Wikipedia as a Tool for Forestry Outreach

摘要

The goals of this work were to examine how the online, collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia presents information related to forest management and the profession of forestry and to explore its potential as a vehicle for widespread public outreach, interaction, and communication regarding these topics. Issues concerning the accuracy of Wikipedia content were reviewed, and a survey of Wikipedia content related to forestry was performed, along with a project enlisting college students to generate content on Wikipedia related to forest measurements coursework. Forestry-related Wikipedia articles generated over one-half million page views during 1 month in 2008, with nearly 6,000 views of 25 student-generated pages. In the 18 months since they were first uploaded, student-generated articles were edited 784 times by 132 separate contributors. Developing new content, editing, and revision are essential parts of the Wikipedia collaborative model. As such, significant opportunities exist for individuals or groups of students, professionals, experts, and nonexperts alike to contribute collaboratively to forestry-related articles that will be viewed by relatively large audiences of the online public on Wikipedia. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]