text:
Wikiversity:Mission/Initial development

Refining the mission statement
This is a space in which to develop further a community Wikiversity mission statement. This can (amongst other things) help us to clarify our complex vision and help us to come up with a catchy motto that can be used with our logo on the front page of sister projects.

Current mission statements
Mission statement from Approved Wikiversity project proposal:
 * "Wikiversity is a centre for the creation and use of free learning materials and activities. Its primary priorities and goals are to:
 * - Create and host a range of free-content, multilingual learning materials/resources, for all age groups in all languages
 * - Host scholarly/learning projects and communities that support these materials
 * - Complement and develop existing Wikimedia projects (eg. a project devoted to finding good sources for Wikipedia articles)"

Mission statement from top of front page (as of August 20, 2006):
 * "Wikiversity is a space for the creation and use of free learning materials and activities. Its primary goals are to:
 * - Create and host free content, multimedia learning materials, resources, and curricula for all age groups in all languages
 * - Develop collaborative learning projects and communities around these materials
 * "Wikiversity supports both learning and teaching."

Mission statement/invite from top of front page (as of September 5, 2006):
 * "Wikiversity is a community for the creation and use of free learning materials and activities. Wikiversity supports both learning and teaching. Its primary goals are to:
 * Create and host free content, multimedia learning materials, resources, and curricula for all age groups in all languages
 * Develop collaborative learning projects and communities around these materials
 * "Wikiversity provides various communication media and a wiki website where anyone can edit the pages. Learners and teachers are invited to join the Wikiversity community."

Mission statement/invite from top of front page (as of September 19, 2006):
 * "Wikiversity is a community for the creation and use of free learning materials and activities. Wikiversity is a multidimensional social organization dedicated to learning, teaching, research and service. Its primary goals are to:
 * Create and host free content, multimedia learning materials, resources, and curricula for all age groups in all languages
 * Develop collaborative learning projects and communities around these materials
 * Learners and teachers are invited to join the Wikiversity community as editors of this wiki website where anyone can edit the pages. The community portal lists information about many aspects of Wikiversity."

Refining mission statement(s)
The current mission statement versions are longish; the second sentence of the project proposal mission has a main clause and three subclauses. Perhaps that length is necessary. Perhaps not.

Can we create a more elegant statement for general readers which inspires participation and evokes the depth, breadth and power of the innovative aspects of Wikiversity that are discussed in the proposal, such as issues relating to e-learning and research?

Using a flexible Delphi method (see discussion below) is suggested for generating alternate mission statements and arriving at a synthesis.

Step 1: Develop Mission Statement Alternates
Method tips: If edits are substantial, please create a new alternate. Please feel free to copyedit any of these (except the current statements which are for reference). Please discuss merits of alternates on talk page. Thanks.

Note: I grouped these by a simple emergent category system -- based on length. Other categorizations can and probably should be used in the synthesizing in step 2. Reswik 15:20, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Shorter mission statements
Short Alternate 1 - Focus on our piece of Wikimedia Foundation's goals.
 * Wikiversity develops free learning materials, processes, and knowledge to help all people access all free human knowledge.
 * Footnote for posterity: People = Sentient

Short Alternate 2 - Focus on key words in a short sentence
 * Wikiversity is a community collaboration based shared learning resource for all.

Short Alternate 3 - Focus on collaborative cyber-campus and sharing learning resources
 * Wikiversity is a collaborative cyber-campus commited to sharing learning resources at all levels with all people. -- Smithgrrl

Short Alternate 4
 * Wikiversity is an open educational environment that facilitates the integration of learners, teachers, and community builders everywhere. -- Aldenis

Short Alternate 5
 * Wikiversity celebrates the love of learning, sharing openly all knowledge everywhere with everyone. -- Anon.

Short Alternate 6
 * To boldly go where no University has gone before. -- Hillgentleman

Short Alternate 7
 * Wikiversity is a place where everybody can find the kind of university he likes most -- Raoul

Longer mission statements
Long Alternate 1 - Focus on collaborative learning
 * Wikiversity will provide the world with quality, multilingual, multimedia learning resources as well as a space for collaborative learning for all education levels to all people.

 * Long Alternate 2 - Focus on community and learning resources
 * Wikiversity is a diverse community of learners, teachers, and researchers. Wikiversity is space for creating and using free content, multimedia learning resources for all ages groups in all languages.

Long Alternate 3 - Focus on university/diversity, learning and scholarship
 * Wikiversity is a free university [alternately, "free diversity"] which creates quality, multilingual, multimedia learning resources and facilitates collaborative scholarship and learning for all education levels to all people. While Wikiversity fosters creating and sharing free knowledge, it does not grant degrees or titles at this time.

Long Alternate 4 - Focus on free space and network, learning and scholarship
 * Wikiversity is a free space and network of scholars for creating quality, multilingual, multimedia learning resources and facilitating collaborative scholarship and learning for all education levels to all people.

Long Alternate 5 - Multiple focus

 * Wikiversity is an open educational environment that facilitates the integration of learners, teachers, and community builders everywhere.

 * We learn by collaborating in the development of free instructional resources.

 * Everyone already involved in any wikimedia project is learning all the time. We are all learning about specific topics, but also about the general nature of collaborative knowledge production within a highly dynamic community. Wikiversity focus on education makes it the best place to explore the larger implications of this model. Our instructional materials should explicitly benefit from the fact that they were born over a network, were raised in a virtual village, and can be used by everyone. This is a new way of doing curriculum development, and we all need to learn it.

 * We teach new ways of implementing the collective use of these resources.

