How Wikipedia Works and How You Can Be a Part of It

by Phoebe Ayers, Charles Matthews, Ben Yates

Myxomatosis. The Order of Canada. Noble gas. Catherine de' Medici. The History of Superman? Whether doing serious research on the Web or settling an argument, it's easy to get caught up in Wikipedia's 2,000,000 articles. That's not a bad thing. How'd all the information get there? How to tell it's reliable? If want to become a part of Wikipedia & make your own contributions where to begin?
In How Wikipedia Works, you'll learn the skills required to use & contribute to the world's largest reference work-like what constitutes good writing & research & how to work with images & templates.
With insight, anecdotes & tips from three Wikipedia veterans, you'll learn how to:
Find information. Evaluate the quality & reliability of articles. Copyedit existing articles. Write new material. Fact-check. Add new articles that conform to Wikipedia's guidelines & best practices. Communicate with other Wikipedians through talk pages, discussion forums, direct messaging etc. Understand Wikipedia's policies & procedures & how they're created & enforced. Resolve content disputes & deal with vandals & other malicious editors.
Wikipedia is made up of people like you: students, professors, experts & fans. With about 10,000 articles added weekly, there are plenty of opportunities to join this global community. How Wikipedia Works explains how you can make the Web's go-to source for information better. Instead of wondering where to begin, the question becomes "How far will you go?"

Genres: Technology

507 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2008

Reviews

[Sebah Al-Ali · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think it's the book to be consulted for those who aim at making the most out of Wikipedia. I, personally, read it to be briefed about the whole concept and how it can used for educational purposes. Unfortunately, not much was said about educational uses.

I find it interesting that the author agrees with the idea of not accepting Wikipedia as a valid resource in academia. She talked thoroughly about that. Another interesting piece of information I came across is the "Talk pages." I wasn't aware of this side of Wikipedia.


"An article, in this context, is defined s a Wikipedia page that contains encyclopedic information. Technically, the article count only measures pages of content that are not dead end ... and are not redirects." (p. 5)

"Articles vary widely in length, detail, and comprehensiveness." (p.7)

Articles talk about different topics, including: traditional encyclopedia topics, people, places, fictional characters, media, companies and organizations, and computer software and hardware.

"A dictionary definition alone isn't sufficient for a Wikipedia article. However, dictionary definitions are very welcome at Wiktionary, Wikimedia's free dictionary project." (p. 19)


"Policies determine both the kinds of topics that are acceptable and the way in which those topics are treated." (p. 11)

"No one in particular has the job of deciding whether an article is suitable for Wikipedia. Rather, contributors submit new pages to the site directly, and they go live immediately without intermediaries. Other contributors then review these articles." (p. 12)

"/three policies are so central to Wikipedia's workings... Verifiability [reliable sources:], Nor Original Research [ideas and facts previously published:], and Neutral Point of View [objectivity:]."


"Wikipedia developed in an atmosphere where wikis were already established as a particular kind of online community." (p. 45)

"Discussion or talk pages are meant for discussion about articles and other pages. Nearly every page on Wikipedia has an attached, dedicated discussion page. ... Talk pages are important, socially and practically. They help strengthen content... Editors can mention possible problems, leave notes about current ongoing work on the article, and negotiate a way through conflicts on content." (p. 113)