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ALIA Community Information Australia Networkers

How to become an contributor to Wikipedia, an outstanding example of crowd sourcing and one of the world's most frequently used websites.

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Wikipedia & Wikimedia Commons A guide to contributing
What is Wikipedia?
Wikipedia ? Founded in 2001. ? As of September, 2012, on the English Wikipedia: ? 6th most accessed website in the world. ? Led by Facebook, Google, YouTube, Yahoo! and . ? Over 4 million articles. ? Over 550 million edits.
Wikipedia Languages ? Wikipedia comes in 285 different languages. ? Including German, Italian, Catalan, Latin, Yiddish, Japanese, Swahili, and Simple English. ? Each language has its own set of rules and guidelines, and are not simply translations of other Wikipedias. ? The largest are: ? English (over 4 million articles) ? German (over 1.4 million articles) ? French (over 1.2 million articles) ? Dutch (over 1.1 million articles) ? (See http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias)
Wikipedia is Free ? Wikipedia is released under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License. ? This means that so long as you attribute it, it can be used by anyone, for any purpose. ? Books ? Dedicated readers ? Integration into other websites ? Forks ? It also means that text or media that is not under a compatible license is generally not accepted.
Reliability ? Wikipedia¡¯s reliability is a point of some debate. ? Various surveys place it just behind or roughly on par with major generalist encyclopedias. ? Can be much more current than traditional models.
Structure of an Article
Structure of an Article Page options
Structure of an Article Lead
Structure of an Article Infobox
Structure of an Article Table of contents
Structure of an Article Links to versions in other languages
Structure of an Article References
Structure of an Article Page ratings
Structure of an Article Categories
Structure of an Article Article
Structure of an Article Discussion page
Structure of an Article Edit page as a whole
Structure of an Article Page editing history
Structure of an Article Edit section
Structure of Wikipedia ? Main space for ¡°Live¡± articles, such as Doctor Who. ? Discussion space for articles, such as Talk:Doctor Who. ? User space, such as User:Jimbo Wales, where you keep projects, your details and related materials. ? Wikipedia space, for policies, noticeboards, guidelines and material for the running of Wikipedia, such as Wikipedia:Five pillars.
Page Ratings ? Stub: Short article, no major content. ? Start: Some content, not enough references, needs a lot of expansion. ? C and B class: Better articles, still need work. ? Good Article: Peer reviewed. Could do with refinement, but good writing, coverage and sourcing. ? A class: Excellent article. Normally peer reviewed. ? Featured Article: The best Wikipedia has to offer. Extensive peer review.
Wikipedia Rules
Wikipedia Governance ? Wikipedia is an adhocracy. ? Decisions about the direction of Wikipedia is made by the community. There is no single body in charge of Wikipedia. ? Elected bodies do not create policy, only recommend that it be created. ? The Wikimedia Foundation occasionally sets policies to do with legal issues, but is not involved in content. ? Decisions are reached through consensus based on the engaged parties, not through voting. ? Almost all rules are subject to change, just like the rest of Wikipedia.
Policies, Guidelines and Essays ? Policies are strict rules that must be followed. ? Most are created by the community. ? They formalize current practice. ? Policies are created when required. ? For example: Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons. ? Guidelines are strong recommendations. They can be ignored, but rarely. ? For example: Wikipedia:Please do not bite the newcomers. ? Essays are opinions. ? For example: Wikipedia:Candor.
Five Pillars Wikipedia is free Wikipedia is written Wikipedia is an content that anyone from a neutral point encyclopedia can edit, use, modify of view and distribute Editors should interact with each Wikipedia does not other in a respectful have firm rules manner
Policies and Guidelines Wikipedia is an encyclopedia Not News No Original Research Spam and Usernames Notability Guidelines
Policies and Guidelines Wikipedia is written from a neutral point of view Verifiability Biographies of Living People Reliable Sources Conflicts of Interest
Policies and Guidelines Wikipedia is free content that anyone can edit, use, modify and distribute Non-Free Content Three Revert Rule Copyright Page Protection
Policies and Guidelines Editors should interact with each other in a respectful manner No Personal Attacks One account Three Revert Rule Etiquette
Policies and Guidelines Wikipedia does not have firm rules Not Bureaucracy
How to Edit Wikipedia.
