Introduction to Wikipedia & Wikipedia assignment

Highly popular

Wide variety of uses

The encyclopedia that anyone can edit

Who is editing now?

Goals of Wikipedia assignment Become an “expert” in some topic relevant to the course Provide a public good –Return some of what you’ve learned back to the world by improving Wikipedia Become a better writer Become a more informed consumer of digital information Provide common ground for class –Wikipedia as an interesting online group/community

History Founded in Jan 15, 2001 as a feeder to Nupedia, an expert-authored, peer- reviewed, free encyclopedia Co-founders –Jimmy WalesJimmy Wales –Larry SangerLarry Sanger Heavily subsidized by bomis.com (1996), Wales’ search portal, ad and porn company Jimmy Wales Larry Sanger

Growth English version –~4.9 M articles in English language Wikipedia –30k active editors/month (>5 edits) –Doubling number of articles every 40 weeks –Slower growth starting in 2007 All versions –290 languages –11 language versions > 100K articles –22M editors over all time Spin-offs –Wiktionary, wikibooks, wikiversity, wikinews, wikispecies, wikiquote, wikisource Article growth per month

Misalignment in Wikipedia: Iron Man 13 10,189 words

Major source of information on most psychological concepts

Yet many Wikipedia articles on psychology were impoverished or out of date Start Quality Little content 687 words 8 references

Wikipedia Assignment Substantially improve an existing one on a topic relevant to the course

Original 1 article combing bio and theory Sections: 7 Words: 831 Images: 0 References: 5 External links: 7 New 2 pages with bio separated from theory Sections: 27 Words: 5,669 Images: 1 References: 35 External links: 18

Greta Munger, Davidson College, an honor seminar course Undergrads can do amazing work Greta Munger, Davidson College, an honors seminar course

Editing

Revisions: History of the article Mar 17, 2010Sep 7, 2015

Article discussion pagesArticle discussion pages: Where coordination gets done

Principles and policies

What Wikipedia is not

To get started Look through the assignment at assignment assignment Create a Wikipedia account & user page, and then enroll in Communication in Groups & Organizations on the Wikipedia educational portal. Communication in Groups & Organizations on the Wikipedia educational portal Then start the training.

Timeline & important deadlines WeekActivity 2Create a Wikipedia account & user page, and then enroll; Training 3Post 3 to 5 potential Wikipedia articles to course forum 4Add 1–2 sentences of new information to a Wikipedia article 5Select and article and partner, and start planning improvements. 6Meet with the course instructor to discuss your article 7Move portions of your edits into real Wikipedia article 8Choose articles to peer review 9Complete first draft. This is the version your peers will review. 10Complete peer review and copy editing 11Respond to the peer & community feedback about your article. 12Continue to improve your article. 13Finalize and submit the final article & reflection essay