editing expeditions & explorers on wikipedia: tips & tricks

Expeditions & Explorers: An Edit-a-thon

Discovering Wikipedia with

Tips, Tactics, and Tools

Meghan Ferriter, PhD

Research Associate

Smithsonian Institution Archives

21 June 2013

Edit-a-thon: An Overview

Welcome! Thank you for being here to help us create and

improve articles relating to Expeditions and Explorers

of the Field Book Project. Learn more about the joint

project from Smithsonian Institution Archives and

National Museum of Natural History.

RoadmapOur Roadmap today:

o Brief Introduction to editing on Wikipedia

o Excellent and more detailed resources • Here: http://www.slideshare.net/sosarasays/women-

inthearts2013wikipediaslideshare

• Here: http://editathon.org

• Here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:A_Primer_for_newcom

ers

o Principles

o Building Webs of Knowledge with

GLAMs & Wikipedia

o Let’s Start: Smithsonian-Roosevelt

African Expedition (1909-1910)

Principles

• Wikipedia is an encyclopedia…but so much

more

• 5 Pillars: Encyclopedia, NPOV, Free content, Be

Polite, No Firm Rules

• 6 Values: Freedom, Accessibility and Quality,

Independence, Commitment to openness and

diversity, Transparency, Community

• Communication, Candor, Consistency…

• If you’re not sure, ASK!

• We are working together – Be Polite

Building Webs of Knowledge

• GLAMs & Wikipedia: Mutually Beneficial Relationship

• Opportunities to improve quality of resources and

material on Wikipedia with GLAM collections &

materials

• Opportunities for GLAMs to share content with wider

audience

• Literally navigable: cross-linked, easy to access, &

move between

• How about a non-GLAM look at the

same building process?

What you can do to an article on

Wikipedia*• Create wikilinks, or links between articles

• Identify and find citations + resources

• Edit grammar, structure, and “flow”

• Format and template articles, categories, sections

• Add media content: images, videos, podcasts, etc

• Create an article

• For our purposes: Help people learn,

make decisions, and become more

involved with GLAMs & Wikipedia

*not even close to an exhaustive list!!

Getting Started• User page

o Conflict of Interest Statement

• Sandbox

• User Talk

• For today: o Expeditions & Explorers Edit-a-thon & To-Do List

o Etherpad: http://beta.etherpad.org/p/fbpwiki

o (search:) WP:CHEAT

• Community resources like the TeaHouse

Articles & Projects• The ideal Wikipedia article is well-written, balanced,

neutral, and encyclopedic, containing

comprehensive, notable, verifiable knowledge.

• What’s the difference between an article and a

WikiProject?o WikiProjects are places on Wikipedia in which editors can

coordinate coverage around particular subject area

• Remember there are many happenings

beyond articles & projects in the Wikiverse

– explore and get involved!

Editing:

The Space & Layout• PAGE: The page layout consists of tabs along the

beginning. These are:o Article – Discussion – Edit - View History – Star (“Watch”)

• ARTICLEo Lead section: summary para, Table of Contents, Infobox, Image

o Main body: up to 4 levels of sub-sections

o Closing sections:

• See also, References, Notes

• Bibliography, Further reading, External links

• Categories, interwiki links

• STYLE: It’s up to you/the first editoro Some parts of a great article – Image, Killer Intro,

o Clearly stating argument for notability

Editing Steps• Sign in!

• Gather materials and/or find article you’d like to

edit

• Copy and Paste the part you’d like to edit in your

Sandbox (make it non-google-able!) or in Word, etc

• Make edits or create article

• Provide Edit Summary

• “Watch” article

• Preview Changes – Save Changes

• Questions: Talk pages

Best Practice Tips*• Start by reading over similar subject articles

o For formatting

o To see what is most useful information to gather

o Where to improve or create relatedness through wikilinking

o EX: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Exploring_Expedition

• Cite and provide two or three resources + image

• Triangulate resources – from different institutions and types if possible

• When creating an article: Format, add

categories, call to action by starting sections,

call to action by creating redlinks

*Meghan’s suggestions – please suggest MORE

Under Construction

• Planningo Review existing

o Think about “story we’re trying to tell”

• Resources we gathered: o Collections records

o Existing articles – to create a robust “web of knowledge” & wikilink

o websites

o original books written by subjects

• Consider: What’s the best way to tell the

story with these resources?

… Let’s SANDBOX it

The Smithsonian-Roosevelt African

Expedition• As a part of our learning process, we converted a

redlink into an active article – we chose to build one for:

The Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition

• We started by citing and naming the Expedition and, therefore, building a link off Teddy Roosevelt’s article

• From there, we gathered information,

maps, and used the electronic resources

from the to-do list to build an account of

the Expedition, its members like Heller, Loring,

and Mearns, and the results of the trip.

The Result: A New Article!

Additional Resources

10 “Rules” for Editing

• Register for an account (but you don’t HAVE to)

• Learn the Five Pillars

• Be Bold, but Not Reckless

• Know your Audience

• Do Not Infringe Copyright (free, open, public domain)

• Cite, Cite, Cite

• Avoid Shameless Self-promotion

• Share your expertise, but don’t argue

from authority

• Write Neutrally and with due weight

• Ask for help – {{helpme}}

• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P

MC2947980/

Core Wikipedia Policies

• Neutral Point of View

• Verifiability – reliable and correctly cited sources*

• No “original research”

• Assume good faith toward other editors

• Avoid conflict of interest(s)

• In-built process of review, discussion,

consensus-seeking PLUS dispute

resolution, voting, collective editing

Useful Templates

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Infobox_scien

tist

Thank You for Editing!

Meghan Ferriter, PhD

Research Associate

Smithsonian Institution Archives

ferriterm@si.edu

(tw) @MeghaninMotion

(wiki) Meghaninmotion

Get in touch if you have tips for building

webs of knowledge & improving

GLAM-wiki relationships!