What Can You Do? ? Expand articles. ? Correct/Copyedit articles. ? Add photos and media. ? Add categories. ? Provide advice. ? Help with sources. ? Revert vandalism. ? New page patrol.
Contributors ? 772,426 contributors ? 33,372 active contributors (more than 5 changes per month) ? 3,483 very active contributors (more than 100 changes per month) ? Ages vary from 10 up. ? Spikes around the early 20¡¯s. ? Young editors tend to focus more on anti-vandalism. ? Qualifications vary from yet to complete high school to PhDs. ? Gender is strongly biased in favour of men ? Figures on female editors sit around 9-19%. ? Generally, the overall number of editors has been falling since a high in 2007.
Who Can Contribute? ? There are three main levels of access: ? Unregistered Users ? Don¡¯t have accounts. ? Can be identified by IP address. ? Can edit any page that hasn¡¯t been protected. ? Looked on with some suspicion. ? New Users ? Identified by a username. ? Have watch lists. ? Autoconfirmed Users ? Account is over four days old and has made more than 10 edits. ? Can edit any semi-protected page. ? Can upload media. ? Can create new pages.
Editing Articles ? To edit an article, click on ¡°Edit¡± either at the top of the page or at the top of a section.
Editing Articles Edit page as a whole
Editing Articles Edit section
Editing Articles
Editing Articles Edit box
Editing Articles Edit summary
Editing Articles Edit preview
Editing Articles Preview button
Editing Articles Save button
Wiki Markup ? Currently, Wikipedia does not have a ¡°WYSIWYG¡± editor. ? They¡¯re working on it. ? Instead you need to use tags to format text. ? You can experiment in the sandbox: ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sandbox
Wiki Markup Purpose Tag Effect Bold text '''text''' text Italic ''text'' text Indent :text text Major heading ==text== text Sub heading ===text=== text Dot point # text ? text Internal link [[link]] link External link [http://¡­/ text] text Reference <ref>text<ref> [1] Reference list {{reflist}} 1. text Image [File:Image]
Creating a Page ? Given the policies, it can be best to do minor edits before creating a new page. ? Ensure that it meets the notability guidelines. ? Must be discussed by multiple independent reliable sources. ? Create a page in your sandbox. ? Create a link from your userpage to a version of the article: ? [[User:Bilby/New article]] ? Always include references. ? Follow the instructions at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Article_wizard ? Submit your article for review.
Where to Seek Help
Wikipedia Teahouse ? New concept, only been running for a few months. ? Employs selected hosts, unlike most of Wikipedia which is open to anyone. ? Open to any questions regarding Wikipedia, from anyone. ? No one will be told to read the archives, or simply pointed to other sources. ? You are encouraged to leave a message there. ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse
Discussion ? Each article has a discussion/talk page.
Discussion Discussion page
Discussion ? Concerns can be raised there. ? Needs to remain focused on the article, not the topic.
Asking for Help ? WikiProjects exist to bring together and coordinate people with common editing interests. ? WikiProject Adelaide ? WikiProject Australia ? WikiProject Public Art ? WikiProject Children¡¯s Literature ? WikiProject Cooperation ? If the WikiProject is active, it can be a good place to ask for advice. ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject ? Beware canvasing: requests for help need to be neutrally worded and broadly targeted.
Bold Revert Discuss Cycle Bold Discuss Revert ? Be bold and make changes, but discuss them if someone disagrees. ? Beware the Bold ¨C Revert ¨C Revert ¨C Revert cycle!
Dispute Resolution Third Request for Arbitration Discussion Noticeboards Mediation Opinion Comment Committee
Noticeboards ? The noticeboards exist to bring community attention to problems. ? Include: ? Biographies of Living Persons noticeboard ? Reliable sources noticeboard ? Conflict of interest noticeboard ? Neutral Point of View noticeboard ? Dispute resolution noticeboard
Wikipedia Enforcement ? Wikipedia Administrators are contributors who are trusted to enforce policies. Elected by the community. ? Administrator¡¯s noticeboard ? Administrator¡¯s noticeboard/Incidents ? The Arbitration Committee is an elected body (by the community) responsible for deciding certain disputes.
