Peace Corps Wiki
March 6th, 2008 by wlerik.I just learned that there is a new Peace Corps Wiki. I just added the first Guatemalan volunteer page: http://www.peacecorpswiki.org/Erik_W._Lang
Feel free to add your own pages. (More information below.)
Dear RPCV,
For the first time in its almost fifty year history, the volunteers themselves are happy to announce the creation of a wiki based website dedicated to collaborative work.
http://www.PeaceCorpsWiki.com/
An institutional memory of this complex organization is being built day by day creating a bridge to an exciting future. This is an effort, lead by recently returned volunteers, to positivity develop the concept called Peace Corps - the history of Peace Corps and the projects that volunteers have done in over 139 countries around the world, ever since Kennedy announced ‘And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.’
There are now a handful of administrators volunteering their time to the project and regular users (both registered and anonymous) have added almost a 1,000 pages of contributions.
However, we still need your help!
The ultimate goal is to have everything cross referenced, searchable, and freely available to anyone interested in the Peace Corps; countries, cities, sectors, volunteers - all relating to the Peace Corps service and its history for the past 47 years. We’re hoping that eventually volunteers would be able to read what progress has been made in Tamali, Ghana (for example) in the past 40 years. Which volunteers were stationed there? What did the Education volunteers have to do differently in The Gambia then Education volunteers in Senegal, Guinea or Mauritania? What projects did volunteers in Malawi work on 10 years ago, were any in Mzuzu?
You are even encouraged to create a page about yourself! What country did you serve in? What projects did you work on? What was in like serving in Venezuela in 1962, or being one of the 21 total volunteers who served in Bosnia-Herzegovina from 2000-2002? We even made it easy for you - on the main page is a ‘Add Volunteer’ box - just type in your name and the hard part is done for you!
Served in Farafenni, The Gambia or Gyumri, Armenia? Want to make a page about your town or village? Please do. Think the page for your country of service needs a few pictures? Welcome to upload them and post them. (As of now we’re using roughly the same standards as Wikipedia) The page for Ukraine has pictures of what the electrical outlets look like!
You can’t break PeaceCorpsWiki - anything can be fixed or improved later. Don’t be afraid to edit - anyone can edit almost any page, and we encourage you to be bold! You do not need to register as a user to contribute; anonymous legitimate edits/suggestions are welcome.
More than 190,000 people have answered the call to serve, and the PeaceCorpsWiki site provides the tool necessary to capture and disseminate this valued knowledge. You are welcome to join us and contribute your first-hand knowledge to this collective public information exchange.
Thank you,
-Mike Sheppard RPCV / The Gambia (’03-’05) http://www.PeaceCorpsJournals.com/ http://www.PeaceCorpsWiki.com/
March 6th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Is the content moderated like peace corps journals? Are the IPs recorded and sold like PCOL? What is the moderation or deletion policy? Are the moderators employees of Peace Corps and NPCA?
What are the content standards? What content will be acceptable and which content will be deleted? If I create a page about myself will it be deleted like Polyglot who has no policy other than what the editor feels is good for her career? If my name is put on the wiki, will it be removeable? Can I remove my name and information at any time or do I need to be moderated in removing my content? Is the content Peace Corps, NPCA’s, the wiki’s or yours(an employee)?
The historical memory at PCOL is moderated when the owner wants to and he does ‘a favor’ for someone and it may not be in the writers interest. I think you need to publish some policies because the problem with PC and NPCA and the internet and media is they just treat RPCVs like garbage, especially when they try to participate in an important way.
March 6th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
See http://www.peacecorpswiki.org/Peace_Corps_Wiki
I just learned of this project and don’t know a lot about it.
March 7th, 2008 at 9:29 am
RPCV,
While Mike Sheppard and the guys behind PeaceCorpsWiki.org have consulting me about their project, which I’ve been happy to offer advice and recommendations, I’ll let him address some of your concerns directly if he chooses to do so. In the spirit of transparency, however, I’ll answer some of your questions in the context of ThirdGoal.com.
The content (stories and posts) on ThirdGoal.com are lightly moderated. Content posted goes through some automatic spam filters and then is posted right away. Every other day I return to the site to make sure new content is about the Peace Corps. If so, it stays. If not, I delete it without warning and often delete the user’s account.
Here at ThirdGoal, you are welcomed to blog about your Peace Corps experience under an alias or your real name. I was kicked out of the Peace Corps, so safely blogging here under an alias is certainly an important feature I’m proud to offer.
IP addresses are collected, mostly to try to block those annoying spammers I talked about earlier. I value your privacy and have never shared the IP addresses or email addresses of ThirdGoal’s authors. If presented a court order, however, I’d likely honor a judge’s mandate.
I have no direct affiliation with the Peace Corps and am the sole founder, administrator, and financial backer of this website. I’ve invited a few people to help moderate the site from time to time (like when I go on vacation), but I’ve manged 99 percent over the past five years.
To learn more about me, feel free to visit my current blog at http://www.jasonpearce.com. If you want to read about my Peace Corps experience, I documented most of it here.
Thanks for using ThirdGoal.com.
Sincerely,
Jason Pearce
March 7th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Jason,
Thanks. I think I know all this. I don’t think I know anything about the others and still don’t. I guess that’s the point.
As far as you and PC, I don’t think it’s much of an issue. The website works fine.
March 26th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Craigopedia, Jason, and RPCV,
Will here from the Peacecorpswiki project…. Mike and I did an interview recently, we may of answered some of you questions concerning the Peacecorpswiki.
http://www.peacecorpswiki.org/blog/
Cheers,
Will