Wikipedia workshop, SpotOn 2013 Conference

A hands-on session at Spoton 2013 facilitated by Brian Kelly, Cetis and Toni Sant, Wikimedia UK / Hull University

Twitter hashtag: #solo13wiki

Slides available under a Creative Commons (CC-BY) licence

Wikipedia Editing : A Hands-on Workshop at SpotOn 2013

SpotOn 2013

Slides, etc. available at http://bit.ly/solo13wiki

http://bit.ly/solo13wiki

Session hashtag: #solo13wiki 2

About This Session

Abstract

Wikipedia provides an ideal tool for making information about science more readily accessible to a wide community, ranging from school children, the general public with an interest in science and policy makers as well as other scientists.

This session will provide an opportunity for those who may be new to Wikipedia to create a Wikipedia profile and even update existing Wikipedia articles.

In this workshop participants will edit and perhaps even create Wikipedia pages. Please bring a laptop or wifi enabled device.

http://www.nature.com/spoton/event/spoton-london-2013-wikipedia-editing-workshop/


Motivation

Let’s accept these arguments and focus on how to create or edit Wikipedia articles

https://wiki.wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Expert_outreach

https://wiki.wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Expert_outreach


About the Facilitators

Brian Kelly:• Innovation Advocate at Cetis, Bolton University • Was UK Web Focus at UKOLN from 1996-2013• Contact details:

• Email: [email protected]• Twitter: @briankelly Wikipedia: User:Lisbk

Toni Sant:• Director of Research, University of Hull's School

of Arts and New Media in Scarborough• Education Organiser for Wikimedia UK• Contact details:

• Email: [email protected]• Twitter: @tonisant Wikipedia: User:ToniSant


About You

Who has:• Little or no experience of Wikipedia?• Created or made significant edits to

Wikipedia articles?• Not yet registered for a Wikipedia

account?

In less than one hour you will attempt to:A. Create a Wikipedia account and create inform

about yourself and your interestsB. Identify pages to improve and make improvementsC. Identify gaps and create stub articles

Let’s multitask – login and begin tasks

while we talk


Creating an Account

You will:• Create a Wikipedia account (go to

http://tinyurl.com/SpotOnWiki and register!)• Create a user profile & add personal details

(e.g. name, organisation, interests, …)• Add hyperlinks to (a) external Web sites (e.g.

your organisation) and (b) Wikipedia articles (e.g. areas of interest)

• Add simple formatting

See the following user profile examples: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:ToniSant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ukwebfocus

A: New users

http://tinyurl.com/SpotOnWiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:ToniSant



Heading

Body text

Links to Web site

Links to Wikipedia articles

Templated contentFormatted text

Automatically-generated table of contents



Metadata (based on controlled vocabulary) …

References displayed using {{<reflist>}}

can be processed

References defined using <ref>citation info</ref>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ukwebfocus

Bulleted list

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ukwenbfocus


Creating Your User Profile

Getting started:• Go to home page at

wikipedia.org (or http://tinyurl.com/SpotOnWiki) and click on Register link

• Complete registration details

You then have the option to:• Fix spelling mistakes & grammatical errors• Improve the clarity of a page• Add links to pages• Other tasks, such as create your user profile

NB: You’ll need to make > 9 edits before you can

create a new article.


Click on your username

Creating Your User Profile

The user profile page doesn’t exist so create it


==Brief Intro==I am the '''Innovation Advocate''' at [[CETIS]], the ''Centre for Educational Technology, Interoperability and Standards'' based at the [[University of Bolton]]. I started this new role on 28 October 2013.

===About The UKWebFocus Username===From 1996-July 2013 I worked at UKOLN and my job title was '''UK Web Focus'''. I have used that name for a number of social media accounts.

==Engaging with the Wikimedia community==I created my first [[Wikipedia]] article, on [[Rapper Sword]] dancing, in 2004. I have created and edited a number of other articles since then including articles on [[Amplified conference]]s and [[Microattribution]]. I have written a number of [http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/category/wikipedia-2/ blog posts about Wikipedia] on my [http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/ UK Web Focus blog].

HeadingFormatted text (italicised)

Sub-heading

Link to Web site

Formatted text (bold)

Basic Wikipedia Edit Syntax

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ukwebfocus

NB: There is also a WYSIWYG interface for editing

Link to Wikipedia article


Userbox {{userboxtop|}}{{Template:User time zone|UTC+1|watch}}{{User United Kingdom}}{{User Wikipedian For|year=2013|month=11|day=06}}{{userboxbottom}}

==Brief Intro==I am the '''Innovation Advocate''' at [[CETIS]], the ''Centre for Educational Technology, Interoperability and Standards'' based at the [[University of Bolton]]. I started this new role on 28 October 2013.

===About The UKWebFocus Username===From 1996-July 2013 I worked at UKOLN and my job title was '''UK Web Focus'''. I have used that name for a number of social media accounts.

