User:Pharos/NWC

Newbie Wiki Workshop,  This page will be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Pharos/NWC     this version, May 10, 2011

Reading and using Wikipedia

 * Wikipedia and other sources
 * What is distinctive about Wikipedia (Five pillars, Simplified ruleset)
 * A free encyclopedia, free to read and to use, free of copyright (except for some Fair Use material)
 * A comprehensive modern encyclopedia, with world-wide coverage, and at least some information about almost anything a person might look for in an encyclopedia; larger than print encyclopedias; extensively hyperlinked and categorized; lists; images & other media; watchlists and other software tools
 * Verifiable, with references for the information, to check for accuracy and to find more material
 * Open content: anyone can contribute – widest range of interests and knowledge; numerous contributors; Wikiprojects encourage collaboration
 * Neutral and factual: all major points of view are covered in proportion, with sources for them (Neutral point of view)
 * Uncensored: with respect to sex, politics, and other difficult topics
 * Open community: self-governing, with minimal structure; everyone is a volunteer


 * Discussion, Edit, History: The magical secrets at the top of every Wikipedia article


 * Comparison with Other free web sources
 * ask.com for quick basic information
 * IMDb.com for detailed information on movies
 * WorldCat for comprehensive information about books
 * Google News Search: for current events and Google News Archive for earlier ones.
 * Wikia for details on games and hobbies
 * PubMed+ for medical information from the National Library of Medicine


 * Comparison with Library web sources (NYPL, available remotely with a Library card
 * Biography Resource Center, Literature Reference Center
 * Newspapers: National Newspaper Index, New York State Newspapers, Newspaper Source, Custom Newspapers (Gale)


 * Wikipedia's coverage
 * What are the problems?:
 * Accuracy; updating; stability; edit wars/WP:OWNership
 * Fairness; WP:COI
 * Poorly covered areas
 * Uneven depth in even fairly well covered areas
 * Spam


 * Where is it strong:
 * Popular culture: TV, movies, games
 * Computers; Medicine; Sports; Politics
 * United States, Great Britain
 * WP:Featured Topics, WP:Featured Articles, WP:Good Articles


 * Where it is weak or erratic (WikiProject Countering systemic bias)
 * Classic literature and drama
 * History and Religion
 * Africa, most of Asia, Latin America


 * Where it is too difficult for most people?:
 * Mathematics, Linguistics, ...


 * How to use Wikipedia (Researching with Wikipedia)
 * Searching
 * Wikipedia Search box
 * Google and other search engines
 * Browsing Portal:Contents
 * Wikipedia Portals of broad subjects Portal:Contents/Portals
 * Wikipedia Categories & Complete A-Z list of categories, Outlines, and Lists; Timelines,Complete A-Z Index
 * Links in articles


 * Evaluating an article
 * Sourcing (Verifiability; WP:RS); External links (WP:EL)
 * Article history (sometimes an old version contains useful information that has been dropped)
 * Talk page - Wikiprojects rate their own articles; discussion of article improvement
 * Quality and priority designations (Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Assessment)
 * Problem designations: Cleanup, PovCheck, Unreferenced, Tone, Advert, Disputed, Update


 * Examples:
 * The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009 film) (and at IMDB). Compare H.M.S. Pinafore (19th century topic easier to illustrate) and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Malcolm X compared with Bill Clinton
 * Fairy tale
 * Macintosh
 * Metal umlaut (video on article evolution)


 * Other parts of the system than articles
 * Commons: Pictures and media Files
 * Wikitionary; WikiSource (& related projects elsewhere, such as Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive)
 * other language Wikipedias


 * Getting started (Contributing to Wikipedia)
 * Discussing an article; Wikiquette; Consensus
 * Correcting/expanding an article; WP:CITE; WP:MOS
 * Writing a new article WP:FIRST
 * Researching an article with library and other resources

Writing for Wikipedia
'''Stubs! good targets for your first edits'''
 * Try to include references!

Other articles for first edits Engaging in discussion Wikimedia NYC and NYU class background
 * Category:New York City stubs
 * Category:African history stubs
 * Category:Brand name food products stubs
 * Category:United States federal legislation stubs
 * WikiProject Stub sorting/List of stubs
 * Random article
 * Article on your hometown or neighborhood
 * Peer review
 * Featured picture candidates
 * Wikimedia New York City, Wikimedia New York City/State of the Chapter 2011
 * WikiProject United States Public Policy/Courses/Spring 2011/Copyright, Commerce, and Culture (Evan Hill-Ries)

Getting Help

 * Cheatsheet
 * Wikimedia Bookshelf
 * Ambassadors/Resources
 * Reader’s Guide to Wikipedia from Wikipedia:The Missing Manual by John Broughton & How Wikipedia Works by Phoebe Ayers, Charles Matthews, and Ben Yates

Follow-up

 * Wikimedia NYC chapter and monthly Meetup/NYC events - we'd love to help with any culturey/nonprofity project :)
 * The teachers of the class can be directly contacted at User talk:DGG and User talk:Pharos, and by email, and will be glad to answer your questions.