Wikipedia Education

I How to use Wikipedia for academia Kevin Lim • University at Buffalo Cheektowaga Central High School • 13 th May 2008 Kevin Lim Cyberculture Researcher http://theory.isthereason.com Where do you go when you’re online? Source: http://xkcd.com/256 We [heart] Wikipedia! • Among top 10 most visited websites • 70% of traffic is from search engines • Cited in over 100 U.S. court rulings Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/technology/29wikipedia.html What is a Wiki? • • • The first Wiki, WikiWikiWeb, was created by Ward Cunningham in 1995 Named after Hawaiian bus service, Wiki Wiki Allows users to easily create and edit Web pages using any Web browser Encourages democratic use of Web • Source: http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki Worldwide Participation • 253 languages • 2 million+ articles in English • 5 million articles in languages other than English, accounting for half of all traffic • Freely -licensed image, video, and sound files on Wikimedia Commons are used across languages Source: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias_by_language_family It’s kind of a big deal… • “Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing.” – Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales Source: Chrys at http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrys/5591867/ A Culture of Giving • Almost no co-ordination of effort • 2% of users (1400 people) make 73.4% of edits • 0.7% of users (524 people) make 50% of edits • But… people who make very, very few edits write most of Wikipedia’s content Source: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia How do we edit pages on Wikipedia? Anatomy of Wikipedia: Normal View * key interaction areas Anatomy of Wikipedia: Editing View * key interaction areas Size of English Wikipedia Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Size_of_English_Wikipedia_in_August_2007.svg Contents of English Wikipedia (satire!) Source: http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/blog/2007/08/29/what-wikipedia-would-look-like-if-on-paper-broken-down/ How do we know what’s accurate on Wikipedia? “Wikipedia is a great place to start, not end, your research” Dr. Alex Halavais http://alex.halavais.net The Good Idea: Proper citing of Wikipedia Wikipedia pages are dynamic. They typically change over time. “Freeze your reference” by picking your preferred point in history Cite references using the “permalink” to that point in history Anatomy of Wikipedia: Revision View When in doubt, try Wikipedia’s Revision View The Better Idea: Going beyond Wikipedia Wikipedia has numbered citations, linked to references below... Work from these references. Keep branching outward from there. Go through references, picking ones you think are great for your paper. Bates, Marcia J. (1989). “The Design of Browsing and Berrypicking Techniques for the Online Search Interface.” Online Review, 13(5): 407-424. Available here: http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/berrypicking.html Wikipedia is immense. Take your time to understand the community and culture. Questions & Answers hopefully. References Related Wiki Links References also available at: http://theory.isthereason.com/?p=769 Wikipedia: Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki Wikibooks: How to start a Wiki http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wiki_Science:How_to_start_a_Wiki Wikipedia: How to Edit a Page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page Free Wiki has demos, screenshots, and general info on Wikis. http://www.freewiki.info/ A Comprehensive Wiki Comparison Engine http://www.wikimatrix.org/ Using Wiki in Education http://scienceofspectroscopy.info/edit/index.php?title=Using_wiki_in_education References Related Blog Readings Blogs & Wikis: contributing to the e-dialog Recordings of an ETC Discussion Forum held on September 28th, 2005, provided by Professor Alex Halavais Weblogs and collaborative web publishing as learning spaces. Halavais, A. (In press). In J. Weiss, J. Nolan, and P. Trifonas (Eds.), International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments. Springer. Handbook for Bloggers and Cyberdissidents Reporters Without Borders. http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=542 Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press. Wenger, E. (1998).