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[[ Wikipedia 101 ]]. [[en:user:Phoebe_Ayers]] [[California Library Association]] [[November 13, 2006]] . Part 1: the past What is it? How did it get so big?! Why are we talking about this?. What is it?. “The free encyclopedia” But also: - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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[[Wikipedia 101]]
[[en:user:Phoebe_Ayers]][[California Library Association]]
[[November 13, 2006]]
Part 1: the past
What is it? How did it get so big?!
Why are we talking about this?
What is it?• “The free encyclopedia”But also: • Related to wiki-dictionaries, textbooks and
citizen journalism• A place to find open-source media • A reference desk • A huge community • One of the world’s most popular websites• A site with a mission
Wikipedia basics
• GNU/GFDL licensed content: free as in beer and free as in speech
• Open to all and editable by anyone• Edit anonymously or with an account • Funded mostly (>80%) by
individual donations– Tiny budget and 3 paid employees
Why is Wikipedia special?
• Multilingualism/multiculturalism• People are using it• Astonishing size
• It’s remarkably good• Fundamental change to information
production, dissemination, and authority:
• You’ve never seen anything like this before, ever
Why?
“Imagine a world in which every single person is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge…
That’s what we’re doing.”
-- Jimmy Wales
Wikipedia is “more popular” than…
• Ask Jeeves• Altavista• Google UK, Japan, and other local Googles• Amazon.com • CNN, BBC and the NY Times • Slashdot.org• Britannica.com (100x more popular)• AOL
• 1.5 Million+ articles in English• 6M+ pages in English• 20,000+ active users, 2.5m accounts• Over 5M articles total (all languages)• Average article has been edited 14
times+ • 24,000+ requests a second for all projects
A sense of size…
Based on WP:Statistics, Erik Zachte’s scripts and Samuel Klein’s estimations of Dec 2005
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:English-language-wikipedia-.png
The future
• Wikipedia 1.0 • Verifiability • Is Wikipedia sustainable?
Wikipedia and Librarians
• Talk to your patrons – Gateway source– Not uniformly reviewed– May be inaccurate
• Check cataloging • Just another source…
Evaluationcriteria
• Edit history – how many, who• References• Text style – wikified? Follows formatting
conventions?• Verifiable?
What can an info pro do?
• Edit• Add sources!• Categorize• Provide input …
– For instance, citation format proposal
How?
• Create an account • Dive in…
– Start with topics you love– Participate in clean-up or fact-check projects – Tap into the community – Be bold!
Beautiful things…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activation_energy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bang_Pa_In
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushroom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_turtle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tanganyika
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomegranate