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

<ul><li>Among top 10 most visited
websites </li></ul><ul><li>70% of traffic is from search engines </li></ul><ul><li>Cited in over 100 U.S. court rulings </li></ul><ul><li>Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/technology/29wikipedia.html </li></ul>We [heart] Wikipedia!

What is a Wiki? <ul><li>The
first Wiki, WikiWikiWeb, was created by Ward Cunningham in 1995 </li></ul><ul><li>Named after Hawaiian bus service, Wiki Wiki </li></ul><ul><li>Allows users to easily create and edit Web pages using any Web browser </li></ul><ul><li>Encourages democratic use of Web </li></ul><ul><li>Source: http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki </li></ul>

Worldwide Participation <ul><li>253 languages </li></ul><ul><li>2
million+ articles in English </li></ul><ul><li>5 million articles in languages other than English, accounting for half of all traffic </li></ul><ul><li>Freely -licensed image, video, and sound files on Wikimedia Commons are used across languages </li></ul><ul><li>Source: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias_by_language_family </li></ul>

It’s kind of a big
deal… <ul><li>“ 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.” </li></ul><ul><li>– Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales </li></ul>Source: Chrys at http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrys/5591867/

A Culture of Giving <ul><li>Almost
no co-ordination of effort </li></ul><ul><li>2% of users (1400 people) make 73.4% of edits </li></ul><ul><li>0.7% of users (524 people) make 50% of edits </li></ul><ul><li>But… people who make very, very few edits write most of Wikipedia’s content </li></ul><ul><li>Source: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia </li></ul>

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.

Wikipedia lets you “Cite this
page”.

Offers various citation styles

Wikipedia pages also feature version
history .

“ 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 Dynamics
of Wikipedia, by Su-Liane Yeo (Nov 2007) http://www.slideshare.net/syeo/dynamics-of-wikipedia/ 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).