remember this is a world congress. What do the pages look like in their native language?
One more side note - If you haven't already read my blog Forget English: What the Rest of the World Sees you might want to check it out. I talk about this same World Congress's message to combat Creationism and Medical Quackery. Talk directly to the people needing the message (in their own language) by making sure Wikipedia pages related to Evolution/Creationism and medical quackery are all in good order, YOU might not use Wikipedia as a resource, but this isn't about preaching to the choir, its about getting the correct information in a place they will read... Wikipedia.
The Speakers...
Gerd Antes - No Wikipedia page exists in English or Deutsch
Anila Asghar - No Wikipedia page exists
Johan Braeckman - Page exists but as a stub (more like a stub of a stub)
Chris French - Wikipedia page exists but needs work.
Luigi Garlaschelli - No Wikipedia page but mentioned here.
Dittmar Graf - No Wikipedia page - but mentioned on this page.
Harriet Hall - Great page
Sven Ove Hansson - Very nice page (needs a picture)
Holm Hummler - No Wikipedia page
Ray Hyman - Nice page
Walter Kramer - No Wikipedia page
Benedikt Matenaer - No Wikipedia page
Chris Mooney - Needs expanding but still a nice page
Simon Perry - No Wikipedia page
Massimo Polidoro - Good page in English - Page in Italian (but with a horrible picture)
James Randi - Awesome page with 40K hits in Feb 2012. There is a page in Deutsch as well with 1,800 hits in Feb 2012. French page got 700+ hits.
Gita Sahgal - Very informative page
Eugenie Scott - Very nice page
Simon Singh - Awesome page! (received 6,600 hits in Feb 2012)
Samatha Stein - No Wikipedia page
Kylie Sturgess - Darn good page
Rebecca Watson - Already addressed the issues with this page here.
Jurgen Windeler - No Wikipedia page but mentioned here.
Tomasz Witzowski - No Wikipedia page
Its either hit or miss with these pages. If no page exists then it is possible that person has not met the notability requirements for Wikipedia. It is also possible that they do meet the requirements but no page has been created.
So what can we do to help?
The pages that need help like Braeckman's page need someone to re-write the page. The speakers from non-English speaking countries should also have pages in that language. Everyone needs to have a nice picture taken of them (at the podium with the Skeptics World Congress logo) in the shot. If we don't use the picture now (giving publicity to the Congress BTW) then we might use the picture later.
Regular readers already know where this is going... The We Got Your Wiki Back! project aims to support all the skeptical spokespeople's Wikipedia pages. Because we know that people outside of our community are going to access these pages shame on us if we don't have their backs. If we don't care about our spokespeople then why should anyone else?
So I'm going to access the pages of these speakers to see what the rest of the world is seeing when they do the same. An added challenge, remember this is a world congress. What do the pages look like in their native language?
One more side note - If you haven't already read my blog Forget English: What the Rest of the World Sees you might want to check it out. I talk about this same World Congress's message to combat Creationism and Medical Quackery. Talk directly to the people needing the message (in their own language) by making sure Wikipedia pages related to Evolution/Creationism and medical quackery are all in good order, YOU might not use Wikipedia as a resource, but this isn't about preaching to the choir, its about getting the correct information in a place they will read... Wikipedia.
The Speakers...
Gerd Antes - No Wikipedia page exists in English or Deutsch
Anila Asghar - No Wikipedia page exists
Johan Braeckman - Page exists but as a stub (more like a stub of a stub)
Chris French - Wikipedia page exists but needs work.
Luigi Garlaschelli - No Wikipedia page but mentioned here.
Dittmar Graf - No Wikipedia page - but mentioned on this page.
Harriet Hall - Great page
Sven Ove Hansson - Very nice page (needs a picture)
Holm Hummler - No Wikipedia page
Ray Hyman - Nice page
Walter Kramer - No Wikipedia page
Benedikt Matenaer - No Wikipedia page
Chris Mooney - Needs expanding but still a nice page
Simon Perry - No Wikipedia page
Massimo Polidoro - Good page in English - Page in Italian (but with a horrible picture)
James Randi - Awesome page with 40K hits in Feb 2012. There is a page in Deutsch as well with 1,800 hits in Feb 2012. French page got 700+ hits.
Gita Sahgal - Very informative page
Eugenie Scott - Very nice page
Simon Singh - Awesome page! (received 6,600 hits in Feb 2012)
Samatha Stein - No Wikipedia page
Kylie Sturgess - Darn good page
Rebecca Watson - Already addressed the issues with this page here.
Jurgen Windeler - No Wikipedia page but mentioned here.
Tomasz Witzowski - No Wikipedia page
Its either hit or miss with these pages. If no page exists then it is possible that person has not met the notability requirements for Wikipedia. It is also possible that they do meet the requirements but no page has been created.
So what can we do to help?
The pages that need help like Braeckman's page need someone to re-write the page. The speakers from non-English speaking countries should also have pages in that language. Everyone needs to have a nice picture taken of them (at the podium with the Skeptics World Congress logo) in the shot. If we don't use the picture now (giving publicity to the Congress BTW) then we might use the picture later.
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