 * All wikimedia projects are based on an innovative model of open collaboration that results in the creation of rather conventional repositories of information. Our encyclopedias, dictionaries, databases, and archives are designed to replace and/or complement their closed, expensive, copyrighted, or plainly useless equivalent. Wikiversity is different. Producing great free content is only part of our mission. We want to deliver instructional resources in ways that promotes collaboration among users of these resources. A network of collective users would be the perfect counterpart of our network of collaborative producers.

 * We build a dynamic interface between virtual communities of free content creators and the pedagogical infrastructure of the physical world.

 * Wikiversity is a hybrid network. We create instructional materials that make use of the wealth of resources generated by all wikimedia projects. We deliver these materials in ways that encourage their collective use. We promote further collaboration by designing educational assignments geared toward the development of all wikimedia projects. Our ultimate goal is to harness the power of existing learning communities, erasing the distinction between producers and consumers of free information worldwide. Deploying wikiversity resources in every brick-and-mortar classroom is one of the best ways to bring new contributors back to wikimedia.

Step 2: Synthesize Mission Statements into New Alternates
When we have a number of alternates above (over five or ten), we can start synthesizing the best features of these into a small number of options. Then, we can discuss them (on talk page). If necessary, we can repeat the synthesis process another time.

Step 2, if repeated, could lead to whole process taking a few weeks or a month or more. Hopefully quality and broad(er) agreement will result.

Step 3: Select Mission Statement(s)
When a group of editors active here have generated what seem to be final synthesized versions then we can call the community for choosing, per some process discussed below.

Statement Development: Delphi method
One way of working with collbaratively evolving and synthesizing differing ideas or theories is known as the Delphi method.

In essence, we can develop "themed" alternates and edit existing alternates. Favored alternates can be synthesized, possibly dropping points that are most problematic or unworkable. Then, hopefully we can arrive at one or a few synthesized choice(s). There is usually a facilitator in this method, but we could just do this all together in these steps:

Step 1. We could develop "themed" alternates and edit existing alternates per the "focus" of the alternates. Step 2. We can synthesize the alternates to generate a separate smaller set of more agreeable and elegant alternates. Step 3. Iterate until we have one or a few polished alternates.

If we arrive at several distinct alternates, we can choose from amongst favored alternates to use. Or, we could have a few mission statements for the time being.

This application of the Delphi method deviates from the "traditional" method in several ways. Group facilitation is suggested, not one facilitator. There is not an explicit mention of using steps of developing a thesis, antithesis, and synthesis (though this can be implicit in developing various alternates). There is not an intention for buy in at each stage of a new synthesis (though we can repeatedly look at and edit versions or generate new versions from different points of view). Hence, this is a flexible or loose version of the Delphi method focusing on generating diverse options and interatively synthesizing and refining those.

(Note that the delphi method might be helpful in some planning contexts in Wikiversity. Perhaps it would be interesting to try working with both a formal version of the Delphi method and with the more flexible method discussed here.)

Source Documents
1. Some key passages from Approved Wikiversity project proposal:
 * "Wikiversity is a centre for the creation and use of free learning materials and activities. Its primary priorities and goals are to:
 * Create and host a range of free-content, multilingual learning materials/resources, for all age groups in all languages
 * Host scholarly/learning projects and communities that support these materials
 * Complement and develop existing Wikimedia projects (eg. a project devoted to finding good sources for Wikipedia articles)"

 * Regarding learning/e-learning:
 * "The Wikiversity e-Learning model. Existing "bricks and mortar" universities began as meeting places for scholarly individuals seeking knowledge and those with mastery of a subject who could act as teachers to guide the learning process. Wikiversity will be a virtual meeting place for masters and scholars, a wiki that hosts and promotes a flexible online learning environment.

 * "Conventional universities evolved to have classrooms, collections of courses, grades, fees for students, pay for teachers, the granting of degrees, the certification of teachers and accreditation of universities. That entire structure grew out of the need to concentrate expensive resources (people and facilities) at a particular location in the physical world. The Wikiversity e-Learning model abandons all aspects of conventional universities that arise from the need to focus people and facilities in one place and time. The Wikiversity e-Learning model grows out of the power of the wiki user environment to liberate learning from conventional constraints of time and place. See Wikiversity:Learning for more.

 * "Learning groups

 * "It is natural for the wiki format to develop "learning groups" (creating and maintaining learning trails; interest portals; project or task artifacts) where all participants can discuss and learn collaboratively."

 * Regarding resources:
 * "Resources will include teaching aids, lesson plans, curricula, links, reading lists, etc. Each subject area (or 'course', 'project'), essentially, each community, creates a web of resources that would form the basis of discussions and activities within that field of Wikiversity..."

 * Regarding research:
 * "In the fulfillment of its mission, other tasks and goals may be initiated and developed by participants to support learning and the creation of new content. In particular, guidelines will be developed during the beta phase of Wikiversity's development on hosting and fostering research based in part on existing resources in Wikiversity and other Wikimedia projects." ...

 * "Finally, research may one day take place based on materials in Wikiversity (eg. materials on sociology prompt a survey of attitudes), and also based on Wikimedia projects. Wikiversity could act as a repository of research carried out by the Wikimedia Research Network or other people involved in wiki-based research, and could also host the proceedings of Wikimania. Guidelines for what would be appropriate research will be developed during the beta phase of the project, and reviewed after six months.

 * Whether or not Wikiversity will ever host original research in addition to secondary research is the subject of debate (see talk page.)"

2. Keep in mind the scope of beta stage of Wikiversity.

[Sudhir, 15th January 2007]: Just a suggestion ... "Free Knowledge for Open Minds (FKOM)". I hope it gels with the mission of "WIKIVERSITY".

Choosing
When this mission statement is well-enough developed...

 * Signing: We, the community, sign the statement as a kind of act of solidarity? It might be nice to have something that we can present to the world at this stage (even if our mission has been worked on on Meta for quite some time :-)) Cormaggio 08:04, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Voting: If there is not one option, we could vote or rest with several statements for awhile.

