User:Jonno 360/sandbox

Articles choices and comparison
Topics:
 * Heavy Metal Music
 * Skateboarding
 * Pinball Machines

I chose these topics because I have been listening to heavy metal since I was a kid and I play guitar in a thrash metal band, which is part of the heavy metal music genre. I chose skateboarding because I have been skateboarding since I was a kid and it’s been a major part of my life from when I was a teenager into adulthood. I have recently found a local arcade in Ottawa that has pinball machines and have become slightly addicted to them. Growing up in the “Nintendo” generation, I never really played pinball machines but now as an adult I have found that I enjoy them quite a bit.

When I compared the Heavy Metal Music wiki to the one I found on the Canadian Encyclopaedia I noticed that the Canadian Encyclopaedia entry doesn't go into much detail about the actual music, it gives a general overview of where it started and the “major” bands in the genre but it doesn't really touch on the other sub-genres of heavy metal or the musical style of heavy metal. It does however have a small section dedicated to heavy metal in Canada. The wiki article about Heavy Metal is much more informative, it goes in depth on the musical styling of heavy metal as well as it breaks down each sub genre with a brief description of each as well as key bands in each sub genre.

The skateboarding article on Wiki gives a detailed history of the sport from it’s beginnings in the 60’s all the way up to the current state of the sport. It gives brief descriptions as well on products associated with skateboarding such as the “Skate Shoe” and the skateboard deck itself. The Britannica Encyclopaedia On-line Edition article on skateboarding gives some history on the sport through the decades and gives a brief description of the standard skateboard. The article is contributed by “Tony Hawk” who is one of the most known skateboarders in the world. I find it kind of odd that he wouldn't mention anything about the tricks or the evolution of skateboarding in detail.

The pinball article on the Britannica Encyclopaedia On-line Edition is a very short entry of a couple paragraphs. It gives a brief overview of the history of the pinball machine as well as the creator of the first pinball machine. The wiki article on pinball is much more in depth and gives a history of the machine throughout the decades as well as gives a breakdown of the mechanics and parts of the play field. It also touches on playing techniques as well as competitive pinball playing.

So far, I have noticed that Wikipedia articles are much more informing then other on-line encyclopaedias and go more in depth with the descriptions.

Heavy Metal Music
Wikipedia article on "Heavy Metal Music"

The Canadian Encyclopaedia On-Line article on "Heavy Metal Music"

Skateboarding
Wikipedia article on "Skateboarding"

Encyclopaedia Britannica On-Line article on "Skateboarding"

Pinball Machine
Wikipedia article on "Pinball Machine"

Encyclopaedia Britannica On-Line article on "Pinball Machine"

Wikipedia Article Summary
The Wikipedia article on “Skateboarding” encompasses the entire history of the “sport” from the 1940’s to present time. From its children’s toy roots up to its surf-style inspired years and into its current form as a viable independent sport and hobby. It looks at skateboarding from a cultural aspect with the progression of the skateboard deck and components to the fashion associated with skateboarding. It also mentions that many professional skateboarders have also become prolific artists and informs about “skateboarding art” which is its own cultural art form. It gives a detailed description on the lifestyle of skateboarding, involving professional skateboarders and the tricks performed on skateboards. The article also touches base on the use of skateboards for other purposes such as a mode of transportation, also known as long boarding. They were also tested by the US military to be used in urban situations in the 1990’s. The article touches on variations of skateboarding known as tramp boarding (skateboarding on a trampoline) and swing boarding (skateboard is placed on a stationary pivot point) both of which do not use the wheels or trucks of a skateboard just the skateboard deck itself. The article encompasses safety guidelines within the activity as well as in the professional sport world of skateboarding. An interesting part of the article deals with the controversy of skateboarding relating to the damage of public property and urban architecture. Many professional skateboarders make a living off “street skating” which is the form of performing tricks on man built architecture such as staircases, ledges, curbs, side walks, etc.. Which has led to the popular phrase “Skateboarding Is Not A Crime.” ("Skateboarding." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 23 Sep. 2013. Web. 9 Nov. 2013.)

Britannica Online Article Summary
The Britannica Online article on “skateboarding” has a brief description of what skateboarding is as an activity as well as a sport. The article traces the history of skateboarding from its first commercial sales from 1959 through the sports revival in the 1970’s and into modern times. It sheds light on the invention of the polyurethane wheels which revolutionized the skateboard industry. It informs about the underground skateboarding movement of the 1980’s where skateboarders started building their own ramps and skate parks. The article gives a physical description of what a typical skateboard looks like complete with measurements and specifications. The variations of skateboarding are mentioned, i.e. longboarding and the physical description of a common longboard is given with measurements and specifications. It mentions modification being done to skateboards that involve blades being attached to the bottom of a skateboard deck to be used on ice or snow (Snowskate) as well as sails being attached to longboards to be used as kite-boards. The article touches very briefly on trick skateboarding and the style of it. There is very little mention of the culture and professional world of skateboarding itself. It mentions that world cup of skateboarding that was founded in 1994 and is the world’s largest competitive skateboard event. The article was written by Tony Hawk, who is by far the most known skateboarder in the world. ("skateboarding." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 08 Nov. 2013.)

Article Comparison Assessment
The two articles are similar in that they both inform about “skateboarding” as a culture and a professional sport but I find the Wikipedia article to have much more detail and topics about what skateboarding is and what makes it a culture. For example the Wikipedia article gives a detailed decade by decade account of the history of skateboarding telling who was doing what and where, detailing the magazines and companies that were prolific in the particular decades. The Britannica Online article just gives a brief history of skateboarding only mentioning a few people that were contributors to the sport in the early years, such as Allan Gelfand who invented the “Ollie” trick.

