Among its steps, Gardner said the nonprofit is expanding a program that encourages university professors to assign the writing of Wikipedia entries to their students, particularly in India, Brazil, Canada, Germany and Britain.
The website has also introduced a new feature called WikiLove aimed at keeping users engaged.
Visitors to the website select a graphic icon — choices include kittens, stars and the Mediterranean dessert baklava — and send it with a message of appreciation to a page contributor as encouragement. “It’s like a ‘like’ on Facebook,” Wales said.
The seventh annual Wikipedia conference, hosted this year in Israel, was attended by some 650 Wikipedia contributors and enthusiasts from 56 countries.
Two contributors attended from Venezuela and Indonesia, though neither country has diplomatic relations with Israel. A Palestinian from the West Bank also attended, with Israeli military permission.
At least one professor has published research defending Wikipedia’s accuracy, even though many professors — and some entire universities — ban the use of Wikipedia in homework or research projects.
Like many educators, Raymond MacDermott, an associate professor of economics at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va., said Wikipedia is a good “starting point” for students delving into an unfamiliar topic, but the vast encyclopedia shouldn’t be the only resource a student cites in a research paper.
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