My name is Derek I'm an online educator, and my digital teaching and learning is both visible and persistent. Wikipedia itself is still a relatively new environment for me. I have worked on the web for many years.
I've chatted to a range of people about Wikipedia. Am very grateful to the many people who have helped me find my way. Here in Gauteng, I appreciate Bobby Shabangu (for inducting me to this environment), and Matete Lesele (for the good company). Both have been very kind. Internationally Cogdog's encouragement and open efforts have been really really appreciated.
»You are most welcome to join me on Wikipedia.
Create an Account or send me a message contact me
Comment: Hi Derek, alas deletion seems to be all the rage these days, in English Wikipedia anyway. There is a blatant element of subjectivity as the deleters only target items posted by those with humble/modest editing records. I once created a biographical article that was made candidate for speedy deletion, but even though I continued adding citations etc. it remained in limbo, until a friend with a high "rank" kindly moved it into mainspace, where it remains to this day.
Comment: Hello Michael. Sorry about taking such a long time to reply. English Wikipedia is a very robust environment and there is an unfortunate arrogance. This is why I really enjoy Vernacular Wikipedia. So much more space on this learning experience platform. (LXP). Derek J Moore (talk·contribs)
Unintentionally and unwittingly, I responded to Escobar’s invitation to embrace a pluriversal narrative. On Wikipedia, I have found an academic heritage that remains rooted within a traditional and dominant knowledge system, combined with small communities of practice that have sponsored a multipolar version of scholarship.
The "truth" of a readily available source that confirms “the facts” to the average Google searcher ties in neatly with modernity. Through interviews with South African Wikipedians, I aim to investigate combined efforts to achieve language equity in South Africa through “Vernacular Wikipedia”. My paper will contain narratives of a few South African Wikipedians who are surfacing the diversity of knowledge systems, enabling the emancipatory promise of the postdigital and uncovering the pluriverse.
I suspect that if I can move beyond the “languages of modernity” (Mingnolo, 1998) and work in alternate but familiar platforms where these facts are constructed, it might be possible to uncover alternate knowledge systems, and their different realities will be surfaced and revealed. The Wikimedia Foundation, with its 346 language versions, offers an entrance into a pluriverse. South Africa has 11 languages on this multilingual platform. They permit the unaware (i.e. the author) to explore complex and diverse spatial realities, using auto-translation, stubs, categories and an onboarding tool as a guide. Those who enter and participate in this multilingual markdown space, are offered a "holding space" to safeguard their customs, heritage, and cultural knowledge in open, educative, and participatory ways.
South Africa’s constitutional intentions are to build up an indigenous knowledge commons and a vernacular systems of thought. This has opened many hidden worlds and their multiple realities to me (a pluriverse?). In the paper, I will be exploring how SADiLaR, Wikipedia and PanSALB have combined their efforts with SWiP to initiate a participatory digital humanities, and have begun to use a platforms' complex ecology to support the construction of a linguistic pluriverse in my home country.
Comment: Hi Derek, alas deletion seems to be all the rage these days, in English Wikipedia anyway. There is a blatant element of subjectivity as the deleters only target items posted by those with humble/modest editing records. I once created a biographical article that was made candidate for speedy deletion, but even though I continued adding citations etc. it remained in limbo, until a friend with a high "rank" kindly moved it into mainspace, where it remains to this day.
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