By the way there is an interesting and relevant article in the latest MLA Profession 2010 called “Valuing Digital Scholarship.” The article does not mention wikipedia though (but does mention “wiki sites” in general and in passing)!
It does bring up the questions of legitimacy in online and digital media however. An interesting quote they quote:
“…in its ‘Report of the MLA Task Force on Evaluating Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion,’ the MLA asserts, ‘Departments and institutions should recognize the legitimacy of scholarship produced in new media, whether by individuals or in collaboration, and create procedures for evaluating these forms of scholarship’ (11)” (178).
GCaye on a CHE thread brought this up on a thread about referencing Wikipedia pages you have edited on your CV. (General consensus is NO.)
I think that eventually digital scholarship will be worth more than it is right now in most places. I certainly hope so, since a lot of my work is digital. However, I will also say that oftentimes, the digital is simply a new medium of production and is not significantly different from the paper versions.
For example, my article in Scribe is online, but is no different than it would be for a print journal. On the other hand, my article in The CEA Forum is online but includes hyperlinks, which does make it different. Kairos, on the other hand, is very digital scholarship intensive. The most recent article on Topoi, for example, is a video.
Right now the school I am at values digital scholarship at the same level it values paper scholarship, so I have not had to fight for the acceptance of my work. That is a positive and valuable attribute of my college.