Related projects

 * Logo contest for Wikiversity on meta.
 * Motto and slogan contest - Please list your suggestions and help select a motto and a slogan.

title: Wikiversity:Mission/Initial development


text:
Wikiversity:Searching

Help - main page

This article provides an overview of Wikiversity's search feature, and instructions on using external search engines, such as Google, to find information.

Wikiversity search
 Put your keyword in the searchbox.
 * Go - (or Enter on keyboard) will take you automatically to the article.
 * Search - will return a list of articles.

Effective searching
Here are some really helpful tips and hints for using the Wikiversity search feature effectively:

Avoid short and common words
If your search terms include a common "stop word" (such as "the", "your", "more", "right", "while", "when", "who", "which", "such", "every", "about") it may give a large number of non-relevant results.

Wildcards
You can use limited wildcards if you really want to. See Boolean fulltext search for details on their use. However, wildcard searches are slower, so go easy on the poor server.

Words with special characters
In a search for a word with a diaeresis, such as Sint Odiliënberg, it depends whether this ë is stored as one character or as "ë". In the first case one can simply search for Odilienberg (or Odiliënberg); in the second case it can only be found by searching for Odili, euml and/or nberg. This is actually a bug that should be fixed -- the entities should be folded into their raw character equivalents so all searches on them are equivalent.

Words in single quotes
If a word appears in an article with single quotes, you can only find it if you search for the word with quotes. Since this is rarely desirable, it is better to use double quotes in articles for which this problem does not arise.

An apostrophe is identical to a single quote, therefore the name Mu'ammar can be found only by searching for exactly that (and not otherwise). A word with  ' s is an exception in that it can be found also by searching for the word without the apostrophe and the s.

Namespaces searched by default
The search only applies to the namespaces selected in the user's preferences. To search the other namespaces check or uncheck the tickboxes in "Search in namespaces" box found at the bottom of a search results page. Depending on the browser, a box may still be checked from a previous search, but without being effective any longer! To make sure, uncheck and recheck it.

Searching the image namespace means searching the image descriptions, i.e. the first parts of the image description pages.

The source text is searched
The source text (what one sees in the edit box, also called wiki text) is searched. This distinction is relevant for piped links, for Interlanguage links (to find links to Chinese articles, search for zh, not for Zhongwen), special characters (if ê is coded as ê it is found searching for ecirc), etc.

Delay in updating the search index
For reasons of efficiency and priority, very recent changes are not always immediately taken into account in searches.

Multi-lingual Wikiversity search

 * You can do a multi-lingual Wikiversity search using Google Advanced Search or entering  in the Google search box.

 * Lumrix: AJAX driven Wikipedia search engine. Supports other languages such as German, Spanish, or French.

 * Qwika has indexes for larger Wikipedias, but not yet for Wikiversity.

External search engines
Various search engines can provide domain-specific searches, which lets you search Wikipedia specifically. Searches are based on the text as shown by the browser, so wiki markup is irrelevant. Depending on your browser, you may also be able to use tools that allow you to search Wikipedia using bookmarklets.

In general, external search engines are faster than a Wikiversity search. However, because the search engine's cache is based on when the site was indexed, the search may not return newly created pages. Similarly, the search engine's cached version of the page will not be as up-to-date as the link to Wikiversity itself. A search engine may also return results from a Wikiversity mirror (if such a thing ever exists).

Google
By following the links below, you can use the Google search engine to search Wikiversity - either all languages, or English-only. Google indexes all namespaces.

 * Search all languages
 * Search the English Wikiversity only

If you frequently search via Google, consider installing the Google Toolbar. Using the "search this site" button allows you to quickly search the English version of Wikiversity. The official Google Toolbar is for Internet Explorer (Windows and Mac) and for Firefox (works on all operating system platforms for which Firefox is available, such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X).

How to provide a link to a specific Google Search
Wikiversity markup allows you to insert links to Google searches by including  as the prefix for the link. This can be useful on talk pages, and sometimes in External link sections. It is done like this:

Which looks like this:

 * Tipster

Note: It is important not to use spaces in the search. To add more parameters to the search, separate them by a plus sign, +. For a phrase search, use a hyphen (minus sign), -, between each word. E.g. to search for, use.

To provide a link to a Wikiversity-specific search, include in the google-link  (no spaces before or after), like this:

Which looks like this:

 * google:Tip-of-the-day+site:en.wikiversity.org

To clean up the link so that only the part you want to show is presented, use the pipe, like this:

Which makes it look like this:

 * "Tip of the day"

Yahoo!
By following the links below, you can use the Yahoo! search engine to search Wikipedia - either all languages or English-only.

 * Search all Wikiversitys with Yahoo!
 * Search English Wikiversitys with Yahoo!

Browser integration
Some Browsers allow you to customize your searches and add new search providers. Firefox, for example, has a feature called "quick searches" where a search can be carried out by prefixing a special code to the search term. To search English Wikipedia for "foo", you would write "wp foo" and Firefox should go to w:Special:Search?search=Foo. You can also define your own quick search for Wikiversity by creating a new bookmark in the Quick Searches section of your bookmarks list. Choose any shortcut of your liking (perhaps "wv") and use http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=%s as the location. Now you can search for a Wikiversity page by entering "wv foo" and the browser should take you to Special:Search?search=Foo.

If you cannot find an appropriate page on Wikiversity
If there is no appropriate page on Wikiversity, consider creating a page, since you can edit Wikiversity right now. Or consider adding what you were looking for on Page creation requests. Or if you have a question, then see the help desk, where our volunteers answer questions, any question you can possibly imagine.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Wikiversity:Searching


text:
User:Srinivasaraju~enwikiversity

A Professional Student from India, Telugu as a mother tongue and still faces problems with english :-). My contributions to wiki
 * Telugu Wikipedia
 * Metawiki

title: User:Srinivasaraju~enwikiversity


text: Wikiversity:Help desk

title: Wikiversity:Help desk


text:
Wiki

A wiki is a type of website that allows users to easily add, remove, or otherwise edit and change the content of the webpages. The openness and ease of editing page content makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative authoring.

