Beavers take Wikipedia to beavr.com

The university has developed a new Wikipedia-style Web site for OSU related information

By: Amanda Robbins

Posted: 2/27/07

Students in Leaders of Positive Innovation have put together a new Web site that could potentially be helpful to new and experienced students alike.

Beavr.com is a Web site that is similar to the popular Wikipedia Web site.

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that can be edited and added to by anyone. Beaver Wiki is this same concept, but the information only pertains to OSU.

"Beaver Wiki is an encyclopedia for OSU," said Sara Haidar, a fourth-year student in biology and Spanish and the project director of Beaver Wiki. "It will have information that is mainly linked to OSU."

Currently, the Web site contains information such as places to eat on or near campus, students' ratings of their professors and on and off campus living.

"The purpose of Beaver Wiki is to provide a beneficial resource to incoming freshmen and to all people associated with Oregon State University" according to the Beaver Wiki Web site.

"We don't want people to put completely random things on the site," Haidar said. "We want the information to be more factual than opinion based."

Some students like the idea of an OSU verision of Wikipedia.

"It can be hard to find specific information on the OSU Web site," said Darby Barnett, a graduate student in anthropology. "This Web site could be useful in these instances."

Leaders of Positive Innovation are looking for people who can add to the Web site at their convenience.

"We want the student voice," Haidar said.

All of the information on how to make a new page is on the site under FAQ's.

"Subjects such as financial aid options, hours the library is open and a map of the campus would be helpful," said Ian Dailey, a sophomore in construction engineering.

The students involved in Leaders of Positive Innovation will be the moderators of the site.

This is not the first project that this group has done.

"The first project we worked on was the system that helps to put roommates together based on the way they live and their interests," Haidar said. "Another one of the projects we have put together is SET, or Student Evaluation of Teaching. This enables students to give feedback to their professors."

The Beaver Wiki site is the latest of the projects for this group. Staff seems supportive of the site as well.

"If the site puts out useful information then it will be worth while," said Erika Castano, who works in the university archives.

For more information about Beaver Wiki or Leaders of Positive Innovation send an e-mail to haidaras@onid.orst.edu.