WiKUpedia goes live

A group of Kansas University students has launched WiKUpedia, an editable reference about all things KU.The project, which went live Sunday, started with about 80 pages and has grown to 296 as of 2:30 Wednesday afternoon, co-creator Jarrod Morgenstern said.Morgenstern said the project has created a more positive response than he could have ever imagined.”This resource is only as good as the sum of its parts,” Morgenstern said. “None of us knows everything about KU, but we all know something.”The KU Alumni Association and KU Info, as well as other groups and a lot of students, have reached out and offered their assistance, Morgenstern said.Riley Dutton, project co-creator and the owner of the Web server where the project now sits, said that there are basic guidelines for writing entries right now, but more formal rules will be established when the WiKUpedia Project student group meets next week.The project started as an effort of the Connect Student Senate coalition, of which both Morgenstern and Dutton are members, but the response from the KU community has been so overwhelming that the project has taken on a life of its own. The WiKUpedia Project student group was created in order to provide a leadership structure independent from the partisan coalition, in order to try to keep the project going even if the Connect coalition eventually disbands.”This could evolve into a guide to the best deals on campus, or into advice on how to get things done at KU,” Dutton said. “We’re looking for active users. We’re looking for articles to be written.”As of Wednesday afternoon, the WiKUpedia home page requests users to write about Watkins Health Center, KU football coach Mark Mangino and even the Lawrence Journal-World.