Welcome to the Wiki learning project.

If you are new to wikis, take a look at the introductory tutorial.

Project description
This Wikiversity learning project is devoted to learning how to use wiki technology to facilitate online learning. It is amazing. You can edit and learn how to make Wikipedia better. When you edit or make any page you can feel proud that you are one of the members of the best site and you will also feel proud that you are a wiki editor. You will have fun by editing and making your own pages. Wikipedia is one of the stages on which you can show your talent and can give your knowledge to millions of people.

Learning materials
Wikiversity has adopted the "learning by doing" model for education. Lessons should center on learning activities for Wikiversity participants. Learning materials can be used by multiple departments. Cooperate with other departments that use the same learning resource.

 * Introduction — New to Wikiversity? Start here!
 * Introduction to Wiki — Introduction to wiki editing and wiki communities which aims to function as a service project for the Wikiversity community and provide learning resources that will aid new Wikiversity editors.
 * Wiki 101 — A supplement to the MediaWiki Handbook geared toward Wiki editing at Wikiversity. This lesson goes into detail about Namespaces, Templates, Lists, Tables and other tools for advancing Wikiversity editors.
 * Named Colors — An alternative way to add color to pages rather than dealing with Hex, octal, RGB codes and other cryptic forms.
 * Learn to learn a wiki way — using wiki technology to support learning.
 * Nature of wikis — a cultural introspective of wiki communities and their workspaces.

Learning materials are located in the main Wikiversity namespace. Simply make a link to the name of the lesson (lessons are independent pages in the main namespace) and start writing!

Wikipedia

 * wiki

Wikibooks
Works in progress - these texts are currently at __Department Name___:
 * __Textbook Name___

Active participants
The histories of Wikiversity pages indicate who the active participants are. If you are an active participant in this project, you can list your name here (this can help small projects grow and the participants communicate better; for large projects a list of active participants is not needed).
 * User:MarkMayhew - working on learning business applications of wikis.
 * User:Rayc --working on creating tests
 * User:JWSchmidt - I am currently interested in starting some exciting community-wide projects for Wikiversity
 * Dionysios (talk), a Participant in the Wikiversity School of Advanced General Studies, Date: 2007-07-18 (July 18, 2007) Time: 1331 UTC

title: Wiki


text:
User:Jechasteen

Name: Jonathan Chasteen Age: 20 Location: Riverside, CA Occupation: Currently studying Music Education at California Baptist University.

If you are taking my course on the Euphonium through the school of music and you are following my planned courses of study, please plan to set up an email correspondence with me so that I can make sure that you are on the right path. My email is jechasteen (at) gmail (dot) com.

title: User:Jechasteen


text:
User talk:BirgitteSB

Hi Birgitte :-). Thanks for contributing to the discussion in/on Wikiversity - I've enjoyed your input on foundation-l. Will you be sticking around? Or even just popping in once in a while? Cormaggio 09:51, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Thanks for the note - newbie? Never! :-) I had a look at those pages and commented at Colloquium - I'd love to set up some collaborations or projects with Wikisource - and I see the German Wikiversity have already started this. But it'd be good if you commented on the Colloquium as to how this could be done - you might have a better vision of this than me.. In any case, cheers! Cormaggio 09:39, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:BirgitteSB


text:
User talk:Srinivasaraju~enwikiversity

Welcome Srinivasaraju! Good to have you around. If you can contribute to anything in the English Wikiversity, that would be great, but you could also try to set up one in your native tongue (what is that?). You'll need at least 9 other contributors to do that.

In the meantime, however, enjoy your stay - and if you've any questions, please ask me on my talk page or generally on the community discussion page. Finally, I'll add that I'd love to develop some top quality learning resources for people learning English as a second language - maybe you'd yourself like to learn something at Wikiversity? Cormaggio 10:01, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Srinivasaraju. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Srinivasaraju~enwikiversity that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 00:03, 18 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:23, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Srinivasaraju~enwikiversity


text:
Wikiversity talk:Candidates for Custodianship

Please see /Archive 0 for prior discussions.

Section headers
It is probably a good idea to avoid links in section headers. On some mobile devices the sections are collapsed and clicking on the header opens the section. If the header is a link it will open the subpage. This makes navigation difficult. To avoid this the suggested format is to include something like this at the top of a subpage nomination:

=== User:Test dummy ===

Which produces:

User:Test dummy

--mikeu talk 19:57, 7 January 2018 (UTC)

Interface Administrators
Discussion at Wikiversity talk:Interface administrators. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 14:26, 20 October 2019 (UTC)


text:
Wikiversity:Username

When you create a new account, so you can log in, one of the things you'll have to do is pick a username. This page gives some advice on this. Essentially, try to choose a neutral username with which you'll be happy, and which will not cause offense or unnecessary confusion.

See also: Why create an account and Changing username.

What usernames are for
A user name is used to credit you with each edit you make. This is partly for copyright purposes and partly for accountability. Some other reasons can be found at Why create an account.

Choosing a username
The best username is typically your real name, a longstanding Internet pen name, or a new username that you use only for Wikiversity or Wikimedia projects, depending on how much of your anonymity you want to preserve while editing. Usernames are case sensitive. If you choose a username where the first character is a letter it will be capitalized when your account is created. This means that if you choose "john smith", the account created will be "John smith". If you want your username to be consistently capitalized remember to use capitalization for each part, like "John Smith".

