Flat World Knowledge Blog
As instructors prepare their 2009-10 classes, they should take time to check out the Museum of American Finance’s new Recessipedia wiki. The site has several advantages over Wikipedia and other online sites frequented by students.First, Recessipedia focuses narrowly and specifically on the financial crises of 2007 and 2008. Due to that specialization, the entries tend to be better written and researched than those in more general sources. It’s open source so there are bound to be some errors but overall the quality is good. Moreover, if you see something you don’t like you can register as a user and fix it!
Second, part of the Recessipedia site contains a “stiki,” or an area that is automatically locked down. In other words, it cannot be edited by anyone except the person who created the post. The area is a unique source analogous to an historical repository dedicated to firsthand accounts of the recent financial crises. The chroniclers will range from former CEOs to dispossessed subprime borrowers and from front-line financial service sector employees to in-the-trenches regulators.
Both areas of Recessipedia can help students to research and write research papers in money and banking, financial institutions and markets, economic history, and general economics courses.