User’s timezone

User’s country

Date joined Wikipedia

Further Wikipedia Edit Syntax

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ukwebfocus4


Ukwebfocus profile Page


Improving Pages (1 of 2)

For novice users:• Go to

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:GettingStarted

• Select option to fix typos or improve clarity

B: Novice users


Improving Pages (2 of 2)

B: Novice users Improving pages

Click here to edit page


Creating (Stub) Articles

First ensure page doesn’t exist

Then:• Make at least 10 edits to pages• Create it (live or in sandbox)• Provide links to it• See if it persists• See if it develops

C: Experiencedusers


Life of the Microattributions Article

I created after the SOLO 2011 conference

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Microattribution&oldid=448744161


Life of the Microattributions Article

The article on 6 Nov 2013

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microattribution


Life of the Microattribution Article

The article:• Created after Microattribution

panel session at SOLO 2011 on 2 Sept 2011

• Mike Peel encouraged creation of article and gave some suggestions

• Initial page created on 6 Sept • Has changed significantly since

launch• ~10 contributors• Significant content from Jan

Velterop and Jodi.a.schneider • 460 views in past 90 days

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velterop

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velterop

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jodi.a.schneider

http://stats.grok.se/en/latest90/Microattribution

https://toolserver.org/~daniel/WikiSense/Contributors.php?wikilang=en&wikifam=.wikipedia.org&grouped=on&page=Microattribution

http://lanyrd.com/2011/solo11/shdky/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mike_Peel/Microattribution


Further Information

You should now have a Wikipedia account and user profile page

Feel free to continue editing

Some optional topics which can be addressed: • Strategies for creating a new article • Key principles for content• The five pillars of Wikipedia• About Wikipedia• About the Wikimedia Foundation• About Wikimedia Projects• References in Wikipedia Articles


Strategies for Creating New Articles (1)

When creating or editing Wikipedia articles you can:

• Engage with this new community with care

• Check proposed changes carefully with your peers & Wikipedia experts


Strategies for Creating New Articles (2)

Alternatively when creating or editing Wikipedia articles you can:

• Be bold!• Make changes – and see if they stick• Engage in discussions with others, but

be prepared to argue your corner (though in a graceful and non-confrontational manner)

Such approaches are welcomed by the Wikipedia community


Key Principles for Content (1)

No original research

All research must come from published sources e.g.

• Peer-reviewed journals • Peer-reviewed books• University-level textbooks• Magazines, journals and books published

by respected publishing houses• Mainstream newspapers


Key Principles for Content (2)

Neutral Point of View

Content should be provided from a neutral point of view:

• If your viewpoint is in the majority, then it should be easy to substantiate it with reference to commonly accepted reference texts;

• If your viewpoint is held by a significant minority, then it should be easy to name prominent adherents;

• If your viewpoint is held by an extremely small minority, then — whether it's true or not, whether you can prove it or not — it doesn't belong in Wikipedia, except perhaps in some ancillary article.


The Five Pillars

Fundamental principles by which the Wikimedia community operates...

Wikipedia:1. is an encyclopedia

2. is written from a neutral point of view

3. is free content that anyone can edit / use/ modify / share

4. editors should respect each other

5. does not have any firm rules


About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation:• Is a nonprofit charitable organization

dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual, educational content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge.

• Operates some of the largest collaboratively edited reference projects in the world, including Wikipedia, a top-ten internet property.

See http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Main_Page


About Wikipedia

Wikipedia is:• Available in 140 languages.• Attracting 470 million unique visitors monthly as

of February 2012.• Based on five pillars which describe its

fundamental principles.

Wikipedia had (on 5 Nov 2013):• A total of 4,368,077 content articles and

31,452,622 pages.• Seen 661,985,355 edits by 20,034,424 registered

users.


About Wikimedia Projects (1)

Wikimedia projects include:• Wikipedia, a project to build free encyclopedias

in all languages. • Wiktionary, a project to create a multilingual free

content dictionary in every language.• Wikiquote, a repository of quotations from

famous people, books, speeches, films, …• Wikibooks, which aims to build a collection of

free e-book resources, including textbooks, language courses, manuals, …

• Wikisource, a multilingual project to archive a collection of free and open content texts.



Wikimedia projects include:• Wikinews project has the mission to report the news

on a wide variety of subjects. • Wikiversity is a project dedicated to learning materials

and learning communities, as well as research.• Wikimedia Commons provides a central repository for

free photographs, diagrams, maps, videos, animations, music, sounds, spoken texts, and other free media. It serves as a central repository for all Wikimedia projects.

• MediaWiki is an open source community which maintains several software projects including the MediWiki engine used by all Wikimedia projects.



Wikimedia projects include:• Wikispecies, an open, wiki-based

project to provide a central, more extensive species database for taxonomy.

• Wikidata, launched in October 2012, aims to create a free knowledge base about the world that can be read and edited by humans and machines alike.


References in Wikipedia Articles

References for the Microattribution Article

<ref>{{cite web|title=On microattribution| url=http://blogs.plos.org/mfenner/2011/08/28/on-microattribution/ |publisher=[[Gobbledygook]]|accessdate=3 October 2011}}</ref>

<ref>{{cite web|title=What is the Human Variome Project?| url=http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v39/n4/full/ng0407-423.html| publisher=[[Nature Genetics]]|accessdate=26 October 2011}}</ref>

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes on how to create references

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microattribution

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes


Questions

Any questions, comments, …?