Please pick a username that is helpful in a world-wide learning environment. That means picking a name that is appropriate for all ages, you are comfortable writing under, and are comfortable being associated with. Remember that a controversial name, while fun, may color other users' perception of you. People should be able to judge you purely on your contributions, not an emotional response to a potentially controversial nickname. Avoiding such names is in your own interest. So do please be careful. Remember you are working as part of a community. Show everyone else the respect for their beliefs that you expect them to show yours.

Using real names
If you choose to use your real name you should be aware that this can lead to harassment outside of Wikiversity. Some people have ended up switching from their real name to a pseudonym and perhaps regret not using an untraceable pseudonym from the start. If you choose not to use your real name, you are welcome to use a name-like pseudonym instead.

If you wish to use your real name, but it appears that it might violate any of the rules on inappropriate usernames, please contact a custodian. A mutually acceptable solution can very likely be found.

Inappropriate usernames
Inappropriate usernames include both clear and masked names. Fairly or unfairly, the line between acceptable and unacceptable user names is drawn by those who find the username inappropriate, not by the creator of the name. Please don't try to find this line.

Wikiversity does not allow certain types of usernames, including the following:

Confusing, misleading, or troublesome usernames: Names of well-known living or recently deceased people (e.g. Chuck Norris, Ken Lay) unless you are that person. If you are, say so on your user page.
 * Names that can be confused with other contributors. (If someone else is using a nickname that you wish to use, please consider using either an alternative pseudonym or your real name instead, or simply do not use a nickname. In the unlikely event that someone else is editing Wikiversity with your real name, please add a middle name or initial or some other way of distinguishing between you and the existing contributor)
 * Names that include commonly used Wikimedia software or Wikiversity community terms, or imply an official position on Wikiversity. Prohibited username components include, but are not limited to words resembling the following:
 * "Custodian","Administrator", "Admin", "System operator", "Sysop", "Moderator", or any other name which implies an official role or role greater than that of a standard user.
 * "Rollback" or "Revert", "Edit war", "POV", etc.
 * "Delete", "Upload", "Pagemove", "Redirect", or other editing processes or abstractions
 * "Vandal", "Hacker", "Spammer", "Troll", or other names that may give the impression that you intend to cause trouble
 * "Bot", "Robot", "Script", "Initialize", "Automated", "Daemon", etc., unless the name is intended as a designated bot account. Names that imply bot accounts may be blocked, and the user may be requested to contact an administrator to confirm that the account is indeed a bot account.
 * Any visible toolbar buttons, namespaces, or other technical terms which may be confusing to inexperienced users or otherwise imply a capacity different than that of a normal user.
 * Also, beware that the letters capital i and lower case L, and the numeral 1 look exactly the same (I/l/1) in certain fonts, as do upper/lower case O and the numeral 0 (O/o/0). This should be taken into account, and creative use of one in place of the other (I where L would be expected and vice versa) is discouraged, given its past misuse, an infamous example of which can be read about here.
 * Names that are extremely lengthy (usually over 40 characters) or contain a long sequence of characters without spaces

Inflammatory usernames: Wikiversity does not allow potentially inflammatory or offensive user names. Inflammatory usernames are needlessly discouraging to other contributors, and disrupt and distract from our task of creating an effective learning environment. This includes, but is not limited to:

 * Names that promote or imply hatred or violence
 * Names that are recognized as slurs or insults
 * Names that refer to symbols of hatred, including historical figures or events that are widely associated with such
 * Names that refer to or imply sexual acts or genitalia, including slang, innuendo, and double entendre
 * Names that refer to or allude to reproductive or excretory functions of the body
 * Names that promote or refer to violent or otherwise illegal real-world actions (e.g terrorism, organized crime)
 * Names mentioning or referring to illnesses, disabilities, or conditions (e.g. AIDS, Amputation, Asperger syndrome, etc.)
 * Names that contain profanity, obscenities, or other potentially offensive language (including non-English profanities)
 * Names of religious figures such as "God", "Jehovah", "Buddha", or "Allah", which may offend other people's beliefs
 * Names that promote a controversial or potentially inflammatory point of view
 * Misspellings, or spellings of any of the types of names above with "cr34+1v3 sub5717u710nz" (creative substitutions)

Harassing or defamatory usernames: Harassment and defamation in any form is inappropriate at Wikiversity; your username is not an exception. In particular, your username is not a vehicle to attack other users with whom you have a disagreement. Your username should not be used to insult or mock other users, usernames, articles, or actions. Additionally, a username should not be used to defame other people, companies or groups, regardless of whether they edit Wikiversity. Nor should usernames divulge the personal information of other users. This can include parts of a name formatted similarly to a telephone number, social security number, or street address.

Usernames that closely resemble any used by notorious vandals: Any usernames that are similar to those that have been used in the past by vandals will likely be blocked on sight. Generally, such names are difficult to choose accidentally.

Usernames intended for spamming or advertisement: Accounts with usernames that advertise a particular website, company, etc. (e.g. "visit [name of url]" ) are discouraged and may be blocked.

E-mail addresses: Using your e-mail address as your username is not a good idea. FDL'ed Wikimedia Foundation project content is extensively copied and the sites themselves are some of the most visited sites in the world. Any edit you make on a Wikimedia Foundation project will have your username attached to it, and using your email address will make you a tempting target for email spam. Additionally, usernames containing "____@wikiversity.org", etc. are blocked on sight, as such a name may misleadingly imply that a user is a member of the Wikimedia Foundation. There is no official policy regarding whether to block non-"wikiversity" email addresses, so it is left to the discretion of the blocking admin.

Trademarked names: Trademarked names, especially sports teams like the Miami Heat, the Carolina Hurricanes, and the New York Yankees (whether it's whole or just the team) should not be used in a username.