Volunteer Response Team ? Handle questions privately over email. ? Good for problems that may involve libel or require privacy. ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Volunteer_Response_Tea m
General Support ? Wikimedia Australia ? http://www.wikimedia.org.au ? Wiki meetups
Other Projects.
Wikimedia Foundation Projects ? Wikimania ? Wikibooks ? Meta ? Wikiquote ? Wikispecies ? MediaWiki ? Incubator ? Wikiversity ? Wiktionariy ? Wikinews ? Wikisource ? Wikimedia Commons ? Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation Projects ? All projects ascribe to the same Creative Commons license. ? Scope varies between projects. ? Creating an account on one project allows access to all projects.
Wikimedia Commons ? Used to store media in one place. ? Easily added to any Wikimedia Foundation project. ? Currently has over 14 million media files. ? More restrictive than Wikipedia: ? Free media only (Creative Commons By Attribution Sharealike or equivalent)
References ? Meta contributors, "List of Wikipedias," Meta, discussion about Wikimedia projects, http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Wikipedias&oldid=4136366 (accessed September 24, 2012). ? ¡°Wikipedia Statistics English¡±, Wikimedia Statistics, http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm (accessed September 24, 2012). ? ¡°Wikipedia.org¡±, Alexa, http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org (accessed September 24, 2012). ? Wikipedia contributors, "Emu War," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emu_War&oldid=513962402 (accessed September 24, 2012).

More Related Content

Want to be a Wikipedian?

  • 1. Wikipedia & Wikimedia Commons A guide to contributing
  • 3. Wikipedia ? Founded in 2001. ? As of September, 2012, on the English Wikipedia: ? 6th most accessed website in the world. ? Led by Facebook, Google, YouTube, Yahoo! and . ? Over 4 million articles. ? Over 550 million edits.
  • 4. Wikipedia Languages ? Wikipedia comes in 285 different languages. ? Including German, Italian, Catalan, Latin, Yiddish, Japanese, Swahili, and Simple English. ? Each language has its own set of rules and guidelines, and are not simply translations of other Wikipedias. ? The largest are: ? English (over 4 million articles) ? German (over 1.4 million articles) ? French (over 1.2 million articles) ? Dutch (over 1.1 million articles) ? (See http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias)
  • 5. Wikipedia is Free ? Wikipedia is released under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License. ? This means that so long as you attribute it, it can be used by anyone, for any purpose. ? Books ? Dedicated readers ? Integration into other websites ? Forks ? It also means that text or media that is not under a compatible license is generally not accepted.
  • 6. Reliability ? Wikipedia¡¯s reliability is a point of some debate. ? Various surveys place it just behind or roughly on par with major generalist encyclopedias. ? Can be much more current than traditional models.
  • 7. Structure of an Article
  • 8. Structure of an Article Page options
  • 9. Structure of an Article Lead
  • 10. Structure of an Article Infobox
  • 11. Structure of an Article Table of contents
  • 12. Structure of an Article Links to versions in other languages
  • 13. Structure of an Article References
  • 14. Structure of an Article Page ratings
  • 15. Structure of an Article Categories
  • 16. Structure of an Article Article
  • 17. Structure of an Article Discussion page
  • 18. Structure of an Article Edit page as a whole
  • 19. Structure of an Article Page editing history
  • 20. Structure of an Article Edit section
  • 21. Structure of Wikipedia ? Main space for ¡°Live¡± articles, such as Doctor Who. ? Discussion space for articles, such as Talk:Doctor Who. ? User space, such as User:Jimbo Wales, where you keep projects, your details and related materials. ? Wikipedia space, for policies, noticeboards, guidelines and material for the running of Wikipedia, such as Wikipedia:Five pillars.