The Wikipedia article also focuses in more detail on the culture and style of skateboarding from the tricks to the fashion involved with in the sport. An example is the “skate shoe” which the Wikipedia article gives its own sub-section detailing the design of the skate shoe and how it has affected the ability of skateboarders to perform various tricks. The actual skateboard deck itself is given a sub-section in the Wikipedia article detailing the various shapes and sizes through the decades as well as the practicality of certain shapes and sizes for different types of riding. It also mentions major skateboard deck companies who were prolific in the progression of the sport. The Britannica Online article really doesn't have much to offer in detailing the culture and style of skateboarding other than relating it to punk rock fashion in the 1980’s and naming a few professional skateboarders that influenced the skateboarding style. The article gives a brief description of the skateboard itself but fails to mention any significance as to why there were varying shapes and sizes of boards. It does not mention the skate shoe at all in the article.

The Wikipedia article goes into greater detail with the mention of skateboarder art, which is its own art form and makes mention of professional skateboarders who have become well known artists. The article also gives detailed usage of skateboards outside of the practical ones, such as using it as a mode of transportation, the US military usage of it in urban settings and variations on the usage of the board in other sports (trampboarding and swingboarding). The Britannica Online article has no mention of the skateboarder art-form. It does however mention skateboarding as a mode of transportation as well as details two variations on the sport (kite-boarding and snowskating). Both articles do have mention of the competitive events in the professional skateboarding world. The Wikipedia article doesn't mention it directly under a heading or sub-heading but mentions them throughout the whole article. Britannica Online mentions the World Cup of Skateboarding as well as a brief history of the ESPN X-games including skateboarding as an event in 1995.

In conclusion, I think the Wikipedia article touches on every aspect of skateboarding and goes even further to bring in topics such as the skateboarding art-form and how society might view it as more than a sport and possibly a crime in certain situations. It gives a much more detailed account of the history of skateboarding as well as a more in-depth look at the culture of skateboarding. The Briannica Online article I found was very brief in its description. The entire size of the article is about the size of one section from the Wikipedia article. I find it strange that Tony Hawk, who invented numerous tricks and brought professional skateboarding to the level it is today, would fail to not mention more detail about the modern aspects of the sport or even the culture of the sport besides it being associated with punk rock fashion. I find the article to be a brief overview of what skateboarding is and doesn't provide enough in-depth look into the inner workings of professional skateboarding or the culture of skateboarding itself.

Article References
The Wikipedia article has numerous references to related articles on skateboarding, professional skateboarders, and other webpages involving skateboarding. Some of the best ones I found was a link to another Wikipedia article of a list of professional skateboarders. Which gives a list of some of the bigger names in professional skateboarding as well as who they are sponsored by and what companies they ride for. Some of the articles are directly referenced to current professional skateboarders, who would be considered experts such as Tony Hawk and Rodney Mullen. The Wikipedia article gives a number of photographs depicting skateboarders in action as well as skateboarder fashion. Many of the skateboard companies are referenced throughout the article with links to their webpages. Skateboarding magazines and documentaries are referenced in the article, although some of the documentaries that are referenced are a bit dated being from the 70’s. I found there to be a good balance of references from different sources within the skateboarding world in the Wikipedia article. In the revision history of the article I noticed revisions from 2001 to present by various users. Most of the users were in good standing and had contributed knowledge or grammatical corrections to the sections. I did not come past any banned users or negative editing by anyone in the revisions I viewed.

The Britannica Online article has Tony Hawk listed as the main contributor. Throughout the article there are links given to other Britannica Online articles involving skateboarding in one way or another. Some of them are very irrelevant, for example there is a link to “roller-skating” in the section about skateboard culture. They link to other extreme sports such as snowboarding and street-luge. The only external link they give is an article on “Alternative Sports: Year in Review 1997” by Close To Mainstream Magazine. This seems very unrelated and outdated. They also give a link at the bottom of the page to an article on Tony Hawk and another for Extreme Sports. I find that most of these references are not helpful and just lead to related sports. There is nothing from the skateboard world referenced here such as skateboarding magazines, webpages, companies, etc. The only “expert” referenced is Tony Hawk, who was the author of the article.

Additional Resources
Item 1-6 are printed magazines and books on skateboarding I own. 7-9 are articles I found on the LRC EBSCO database. 10 is an online webpage for Skateboard Board Canada Magazine.
 * 1. Thrasher Magazine Issue #389 December 2012
 * 2. Thrasher Magazine Issue #383 June 2012
 * 3. Skate And Destroy: 25 Years of Thrasher Magazine. Print book, 2006.
 * 4. Color Magazine Issue #10/2 summer 2012
 * 5. Concrete Skateboarding Issue #119 July 2012
 * 6. Concrete Skateboarding Issue #120 Photo Annual 2012
 * 7. Local Environment Issue #3 Volume 18 March 2013; Article “Waxing Ledges: Built environments, alternative sustainability, and the      Chicago skateboarding scene.”
 * 8. Junior Scholastic Issue #10 Volume 115 January 2013; Article “Welcome to Skateistan: a skateboarding program brings hope to the war-weary kids of Afghanistan.”
 * 9. Ethnography Issue #3 Volume 13 March 2012; Article “The city and the subculture career: Professional street skateboarding in LA.”
 * 10. SBC Skateboard Magazine Online Webpage 2011