Talk:Diagonal (newspaper)/Archive 1

Category for Nigel?

In Wikipedia you can include a beautiful "Infobox" on the side with a summary of key info about what you are talking about. For instance, Marvin Minsky has its own "Scientist" infobox on the right side, and Pierre Bourdieu has its own as "Philosopher/Sociologist" infobox.

Nigel is a Sociologist, sure. But he is also a Scientist. I think it would be nice to build an infobox with some of his info... but of which type should such infbox be? There are a few million types of infoboxes, so the discussion is open.

While we agree on this, I'll use the Scientist infobox, which is general enough (later we can move its content to other types). --Samer.hc (talk) 09:53, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Photo?

We need a photo with no copyright and free license, such as CC by-sa, CC by, or Public Domain. We need to upload it to WikiCommons and link it. I'm sure that among the CRESS collection there will be one that would fit, and that the author does not mind to release. When Nigel sees this, he can decide to change it to one of his collection... Please choose and upload, or send it to me and i'll upload it. --Samer.hc (talk) 09:54, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Additional sources?

We need additional sources of info apart from the ones provided by the University of Surrey. Can't you find interviews, extended biographies, complete curriculum vitae, or other sources of info for both personal and academic stuff? Of course, we need them to be referenced when possible. --Samer.hc (talk) 09:55, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

List of missing data

• Photo not copyrighted
• Full name: G. Nigel Gilbert... what is the G.??

confirmed by himself (by nice chance, I needed his full name for some bureaucracy: Geoffrey Nigel Gilbert)--Samer.hc (talk) 10:27, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

But I don't think we should publish it - he never uses it and everyone knows him as Nigel. I've amended the box accordingly.

• Place of birth
• Any "notable student" ever? (like Marvin Minsky) Paul Luff? Noe Prof at Kings College London?
• Any award ever received? Yes - the ScD and all those Fellowships - so I've moved them into the box
• Sociological influences? Did he influence someone notable?
• Relevant key events in his biography or career?
• In which other universities did he teach?

--Samer.hc (talk) 16:23, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

I've added some material, but please feel free to amend.

We're very short on personal data, such as where he was born, or even which Cambridge College he went to. He is very private about personal things, so perhaps we shouldn't say too much? (BTW I presume doesn't use the name Geoffrey as that was his father's name.)

Should we spell out some of those titles?

• FBCS = Fellow of the British Computer Society
• FRSA = Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
• FREng = Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineers
• AcSS = Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences

Lynneh (talk) 18:27, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Fantastic, Lynne! It's good to keep extending it now, so we'll check what do we want to keep later on. I agree we should not make too much personal data public, as he may feel unconfortable about it. The titles should be spelled, of course, probably just summarised in "He is Fellow of X, Y and Z"... maybe citing he's multidiscplinary background, as he is fellow in both social sciences and sciences societies. It would be interesting if we find out that he was, for instance, the first sociologist to join the Royal Academy of Engineers.--Samer.hc (talk) 07:49, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Your point about social science and engineering reminded me - so I've exanded that bit now. I also checked the AcSS and he's not currently listed as a Council member. 88.109.101.42 (talk) 17:12, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Nigel has done many things but deserves a page on Wikipedia because of the agent-based stuff. So I think we should keep it to that. So I've deleted some other material. A time permit's I'll keep trawling through the Univeristy website for old stuff. I spoke to Edmund yesterday and he has promised me more historical inf. Lynneh (talk) 18:21, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Misc

• Not a single link to social simulation?!

Ok, ok, I just wrote a quick draft ;) I was linking to computational sociology instead.--Samer.hc (talk) 22:44, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

• The professional activity section looks like a cv, we'd probably need to turn this into a paragraph. Also, we will need to add in the works section why he is "notable" :)

Yep, everything should be turned into paragraph-like. I just copied the list of merits in order it to be handy. Do we have that graph were he appeared of the luncher of computational sociology? He sent it to the CRESS list...--Samer.hc (talk) 22:44, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Complexity-map-overview.png

• Style: we cannot refer to him as "Nigel" as this is not the standard style of biographical articles in WP --DarTar (talk) 13:05, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

Work section

The work section should include a few paragraphs with content about his actual work, not just facts and figures about the recognition or institutional implementation of his research (labs, grants, etc.). For example, how did the field look like before his contribution? What was the motivation for introducing ABM in the social sciences? What were the initial challenges? Can we find some early quotes from people involved in launching the social simulation programme in the early days? --DarTar (talk) 10:34, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Edmund delivered - and so I have added some good stuff about the history of CRESS. I've also added material on his other activirties and extended the references. I'm not planning to do anything more!

Lynneh (talk) 15:41, 29 November 2009 (UTC)