View source for WikiCU:About

'''WikiCU''' is a wiki with articles related to Columbia University and its neighborhood. It is effectively an insider's guide to Columbia University. As an observant Bwog commenter notes, WikiCU is to an extent Columbia's "institutional memory".<ref>http://bwog.com/2008/05/11/reminder-pillow-fight/#comment-59183</ref>

For a list of similar wikis at other universities, see [[WikiNode]].

== History ==
[[Image:YahooNotepad.png|thumb|300px|Screenshot of the note in which WikiCU was first conceived.]]

=== Beginnings ===
The site was first conceived on April 12th, 2006, in a note on Yahoo Notepad, as pictured on the right. It was originally intended to be at "cuwiki.com". However, the domain was no longer available by February 2007, so "wikicu.com" was registered instead on February 28th, 2007. Other options included "cuwiki.net" and "cuwiki.org", but these were judged inferior to a ".com" domain name. Since then, "cuwiki.org" has been registered and is the location of a wiki about [[Cornell University]].

The first edits by the wider Columbia community started to be made on Tuesday 6th March in the late afternoon / early evening.

=== Project Athena ===
For a few years, Columbia's undergraduate student councils intended to create a Columbia wiki called "Project Athena".<ref>[http://media.www.columbiaspectator.com/media/storage/paper865/news/2006/01/31/News/Esc-Ccsc.Join.To.Create.Athena.Wiki-2028767.shtml ESC, CCSC Join to create Athena Wiki]</ref> The students working on this project managed to create about 50 brief articles, but they didn't get round to making the site publicly accessible. A [[Spectator]] editorial on September 6, 2006 spoke positively of the prospect of a Columbia wiki, but noted that "if the delays run too long, students may take it upon themselves to create their own solution. As has been shown by the abundance of private [[Wi-Fi]] networks, when the institution doesn't provide a means, students will just come up with their own ways to communicate-and procrastinate."<ref>http://www.columbiaspectator.com/?q=node/21818</ref> Well, as it turned out, the Spectator's prediction came true. When WikiCU emerged, the articles written for Project Athena were moved to corresponding articles in WikiCU.

=== Shift in Content Focus ===
WikiCU's first wave of editors included members of the classes of 2006, 2007, and 2008. A tremendous amount of initial energy was expended on creating pages with information directly relevant to student life, including detailed information on [[Category:Columbia undergraduate residence halls|undergraduate dormitories]], the [[Administration]], guides to neighborhood resources (such as [[Banks]] and [[ATMs]] in Morningside Heights, and cataloging student [[Category:Traditions|traditions]], [[Spring Pillow Fight|new]], and [[School songs|old]]. While many of the early editors remained active after graduation, their focus necessarily shifted to adding historical material as they moved farther away from student life. As a result, information on student life pages (e.g. information on [[Room Selection]] and [[Housing strategies]]) fell out of date. This shift in editing focus is probably what has led to the misconception that "the site has not been seriously updated since 2007, when the founders graduated."<ref NAME="SterneArticle>[http://bwog.com/2011/05/12/from-the-issue-an-unloved-archive/ "An Unloved Archive"] ''The Blue and White'', April 2011</ref>

=== The Succession issue and the 'Slow' years ===
Shortly after WikiCU's establishment, its founder, who was going to graduate in May 2008, opened up discussions on whether or not (and to whom) control over WikiCU should be handed over to.<ref>[http://www.wikicu.com/WikiCU_talk:About#Future_of_WikiCU Future of WikiCU]</ref> Discussions would continue for years, including a proposal to hand the keys over to Spectator in 2010. The issue would in fact remain open until 2012.

Despite the continuing uncertainty of its future, a cadre of WikiCU's editors continued to devote hours of their time, channeling their incredible powers of procrastination into growing WikiCU's historical materials. Over the years, as original editors faded away into real life, they were replaced by new active members. Overall though, the active user base remained small, and the issue of out-of-date student life articles persisted.

=== Handover and revitalization ===
In March 2012 WikiCU was compromised by malware, and the administrators were unable to save it.<ref>[http://bwog.com/2012/03/12/wikicu-has-cooties/]</ref> After some discussion [[Sam Aarons]] SEAS'14, webmaster of [[Bwog]] and creator of [[Print@CU]], took over.<ref>http://bwog.com/2012/03/14/wikicu-changes-hands/</ref> The following year, student leaders began taking an active interest in revitalizing the wiki. Student government participants created [[Category:How-to guides|How-to guides]], and in spring 2013, [[Bwog]]/[[The Blue and White]] and [[CCSC]] spearheaded the [[2013 Columbia Wikithon]] to add new material and refresh older article.

== Statistics ==

{{SITENAME}} is powered by MediaWiki software, which records several statistics. The wiki has {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} useful articles, or {{NUMBEROFPAGES}} if you count all the shorter articles, redirect pages, talk pages, and so on. The wiki also has {{NUMBEROFFILES}} images and other uploaded files. So far, {{NUMBEROFUSERS}} users have registered, and {{NUMBEROFADMINS}} have additional administrative powers including the ability to fly. Further statistics are available at [[Special:Statistics]].

== Extensions/modifications ==
* Cite
* ConfirmEdit
* GoogleMaps
* CategoryCloud
* videoflash
* Short URLs
* Timezone is America/New_York
* Interwiki links (use [[w:Page]] to link to a Wikipedia page)
* inputbox

== Legal issues ==
Federal law protects WikiCU from libel lawsuits. Section 230 of the [[w:Communications Decency Act|Communications Decency Act]], passed in 1996, specifically states that "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker." Thus, unlike print and broadcast companies, online service providers cannot be sued if their users disseminate defamatory materials.

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:WikiCU|*]]
[[Category:Websites]]