Rationale
The primary purpose of usernames is to identify and distinguish contributors. This facilitates communication and record-keeping. The username is not a forum to be offensive or make a statement. No one has a right to any particular username. While colorful, interesting, or expressive names may add to the pleasure of Wikiversity, they are not essential. This might include legitimate names and long-established internet pseudonyms that can be misconstrued.

Signatures
Through the Preferences, one can choose a nickname used in signatures, independent of the actual username (connected to a User: page). In general, the same rules apply for signatures as for usernames. A signature should not be misleading.

For more information on signatures, read the official guideline at Sign your posts on talk pages.

Changing inappropriate usernames
If enough people complain about your username (through talk pages or email) the bureaucrats will change it. Neither complaints nor name changes should be arbitrary, but usernames that are offensive to a significant number of people will be changed, not without notice, but without appeal.

Co-operative contributors should normally just be made aware of our policy via a post on their talk page. Voluntary changes (via Changing username) are preferred: users from other countries and/or age groups may make mistakes about choosing names -- immediate blocking or listing on RfC could scare off new users acting in good faith.

Where a change must be forced, we first discuss it. This can take place on either (A) the user's talk page, (B) a subpage of the user's talk page, or (C) a sub page of Community review. It should be listed on Community review in the appropriate section. The user should also be made aware of the discussion by posting a civil notification message on their talk page.

For uncontroversial cases where the user is actively editing, the decision can be taken in a day or two. For more controversial cases where the user is less actively editing, a week is more appropriate. For highly controversial cases, or cases where the user has left Wikiversity, discussion might well take a month.

After an appropriate time for discussion, a custodian can take a judgement on the name in question. They should only take action if their judgement is that a "rough consensus" has arisen that the username is inappropriate. This will involve blocking the inappropriate username, for which see Blocking policy.

However, custodians may block inappropriate usernames on sight. Reports of obviously offensive usernames should be posted at Request custodian action.

Where inappropriate or borderline inappropriate usernames are coupled with vandalism, the username may be blocked indefinitely on sight: again, see Blocking policy.

Usernames that are designed to impersonate legitimate users may be blocked immediately. The IP address of these users should be left autoblocked.

Using multiple user accounts
It is recommended that users do not edit under multiple usernames, unless they have a very good reason.

Deleting your user account
Accounts with contributions cannot be deleted since this would allow another user to create the account, and claim authorship of those edits. It is not possible for your edits to be removed entirely. They can only be reassigned to something else so as not to violate the GNU Free Documentation License.

If you decide after creating an account, particularly if you did so using your real name, that you would rather be anonymous, you can have your account renamed. You can request this at Changing username. When this is done, your contributions list will be assigned to the new user name.

You may also request your user and talk page be deleted as explained at User page.

Any talk pages that you have signed will still display your former user name. These need to be changed manually by editing the pages concerned. If you feel strongly about your name no longer appearing on the site, you can edit these pages to remove your signature. The easiest way to find these is by clicking "what links here" from your user page. Administrators may hide revisions in page history. from non-administrators, and protecting private information can be a justification for that.

 * See also:  Right to vanish

title: Wikiversity:Username


text:
Wikiversity talk:Mission/Initial development

Delphi Method
On the mission project page, I outlined a method that could be very effective for weaving diverse views into a single or few statements. I hope we give it a try. Because of the newness of the process, it might be that only a few or handful of people develop alternates. Hopefully more will participate as this evolves. It may take some time. But we might find that quality results. Reswik 13:17, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

Embracing University or Multiversity
Discussion moved to Multiversity

Discuss Step 1 Alternates
What do you think of any of these?

Move this page?
The title of this page seems a little odd. A page in the Wikiversity is naturally about Wikiversity. Why does Wiiversity need to be said twice in the title. I think it should be moved to Misson, but I thought I'd get a second opinion before doing it. - Trevor MacInnis 03:11, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

 * That move is a good idea. Reswik 04:10, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Thirded. I think the current name is my fault - and I remember thinking about the simpler version (though I don't know why I chose the longer one). Cormaggio 09:17, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Alright then, that seems unnanimous enough. - Trevor MacInnis 12:54, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Sexism in Educational Spaces and Sexist Language
Wikiversity needs to stress this aspect of education. I've already seen sexist language used as what a user thought was the purpose of Wikiversity. I realize I am going to take so much flak for saying this. I've already tried asking the Freemasons on WikiP why they don't allow women, only to be attacked and silenced.

I want to make sure this worldly educational environment is free of that. I know you can't correct every post a person makes... well, you can... but I mean in a more general sense of how Wikiversity is run and structured. I think this has to be front and center as part of your policy and mission statement. It has to be pointed out or I'll keep reading sexist language at a phenomenal rate on these WIKI sites and then it's not living up to what true education is.

Maybe Wikiversity can finally point this out in a clear manner and maybe the other WIKI's can BE BOLD and add it to their main policy. I want it in a visible place because it's such a visible problem. For too long have women been marginalized, unheard, and it's time that things change. We are not in Post-Feminism. I repeat-- We are NOT in Post-Feminism.

So please create this space for women too. It has been studied and supported that women learn differently than men. All of these things have to be taken into consideration if you want to state that Wikiversity is a global educational space. Otherwise, you are only considering 48% of the population. User:OneWomanArmy--Diana 01:32, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

 * Moving this here from Mission project page. How to summarize these important issues in relation to mission statement? Approach this as part of a longer statement? As part of some policy about equality? And link/refer to that in the long mission or vision? Reswik 16:08, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

"Learning Project" ---> "Study"
I would like to change the term learning project to study. Studies include both learning and research (as in Institute for Advanced Study).---Hillgentleman|User talk:hillgentleman 07:21, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Boundless collaboration
"Wikiversity: Boundless collaborative teaching. Offering free knowledge, helping all who wish to learn." (source) --JWSchmidt 21:41, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

a new idea for a mission

i am new in the community, i saw the debate about closing the site because its lack of clear mission, and so i have a proposal - the mission of wikiversity, is to make a system of courses that will give the learner real and deep knowledge in the material he wants to explore.

maybe i did not write it well... the idea is to give the learner a system of learning. so he will know how to proceed in his learning of the material, like they do it in school.

