A wiki is a website that’s developed collaboratively by a group of users. It can be edited by anyone. The most well-known wiki is Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org). Wikipedia is the most comprehensive encyclopedia in the world with over 13 million articles on every conceivable topic. It’s currently the most popular reference site on the Internet.
Step 1
Explore Wikipedia to get a feel for the site. Click on the language of your choice. Click on “About Wikipedia” (in the column on the left, under "interaction"). Read a little about it.
Try looking up a few topics to get an idea of the scope of Wikipedia. This is a great resource for learning about pop culture, and for very recent updates. However, it is not very reliable because anyone can edit the articles.
Step 2
Find a Wikipedia article in an area where you have a strong interest or expertise. It can be an article on anything – your branch of CPL, your favourite author or movie, gardening, etc. Read the article and edit a section that you feel is poorly written or factually incorrect. Your editing doesn’t have to be extensive - you can change facts, grammar, anything at all.
You may want to create an account to edit in Wikipedia, but you don't have to. You can edit articles without an account.
If you’re feeling ambitious, you can even write your own article on a topic that Wikipedia doesn’t yet cover!
Step 3
In your blog, comment on ONE of the following:
• How easy or difficult was it to find articles that needed editing? Were the errors you found factual or grammar / spelling?
OR
• Were you able to find a topic obscure enough that Wikipedia doesn’t cover it? If so, congratulations! If you managed to publish an article, comment on the process.
Note:
Katie is out of town this week. If you have questions for us, please email Heather at heather.keeling@calgarypubliclibrary.com.
Have fun!
Just a note - I hope everyone makes productive edits - destructive edits or vandalism could get the library's IP addresses banned temporarily (or permanently) from Wikipedia.
ReplyDelete"You may want to create an account to edit in Wikipedia, but you don't have to."
ReplyDeleteHow do you do this without an account? When I tried Wikipedia told me
"Everyone can contribute to Wikipedia, regardless of whether they choose to register. However, there are several benefits to registering a username, including:
The ability to create new articles."
So, as far as I can tell, you cannot create a new article without registering.
I didn't want to register so my article on Spin Farming (Small Plot INtensive farming) will never be read.
As you stated anonymous, to create an entry you need to create an account, however; to edit an article, you do need to create an account.
ReplyDelete