Wikipedia & Wikimedia CommonsA 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 Baidu.com.

• 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 an encyclopedia

Wikipedia is written from a neutral point of

view

Wikipedia is free content that

anyone can edit, use, modify and

distribute

Editors should interact with each

other in a respectful manner

Wikipedia does not have firm rules

Policies and Guidelines

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia

No Original Research

Not News

Notability Guidelines

Spam and Usernames

Policies and Guidelines

Verifiability

Reliable Sources

Biographies of Living People

Wikipedia is written from a neutral point of

view

Conflicts of Interest

Policies and Guidelines

Non-Free Content

Three Revert Rule

Copyright

Wikipedia is free content that

anyone can edit, use, modify and

distribute

Page Protection

Policies and Guidelines

Three Revert Rule

No Personal Attacks

Editors should interact with each

other in a respectful manner

Etiquette

One account

Policies and Guidelines

Not Bureaucracy

Wikipedia does not have firm rules

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 MarkupPurpose Tag Effect

Bold text '''text''' text

Italic ''text'' text

Indent :text text

Major heading ==text== textSub heading ===text=== textDot point # text • textInternal link [[link]] linkExternal link [http://…/

text]text

Reference <ref>text<ref>

[1]

Reference list {{reflist}} 1. textImage [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

RevertDiscuss

• Be bold and make changes, but discuss them if someone disagrees.

• Beware the Bold – Revert – Revert – Revert cycle!

Dispute Resolution

Discussion Third Opinion

Noticeboards

Request for Comment Mediation Arbitration

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_Team

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).