Wikicredentials, an Educational Utopia, Wikiversity's Global Genius Innovation?
Let us Think without Limitations, Let us Weigh WikiCredentials and Wikiversity on the Scales of our Minds.

-- Gaon Abhinava 02:50, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

Question

Is the withholding of Free educational Accredidation a form of oppression for the Students who cannot afford tuition? Maybe, maybe not, but they still can't afford it. Freedom of Education is a Human right, and I believe Free accredidation should be also. Wikicredentials could ensure that Poverty and economic recession will not effect an individual's opportunity to achieve an Accredited Education. WikiCredentials would Promote Global Innovation, Co-Operation and Understanding between human cultures. Below are the comparisons of Reason.--Gaon Abhinava 02:50, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

 Advantages, Wikiversity Without accredidation

1) Less pressure to meet educational demands and time lines for scores and accuracy.

( scores and accuracy are the only way to track personal developement, The Mind Advancing from "point A" to "Point B".... And Wikicreds. could be fully self-paced, producing less pressure and less "fear of failure".... Fyi, It is impossible to be void of this fear, regardless.) --Gaon Abhinava 03:23, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

 Dis-Advantages, Wikiversity Without accredidation

1)There is Less motivation to Learn, if there is No Award, and No Accredidation.

2) There would be Less People Learning.

3) It seems to be an Imposed Limitation on The Minds of STUDENTS to NOT give Credentials, or not reward their hard study. Given the fact that Goals, and personal Mind development, would both Increase with the student's Acheivement of WikiCredentials. Every Student's Mind Development would be progressive and measurable, this is obvious, and This freedom of education would produce Enormous Enthusiasm among students and teachers alike.

--Gaon Abhinava 03:23, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

' Advantages, WikiCredentials'' Offered by Wikiversity. '''

1) Anyone with sustained Internet access can earn the Equivalent of an associates, bachelors etc...

2)The world may be become a difficult place in the future, to try and physically go to college by way of transportation. Wikicredentials would make earning an educational degree easier in the events of " sheltering in place "  and  " lack of tuition ". etc...

3) The students and Teachers at Wikiversity could closely moniter and edit the educational material, making sure it is accurate and promotes the well being of students. ( free from malicious, historical information distortion, or manipulation ) This would make Wikicredentials and Wikiversity more appealing, and more Attended by the mass populace of humans.

4) Your own personal Wikicreds. can be Fully customizable, and Fully Self paced upon your request, based upon your preference and Mental Capacity.--Gaon Abhinava 03:23, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

' Dis-advantages, WikiCredentials'' Offered by Wikiversity. '''

1) It may take away the profits from colleges and Institutions, being that they are very expensive and Wikicredentials are Free to earn......

( This is Dis-advantages for Them, Not the students, Wikiversity could be an educational Utopia. )--Gaon Abhinava 03:23, 24 July 2011 (UTC)


text:
Portal talk:Physical Sciences

If you want to experiment with a radical new version of Portal:Physical Sciences you can work at Portal:Physical Sciencesnew.

If you update featured content on this portal, make sure that you update Portal:Physical Sciences/Featured.

Some of the departments are in the wrong school
Surely some of the departments are in the wrong school? Instead of being in School:Physical Sciences, they should go in School:Engineering and Technology, namely, the departments of 86.139.201.225 12:51, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Electronics
 * Information Studies
 * Mechanics
 * Robotics

I agree. Also mathmatics isn't a physical science. I suggust we make it a school rather then a department. 71.116.38.46 01:13, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

New page format
I have started Portal:Physical Sciencesnew where we can make a new version of Portal:Physical Sciences. My main goal is to include featured content and links to other Wikiversity content about physical science. --JWSchmidt 15:42, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Coordinate ourselves
I think we should take advantage of the fact that, by now, we are little in numbers to eliminate the disadvantages of, well, being little in numbers. I mean, it's kind of discouraging when nobody helps you in writing something. But we can avoid it happening if we know each other and what each other is doing, so we can concentrate efforts on a few topics at once. And now that we are few we can do it.

We can fill a list like this one to present ourselves:

Graduate students
Zhang Yi

4th year

 * User:Jorge

2nd year
Deshi

Other

Then we can begin to selects topics to work on and, when we feel it is well developed, or when someone simply gets bored of it, another topic is proposed. For example, I was intending to begin my work here structuring and providing content for a course on Statistical Mechanics because I just had it at University and loved it. Those of us who know about the topic can create content, and those who don't can be "the students" asking about every single word they don't understand.

Any opinions? You are all invited to put yourselves down in the list above, of course. Best regards --Jorge 00:40, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

 * There is also Portal:Engineering and Technology/Participants. --JWSchmidt 01:37, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Consider including yourself in the list here and maybe proposing a topic ;) --Jorge 21:45, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Seems like nobody actually liked the idea lol --Jorge 04:12, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Wikiversity is very new. Not many people come to this talk page. A link to Portal:Engineering and Technology/Participants or to this page and an invitation to participate could go on the portal page itself. You can try to develop collaborative groups at the content development projects. --JWSchmidt 16:12, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

 * I don't think there are enough people to worry about categorizing them, just yet. Also, it takes more than just a few days to attract attention to new projects.  Might be better to start just listing our interests and what we're doing.  I'm active working on Topic:Astronomy and Observational astronomy right now.--mikeu 19:10, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Well, the categorization was just for the others to have an idea of what do we know (so if I want to work on subject X I can go telling it to users Y and Z). E.g., I still don't know a word about astrophysics, and just know the basics of astronomy; nor do I know still about quantum electrodynamics (it will come, it will come =)). But you're right: it can work well by just listing what we are (and are interested in) doing, and letting those who can and want to collaborate to offer themselves.

