Illuminated Wiki

Written by:
academia

Read by:
the world

Run on:
Wikipedia’s software

Phase: beta development

(it works but is still crude – 
let us know if you’d like to help)

The Big IDEA:
publishing that is radically

Integrative

  • Join up ideas, phenomena, evidence, no matter who develops them, when, in what order,
  • Critical engagement in one place, not scattered over issues
  • Rival authors must reach consensus text on disagreement

Discoverable

  • Directly link related theories / data / phenomena
  • Machine searchable via ‘Semantic wiki’ tags
  • Searches vastly easier for literature and data

Efficient

  • Many valuable ideas & insights lost into the seminar room air because they weren’t big enough “contributions” to be a journal article
  • Here every contribution can be lodged directly into the literature, just as they occur… Big or small.

Accessible

  • Free, open, non-proprietary access
  • The intro to each entry should be written at a level for undergrad students; the rest for peers
  • “Well written” no longer a put-down – it’s a contribution!

Can I
publish?

  • Yes! (assuming you are an academic and/or a doctoral student)
  • Just send us a quick message, we push some buttons, and you are pretty much good to go!
  • (all the world can read it for free – academics or not)

Is it peer
reviewed?

  • Yes. In a radical and open way:
    • Every academic can edit any entry at any time
    • Each entry keeps a full public history of edits (and edits can be undone)
    • Every entry also has a ‘talk’ page, for review/editorial discussion… this, also, is fully open

So I post…
articles?

  • It’s similar…
  • Make a page for your theory, another for your phenomenon, another for your data (any and all elements that you have, in whatever state you have them)
  • Then more data and/or theories (etc) can be connected in at any time, by you or anyone else.
  • The result: a radically integrated resource, that reflects the latest thinking, evidence, and debates, yet with a perfectly preserved history

Can I put it
on my CV?

  • Why not?
  • It’s easy too: Just link to your special author page (which automagically catalogues everything you have done), and maybe curate a few favourites to showcase 
  • Bonus: More fun than copy-typing volume and issue numbers!

FAQs

Yes.

Anyone with access (so, other academics)

BUT it’s transparent and reversible.

  1. Every change is tracked. You can see who did what, when
  2. You can revert changes
  3. You can discuss this directly on the entry’s associated ‘talk’ page 

Of course. We all do.

This place doesn’t replace traditional publishing (nor preprint servers, nor your own web page). It’s a complement to them. So post your words for posterity…. and then link to it in the hive mind here – or copy it here too, why not?

(and yes, I see you sneaking in there with this “more a comment than a question”, but it’s ok. It’s a valid concern!)

No.

You can read anonymously, but to edit you must have an account under your real name. Accounts are for academics only.

Doctoral level students are welcomed and encouraged!

  1. Inclusiveness over hierarchy
    • A PhD student can edit the work of a Nobel laureate.
    • We can’t solve all academia’s power issues, but it’s a start
  2. Observation over judgment
    • The aim is for a relatively neutral view of how likely things are to be true, based on the balance of evidence. This is likely to be contentious at times, but this is the aim
    • Possible exception: sensitivity to vulnerable parties. E.g.,:
      • Claims that could be used to harm vulnerable minorities should require extraordinary evidence, and extreme care in presentaiton
      • How to make an atom bomb doesn’t need full publicity

That’s mighty historically literate of you to ask.

Originally they were made by monk scholars, but from about the 13th century on they were used for secular purposes too. That’s a good 700 years of precedent.

I don’t know, but this is apparently an image of him teaching at Paris in the late 14th century (give or take a laptop).

 

Image source.

(and now you know)