Student Assembly quickly responded to an e-mail sent to the entire student body by "The Dartmouth Wiki" -- a new website unaffiliated with the college that allows registered users to post and respond to questions -- through a follow-up e-mail sent to students on March 30.
The follow-up e-mail stated that the Assembly and the Computer Science Department are in the process of creating an official Dartmouth wiki and that the Dartmouth University Wiki, as it is titled on the website, is an unfiltered "outside commercial venture" unaffiliated with the College.
"We wanted to discourage the student body from using this wiki because there could be a lot of negative consequences," Ruslan Tovbulatov '09, treasurer of the Assembly, said. "If students got on the wiki and put up information completely unchecked, it could become like another BoredatBaker[.com]."
A four-person team of recent college graduates based in Westport, Connecticut launched the Dartmouth University Wiki on March 29. The website is part of a larger network known as collegewikis.com which provides similar pages for 55 colleges and universities, including Duke University, Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University.
On the Dartmouth University Wiki, registered users can create e-mail lists for specific dorms, classes and organizations. When users submit a question, it is sent to everyone on their mailing list. Others can reply by e-mail, and their answers will be posted on the wiki. Joe DiPasquale, a creator of the wiki and a graduate of Stanford University, said he hopes the website will become "the ultimate information resource" for Dartmouth students.
The Assembly has been working on their version of a Dartmouth wiki since the middle of winter term. This page will be approved by the administration and the information on the site will be filtered to ensure that it is accurate and beneficial.
The Assembly began working on the project after realizing that organizations and students would benefit from having an open forum that allowed them to share perspectives on topics like off-campus programs and clubs. Computer science major Andrew Flynn '07 is researching how to restrict access to such a forum for his senior thesis and has helped members of the Assembly with the project.
"If we had a Dartmouth College wiki, and somebody wanted to provide information about their fraternity, an activity or their favorite restaurant in Hanover, they could make a page about it easily," Flynn said.
The official Dartmouth wiki will use Mapmundi, a web application developed by five Dartmouth students, an associate professor at Tuck School of Business and a computer science graduate. Mapmundi will allow the site to be much more advanced than the popular Wikipedia, and the Assembly would be the first organization to use the software.
In addition to allowing students to create and edit entries, the Dartmouth wiki will feature a map of the college with pictures of specific buildings and links leading to information about those buildings. Users will be able to add comments on existing structures as well as drag new locations onto the map. With these features, students can post opinions on specific dorms as well as specify the location of various events.
Leaders of campus organizations will be able to create individual pages to provide information about their groups, post the date and time of events, and upload important documents. They will also be able to forward announcements and messages to their members' blitz accounts.
The project is still in its formative stages as the creators of Mapmundi continue to work on the software and the Assembly meets with the administration to receive approval. Students and administrators are interested in and enthusiastic about the wiki, but they face challenges including finding a way to filter posted information, Tobulatov said.
"We can only open it up to the public after ensuring that the information is accurate, unbiased and benefiting the student body," he said. "We have to ensure that this is a successful and productive project."
The Assembly hopes to launch the official Dartmouth wiki as soon as possible, aiming to have part of the site available for use by the end of the term.
