User:Linyaf/Report

It is a very interesting and meaningful personal experience of contributing to Wikipedia. I never think about I can get that close to Wiki. In this project, I can edit some topics that I get interested in by myself. I learn a lot from this excellent assignment. Wikipedia project provides me an opportunity to summarize the knowledge from different reliable sources and share them with everyone. It improves my ability of professional writing and comprehensive summary. I chose the topic of “orange chicken” because it is a traditional Chinese-American food in the United States. It is a popular dish among Americans.

After choosing the topic, the next step is to do some research about the topic. I googled some resources about the history and variations of orange chicken. Reliable sources are very important so I used some news. When I collected enough information about orange chicken, I started to edit them in my sandbox. I coped the original article of orange chicken to my sandbox and started to make some edits about it. I added a new section, “popularity” in my sandbox. I talked about its famous and its sales per year in this part. After consulting the professor's advice, I combined the heading of origin and variation because they are talking about similar information. I enjoy contributing to the Wikipedia community, it teaches me a lot about how to write a professional report. I learned to use the function of the sandbox and edit the article by source editing mode. I also get connected to the talk page in Wikipedia which is a great place for contributors to communicate about the topic. When using the resources, I should make sure they are reliable. Blogs, reviews, and notes are not good resources to cite. News, books, and research articles are great reliable resources. Using my own words is very important, too. I learn to comprehensively summarize the information and put them together in an organized way. Another lesson I learned is that the role of collaboration acts as a big part in writing a well-research article for public audiences. Users communicate with each other about what they think of that topic, and what is something needed to improve. A great Wikipedia topic needs everybody’s help. So if I found something mistakes in other Wikipedia articles, I can utilize what I learn to make it better.

In the process of completing this project, I have some suggestions for the Wikipedia community to make it better. Firstly, not too many people know how to edit the article in Wikipedia even though they found something wrong point of view or grammar issue. This is due to Wikipedia's lack of publicity. Based on my own experience, I thought it was very hard to make edits to Wikipedia so I was afraid to contribute even though I saw something not accurate. I would love to suggest Wikipedia added a small column on each article to motivate readers to engage in Wikipedia closely and make a contribution to the topic. For example, Wikipedia could say in that column on the homepage, “Want to add something? Please don’t hesitate to do it. Wikipedia is a place for sharing your knowledge to others! You could make a meaningful action for your whole life”. I think it might help more people engage in making a better article. Wikipedia should pay attention to this issue because the more people engage, the greater quality of the article has. If Wikipedia makes good advertising about contributing to Wikipedia, it will attract more newcomers to engage in this community. In the lecture, we learn about the idea of recruitment. It is about how the community effectively advertise for new members. Traditional advertising can work for Wikipedia because most readers are actively evaluating Wikipedia. Wikipedia just needs to let readers know good reasons to participate in Wikipedia. I feel so proud when I see my contribution to the live article of orange chicken. I believe other users will have the same feeling as mine. So Wikipedia should focus on its recruitment. The participation of new users helps keep the community active.

The reason for my recommendation can be taken more seriously than just random advice from one new user is that I actively participated in this project and I took it seriously. To learn how Wikipedia works, I finished all the training activities about norms. So I learn what is considered a great contribution to Wikipedia. I spent one month to participate in this program. My recommendation will be more persuasive than a random new user who doesn’t spend too much time on it. The first idea the lecture covered as I mentioned above is the concept of recruitment. Every community needs power from new users to thrive. Attracting more readers to sign up for Wikipedia account is the first step. When people know it is not that hard to contribute to Wikipedia, they would try to make improvements to the article. The advertisement is not spreading how wonderful Wikipedia is. Instead, it is about attracting readers to engage in editing words. The second concept is about protection. We talk about the idea of the sandbox in the lecture which Wikipedia has it. What I understand is that sandbox is where users write drafts. It is the place for users to plan the writing and summarize words. This is a way to protect new users from making harmful changes to the Wiki community. The sandbox provides a space for self-experimentation. Wikipedia creates training activities for users to learn the rules of its community is the fact of socialization. Training activities teach how newcomers to behave in an appropriate way and leader they follow the rules. Users are givens step-by-step instructions by Wikipedia. Wikipedia is unique for its different versions of articles. One topic might have more than five versions in different languages. All these accomplishments were made by different people together from all over the world. Wikipedia is creating a place for all different races to communicate together because of their knowledge. It is the power of collaboration and they have the same goal is to make Wikipedia better. I would add the idea of recovery if something bad happened already. It can tell the community what needs to do to fix the problem. We only talk about how to make the community grow better, but we did not spend too much time recovering. If we can add that section it will be great.

I learn a lot and enjoy this assignment so much! It is a great experience for me and it gives me a chance to get closer to the Wiki community.