Wikiversity:What shall we do with Wikipedia?

This page outlines strategies for synergy between Wikimedia sister projects, and especially with Wikipedia, the largest sister project. In its earlier years, Wikiversity's main relationship was with Wikibooks (its parent project), but this page proposes a stronger future emphasis on building productive, interactive relations with Wikipedia in part due to its scale and scope.

Original research
Wikipedia is a "goldmine" of original research. People publish original research on Wikipedia all the time. More original research (by far) is published on Wikipedia than on Wikiversity. Where does it all go? Well, it gets deleted fast, because of the no original research policy, which is a loss to humanity. But so much original research is published on Wikipedia that there is a backlog. As of June 2008, no fewer than 6000 Wikipedia articles were flagged as containing original research - which is probably just the tip of the iceberg. By comparison, Wikiversity had a total of only 8000 articles, most of which were not original research. Where do you find original research on Wikimedia projects? Wikipedia, of course.

Materials tagged as original research at Wikipedia also include materials which are "syntheses of published material which advance a position" (i.e. something less than original research). This kind of material may also be deleted from Wikipedia. Example: Etruscan coins - the complete article was tagged as a synthesis, although the article had many references and was well written.

Suggested courses of action

 * 1) Investigate and transfer original research to Wikiversity before it gets deleted from Wikipedia (see also: Wikimedia Garbage Detail)
 * 2) Lobby Wikipedia to join in transfers of original research to Wikiversity. Initially, transferred material would be flagged for checking by Wikiversitarians.
 * 3) Lobby Wikipedia to modify the original research and synthesis templates with links to Wikiversity and advice to Wikipedians to transfer their material here before it gets deleted.
 * 4) Create a Wikiversity template which tags freshly imported materials from Wikipedia.
 * 5) Create a Wikiversity template which acts as a long term marker that a (patrolled, approved) item owes its existence to a synthesis/original research tag at Wikipedia. The problem this addresses is that imported materials may look like encyclopedia articles rather than educational materials.
 * 6) Discussion about original research started at policy's talk page - help to convince them to spread the word

Main ports of call

 * w:Category:All articles that may contain original research - very large
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Synthesis - much smaller; just tracks the use of the synthesis template
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Syn - tracks the use of the inline "syn" template (used for article sections which are syntheses)
 * w:Category:Articles with weasel words - the weasel template on Wikipedia is sometimes misused for article sections which contain an academic argument or commentary on a subject.

Linking to Wikipedia
We must encourage Wikipedians to come and learn and add to Wikiversity and the knowledge they learn can then be displayed on articles in Wikipedia, perhaps using Wikiversity as a source. We could also encourage senior Wikipedia contributors to submit new projects and articles to Wikiversity in order to aid its development. Our strong link with Wikibooks must also be maintained as books are extremely important to aid learning. Maybe it's also time to set up some relations with Wikiquote?

How tos
Wikipedia does not host "how-to" material, but there are many articles and sections tagged as such (see w:Category:Articles containing how-to sections), some of which could be appropriately imported to Wikiversity. The w:Template:Howto has recently been edited to include a suggested transfer of such content to Wikiversity.

Examples of content to transfer:
 * 1) Tips for running group-dynamic games

Expert commentaries
See /Expert commentaries.

Teaching on Wikipedia
Teaching of Wikipedia is information about people, places and more.

Projects for collaboration between Wikiversity and Wikipedia

 * Project for improving the quality of debating, could cooperate with Wikiversity Beta. Cooperation between Wikipedia and Wikiversity has already started on the subject Friedrich Nietzsche. The debate on Wikipedia in November 2007 will be preceded by a course on Nietzsche at Wikiversity, which could start on may or june.
 * Wikipedia:WikiProject critical source examination: One goal will be to improve articles related to Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War.

Using Wikipedia for learning

 * 1) Wikipedia can be used to promote many types of learning activities, and many face to face classes use it for various uses, e.g. see School and university projects at Wikipedia.
 * 2) Some of Wikipedia's School and university projects might arguably be more appropriate for Wikiversity.

Constructive interwiki links

 * 1) Add w:Template:Wikiversity to Wikipedia pages as appropriate.
 * Do you think we could add perhaps a hidden category to this template so that we could have, say, these WP articles listed as something like: w:Category:Articles with content on Wikiversity? Or maybe this is enough? Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Wikiversity -- Jtneill - Talk 13:24, 24 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Wikiversity doesn't link all WP articles with transclude this template - why not? -- Jtneill - Talk - c 04:26, 29 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Try this: w:Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Wikiversity. --SB_Johnny | talk 09:28, 29 June 2008 (UTC)
 * (or this too: w:Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Wikiversity-bc) --SB_Johnny | talk 09:29, 29 June 2008 (UTC)
 * What this tells is us is that there are less than 200 pages on WP which have an interwiki link to WV. Not every WP article has educational or research relevance, but possibly 100's of 1000's do. When 10% of WP pages have interwiki links to WV, then the job is being done properly - that should be our target - 10%. --McCormack 09:32, 29 June 2008 (UTC)
 * We don't even have that many pages to link to... shouln't we restrict this to instances where we have actual content? --SB_Johnny | talk 09:49, 29 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Let's call this a long-term project! --McCormack 09:53, 29 June 2008 (UTC)