 * Another benefit of disclosing the subjects we master is that it allows for questions to be directed to the right users (which is more efficient -now that we are few- than posting them in some talk page). But maybe a better option is to have a common place in which to post (Physics related) questions (this way users are not disturbed directly: we'll just find questions when we look for them). I think question answering would greatly improve our (at least my) will to contribute. (And as an aside, our contribution would be directly useful to someone, which could eventually join our ranks).

 * So here I go: I'm currently working / wishing to work on:
 * Statistical mechanics (all of them) || Study guide:Statistical mechanics
 * Quantum mechanics: perturbation theory, variational method, second quantization, the solution of the harmonic oscillator, the hydrogen atom, etc., identical particles, quantization of angular momentum, and sum of angular momenta, and maybe something else || Hydrogen atom,Canonical quantization,Boson operators
 * Classical Special Relativity, or Electrodynamics, as you like: Relativistic formulation of electromagnetism, doppler, relativistic dynamics, collitions, and more basic subjects of special relativity || Study guide:Special relativity
 * Fluid dynamics: Euler and Navier-Stokes equations, waves (gravitational -depth h, infinite depth, small depth- and capillar, derivation of the minimal group speed due to adding both effects), solution of a flute (deriving the natural musical scale and the correction we do to it)
 * Quantum Physics: Dirac notation (and space and momentum representations) || Study guide:Quantum mechanics I,Schrödinger equation
 * --Jorge 01:28, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

 * "Another benefit of disclosing the subjects we master is that..." <-- My first impression looking at the list above is that some people might read it and get the impression that they need formal academic training to contribute here because of the emphasis on university categories.  The other schools here seem to list interest by subject: School:Mathematics.  But, to answer your question, I'm an astronomer at the Ladd Observatory.

 * "But maybe a better option is to have a common place in which to post (Physics related) questions..." <--  I agree that we could use a more organized way of directing questions to the right people.  I created a page for astronomy questions called Topic:Astronomy/Help desk which is on my watchlist so I will know when questions get posted.  We could create a new help desk for physics, and then add it to Category:Help desks.--mikeu 18:46, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

 * I hope it's not read that way. I'm new here, so I'm not to tell anybody what or what not to add. It's just what I know and want to add.
 * I've just created School:Physics/Help desk. We should advertise it somewhere. --Jorge 23:24, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

electric circuits and resistance
concepts of e.m.f., potential difference, resistance, etc..I can't understand this topics Christian Merlyn (discuss • contribs) 17:13, 21 May 2014 (UTC)

title: Portal talk:Physical Sciences


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Template:Custodian

User: (Talk) – [ Blocks] • [ Deletes] • [ Imports] • [ Moves] • [ Protects] • Contribs

title: Template:Custodian


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User:SallesNeto BR

I'm sysop on PT.Wikipédia.

title: User:SallesNeto BR


text: User talk:Hoopydink

title: User talk:Hoopydink


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User:Hoopydink

 * ga-wikipedia

title: User:Hoopydink


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Bloom Clock/2006 data

This is the list of data from 2006. Please add yourself to the participants list before signing under plants.

Instructions: sign with four tildes ( ~ ), below the name of any plants you notice in bloom on a particular day. There is no need to do this every day, nor is it absolutely necessary to record every plant you've seen in bloom. If you are unsure what a plant is, ask about it on the talk page. If you're unsure of the scientific name (common names change from region to region, so aren't as useful), try searching for the common name on wikipedia.

(Note:all entries have been archived to log pages, see Category:Bloom Clock Project Plants)

Plants by scientific name:

 * Ambrosia artemisiifolia (Common ragweed)
 * --SB_Johnny | talk 12:23, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Ambrosia trifida (Giant ragweed)
 * --SB_Johnny | talk 12:23, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Cichorium intybus (Wild chicory)
 * SB_Johnny | talk 16:27, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
 * --SB_Johnny | talk 12:23, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Citrus sinensis  (Sweet orange)
 * --User:JWSchmidt 30 March 2006

 * Clematis virginiana (Devil's darning-needle):
 * --SB_Johnny | talk 14:59, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
 * --SB_Johnny | talk 12:23, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Eupatorium purpureum (Joe Pye weed)
 * --SB_Johnny | talk 16:27, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
 * --SB_Johnny | talk 12:23, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Phlox paniculata (Garden phlox)
 * --SB_Johnny | talk 16:27, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
 * --SB_Johnny | talk 12:23, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Rudbeckia laciniata (Green-headed coneflower)
 * --SB_Johnny | talk 16:27, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
 * --SB_Johnny | talk 12:23, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Rudbeckia triloba (Brown-eyed Susan)
 * --SB_Johnny | talk 16:27, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
 * --SB_Johnny | talk 12:23, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Rudbeckia fulgida (Black-eyed Susan, Orange coneflower):
 * --SB_Johnny | talk 14:54, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
 * --SB_Johnny | talk 12:23, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Vernonia noveboracensis (New York ironweed)
 * --SB_Johnny | talk 16:27, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
 * --SB_Johnny | talk 12:23, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

title: Bloom Clock/2006 data


text:
Talk:Bloom Clock/2006 data

Template
It would be good to have a template to replace signatures with a wikilink to the participant's listing on the participants page, or even better one that autolists gdd and daylength. SB_Johnny | talk 14:56, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Bloom Clock/2006 data