  • 22. Page Ratings ? Stub: Short article, no major content. ? Start: Some content, not enough references, needs a lot of expansion. ? C and B class: Better articles, still need work. ? Good Article: Peer reviewed. Could do with refinement, but good writing, coverage and sourcing. ? A class: Excellent article. Normally peer reviewed. ? Featured Article: The best Wikipedia has to offer. Extensive peer review.
  • 24. Wikipedia Governance ? Wikipedia is an adhocracy. ? Decisions about the direction of Wikipedia is made by the community. There is no single body in charge of Wikipedia. ? Elected bodies do not create policy, only recommend that it be created. ? The Wikimedia Foundation occasionally sets policies to do with legal issues, but is not involved in content. ? Decisions are reached through consensus based on the engaged parties, not through voting. ? Almost all rules are subject to change, just like the rest of Wikipedia.
  • 25. Policies, Guidelines and Essays ? Policies are strict rules that must be followed. ? Most are created by the community. ? They formalize current practice. ? Policies are created when required. ? For example: Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons. ? Guidelines are strong recommendations. They can be ignored, but rarely. ? For example: Wikipedia:Please do not bite the newcomers. ? Essays are opinions. ? For example: Wikipedia:Candor.
  • 26. Five Pillars Wikipedia is free Wikipedia is written Wikipedia is an content that anyone from a neutral point encyclopedia can edit, use, modify of view and distribute Editors should interact with each Wikipedia does not other in a respectful have firm rules manner
  • 27. Policies and Guidelines Wikipedia is an encyclopedia Not News No Original Research Spam and Usernames Notability Guidelines
  • 28. Policies and Guidelines Wikipedia is written from a neutral point of view Verifiability Biographies of Living People Reliable Sources Conflicts of Interest
  • 29. Policies and Guidelines Wikipedia is free content that anyone can edit, use, modify and distribute Non-Free Content Three Revert Rule Copyright Page Protection
  • 30. Policies and Guidelines Editors should interact with each other in a respectful manner No Personal Attacks One account Three Revert Rule Etiquette
  • 31. Policies and Guidelines Wikipedia does not have firm rules Not Bureaucracy
  • 32. How to Edit Wikipedia.
  • 33. What Can You Do? ? Expand articles. ? Correct/Copyedit articles. ? Add photos and media. ? Add categories. ? Provide advice. ? Help with sources. ? Revert vandalism. ? New page patrol.
  • 34. Contributors ? 772,426 contributors ? 33,372 active contributors (more than 5 changes per month) ? 3,483 very active contributors (more than 100 changes per month) ? Ages vary from 10 up. ? Spikes around the early 20¡¯s. ? Young editors tend to focus more on anti-vandalism. ? Qualifications vary from yet to complete high school to PhDs. ? Gender is strongly biased in favour of men ? Figures on female editors sit around 9-19%. ? Generally, the overall number of editors has been falling since a high in 2007.
  • 35. Who Can Contribute? ? There are three main levels of access: ? Unregistered Users ? Don¡¯t have accounts. ? Can be identified by IP address. ? Can edit any page that hasn¡¯t been protected. ? Looked on with some suspicion. ? New Users ? Identified by a username. ? Have watch lists. ? Autoconfirmed Users ? Account is over four days old and has made more than 10 edits. ? Can edit any semi-protected page. ? Can upload media. ? Can create new pages.
  • 36. Editing Articles ? To edit an article, click on ¡°Edit¡± either at the top of the page or at the top of a section.
  • 37. Editing Articles Edit page as a whole
  • 38. Editing Articles Edit section
  • 40. Editing Articles Edit box
  • 41. Editing Articles Edit summary
  • 42. Editing Articles Edit preview
  • 43. Editing Articles Preview button
  • 44. Editing Articles Save button
  • 45. Wiki Markup ? Currently, Wikipedia does not have a ¡°WYSIWYG¡± editor. ? They¡¯re working on it. ? Instead you need to use tags to format text. ? You can experiment in the sandbox: ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sandbox
  • 46. Wiki Markup Purpose Tag Effect Bold text '''text''' text Italic ''text'' text Indent :text text Major heading ==text== text Sub heading ===text=== text Dot point # text ? text Internal link [[link]] link External link [http://¡­/ text] text Reference <ref>text<ref> [1] Reference list {{reflist}} 1. text Image [File:Image]
  • 47. Creating a Page ? Given the policies, it can be best to do minor edits before creating a new page. ? Ensure that it meets the notability guidelines. ? Must be discussed by multiple independent reliable sources. ? Create a page in your sandbox. ? Create a link from your userpage to a version of the article: ? [[User:Bilby/New article]] ? Always include references. ? Follow the instructions at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Article_wizard ? Submit your article for review.
  • 49. Wikipedia Teahouse ? New concept, only been running for a few months. ? Employs selected hosts, unlike most of Wikipedia which is open to anyone. ? Open to any questions regarding Wikipedia, from anyone. ? No one will be told to read the archives, or simply pointed to other sources. ? You are encouraged to leave a message there. ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse
  • 50. Discussion ? Each article has a discussion/talk page.
  • 51. Discussion Discussion page
  • 52. Discussion ? Concerns can be raised there. ? Needs to remain focused on the article, not the topic.
  • 53. Asking for Help ? WikiProjects exist to bring together and coordinate people with common editing interests. ? WikiProject Adelaide ? WikiProject Australia ? WikiProject Public Art ? WikiProject Children¡¯s Literature ? WikiProject Cooperation ? If the WikiProject is active, it can be a good place to ask for advice. ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject ? Beware canvasing: requests for help need to be neutrally worded and broadly targeted.
  • 54. Bold Revert Discuss Cycle Bold Discuss Revert ? Be bold and make changes, but discuss them if someone disagrees. ? Beware the Bold ¨C Revert ¨C Revert ¨C Revert cycle!
  • 55. Dispute Resolution Third Request for Arbitration Discussion Noticeboards Mediation Opinion Comment Committee
  • 56. Noticeboards ? The noticeboards exist to bring community attention to problems. ? Include: ? Biographies of Living Persons noticeboard ? Reliable sources noticeboard ? Conflict of interest noticeboard ? Neutral Point of View noticeboard ? Dispute resolution noticeboard
  • 57. Wikipedia Enforcement ? Wikipedia Administrators are contributors who are trusted to enforce policies. Elected by the community. ? Administrator¡¯s noticeboard ? Administrator¡¯s noticeboard/Incidents ? The Arbitration Committee is an elected body (by the community) responsible for deciding certain disputes.
  • 58. Volunteer Response Team ? Handle questions privately over email. ? Good for problems that may involve libel or require privacy. ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Volunteer_Response_Tea m
  • 59. General Support ? Wikimedia Australia ? http://www.wikimedia.org.au ? Wiki meetups
  • 61. Wikimedia Foundation Projects ? Wikimania ? Wikibooks ? Meta ? Wikiquote ? Wikispecies ? MediaWiki ? Incubator ? Wikiversity ? Wiktionariy ? Wikinews ? Wikisource ? Wikimedia Commons ? Wikipedia
  • 62. Wikimedia Foundation Projects ? All projects ascribe to the same Creative Commons license. ? Scope varies between projects. ? Creating an account on one project allows access to all projects.
  • 63. Wikimedia Commons ? Used to store media in one place. ? Easily added to any Wikimedia Foundation project. ? Currently has over 14 million media files. ? More restrictive than Wikipedia: ? Free media only (Creative Commons By Attribution Sharealike or equivalent)
  • 64. References ? Meta contributors, "List of Wikipedias," Meta, discussion about Wikimedia projects, http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Wikipedias&oldid=4136366 (accessed September 24, 2012). ? ¡°Wikipedia Statistics English¡±, Wikimedia Statistics, http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm (accessed September 24, 2012). ? ¡°Wikipedia.org¡±, Alexa, http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org (accessed September 24, 2012). ? Wikipedia contributors, "Emu War," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emu_War&oldid=513962402 (accessed September 24, 2012).