User:Rpmestre/sandbox

Article Evaluation
The article that I chose to evaluate is on post-postmodernism.

Evaluating Content
Everything within the article was related to the article's topic, however, since post-postmodernism is in its early stages it is not well defined and different experts have taken different views on what the over-arching theme of the movement is an the value that it offers to society. As a result it is difficult to get a clear picture of exactly what post-postmodernism, this is not necessarily the fault of the authors, just difficultly cause by working with a relatively new subject. Although the article did a good job of recognizing the progression from the modern to post modern period, I think it would be helpful if the article included some works that would fall into the post-postmodernism category and then explain how these works stylistically differ from typical works from the postmodern and modern period. I also think that the summary at the beginning of the article could be expanded; right now it is very brief and looks at the issue at a very broad level.

Evaluating Tone
I think the article did a very good job of being neutral. I think this is an example of an article where it could be very difficult to be neutral because defining post-postmodernism is an ongoing process. The authors of the wiki, however, did a great job of presenting a variety of views on the issue without expressing a clear preference fro any specific opinion. There could be some sort of bias through omission, it may just be that some relevant viewpoints are just not included in the article, but I do not know enough about the area to make that determination.

Evaluating Sources
The majority of the links seem to be functional and go to academic sites that support the content which is stated in the item that is being cited. The vast majority of the sources are either published books that come from academics, or works that have been directly published by Universities on the subject matter. I believe that both of these make high quality citations because they are from independent bodies that are generally peer reviewed. I think that there are some citations that are missing through the work in references to some of the opinions of varying academics. However, overall I believe that the article is effectively cited and backs up essentially all the content that is presented.

Checking the Talk Page
Unsurprisingly, lots of the conversation on the topic page surrounds exactly how to present post-postmodernism and what exactly it is in the first place. As I said before, this subject isn't exactly fully developed in the academic universe so there is really no way to effectively present it in an objective way to give a clear depiction of exactly what it is. Other conversations on the talk page relate to creating a more holistic view of the subject by adding more people that are critical to the movement and whether it exists in the first place. The article is rated in the start-class and is in a wiki project under the philosophy section.

Taxes on Knowledge
The article's content is all related to the overall subject matter, however, I don't believe that it covers the subject in a way that is very complete in that it includes very little conversation about the all the acts that went into creating the taxes on knowledge. It talks about the Act of 1836 to some degree but there is very little conversation on the article of 1712 and specifically how it sent a precedent for creating "Taxes on Knowledge" and its impact on potentially limiting the spread of infomration. The section on how the "Taxes on Knowledge" concluded is also not very explicit in its conversation of all the nuanced conversation that went into ending the taxes. Overall, I feel that the page does not really express a lot of nuance and all the different factors that went into making the decision; it doesn't have enough perspectives. It is written very neutrally but it seems as though the editors did not even really make an effort to present the different arguments that went into creating and dropping the tax in a meaningful way and instead to just describe what happened in a very narrow view.

The citations for this article are of a pretty high quality in both the source of the citations and how extensively they are used throughout the article in order to back up the statements that are being made in the article. Most of the citations are from university publications, meaning that they are of a high quality and from a reputable source that has been peer reviewed and is generally accepted as a traditional viewpoint on the subject matter. Although the sources come from many different authors, they are concentrated in a small number of English publications (the Oxford University Press, the Cambridge University Press, and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography), however, I believe that this is to be expected given that this event is uniquely British and the majority of the study of the event is most likely undertaken by British academics because it is more pertinent to them. Perhaps there could be some value in providing a perspective that is more balanced as far as the origin of the research, however, I would imagine that it would be difficult to find research of comparable quality that deals as thoroughly with this subject. The only this that I would add about the work and the citations that are used is that it seems as though it is just specific content matter out of the cited documents that are being used and not the broader document. It almost seems as though the author used the documents to back up knowledge that they already had, rather than using the documents as a research tool to build the article. I think that opting for the second path will generally produce an article that has more complete and reliable content.

Internet Censorship in Cuba
This article is very brief given how extensive an issue that internet censorship is in Cuba. As a Cuban-American and someone that has visited Cuba I have had a lot of time to discuss censorship with relatives and have actually experienced it first had while I was in Cuba. From those experiences and conversation I gather that this article has lot of limitation as far as the breadth of the content that it covers, which makes sense given that it is only a "Start" rated article meaning the quality and breadth of the content is still very much at the beginnings of the process of article creation. I think that the overview of internet censorship of Cuba in this article is not well organized and covers very little of the information that is available on the matter. Much of the focus on internet censorship is in how it has developed in the past 5 years and it does not give a more comprehensive overview of the subject on that, and even there it does not seem to cover many of the aspects of censorship that are not directly preventing people from accessing the information. One of the greatest barriers in Cuba is the economic barrier to be able to 1) access a computer and 2) afford the internet connection for that computer. It only touches on this aspect briefly and I think that providing more information on how this has limited the ability of the population in Cuba to access the internet (whether or not they are legally allowed to do so is important). It would also be important to discuss more ways in which people are able to bypass government censorship. From a content basis, even though all the content matches the overall subject matter I just don't think that it covers very much information.

From just a personal perspective I need to make sure that this article is influenced by my own background because I already have a particular viewpoint in regard to censorship by the Cuban government and members of my family have and are experiencing censorship. I think that I could effectively avoid that bias and present the information in a way that is fair and factual with the most important thing being that I am aware of any bias that I may have and make an effort to make sure that it does not come across in my research or writing for the article.

The vast majority of the sources for this article come from newspapers that have reported on the subject such as the New York Times, the Miami Herald, and the BBC. Although I believe that the majority of the news sources that are used throughout the article are credible and well researched, I think it would be worthwhile to bring in more academic works on the subject because it may provide more depth to the article. I also think that it could be valuable to look at government sources, from both the United States and Cuba, and contrast the different views on censorship to get a better understanding on what the views on censorship in Cuba are, because I am sure the U.S. would argue there is a greater degree of censorship that the Cuban government would and it is important to include both perspectives. I also think that bringing in more figures into the article, as I have stated above, would be productive so I would also like to use more apartment oriented sources.

Censorship of the iTunes Store
The article begins with a very short description of what topic the article is addressing, essentially clarifying that it is situations where iTunes store content is censored by the government. The page has not been edited in over 3 years so the content on it is not current, and even then it does not do a great job of describing previous situations where content has been censored. The article talks a little about earlier renditions of the VPN crackdown, but I think that going more in-indepth to the latest developments with China and VPNs would be something that is helpful. Understandably, much of the focus of this article will be on China given that it is one of the largest consumers of Apple products and it has a heavily authoritarian government, however, I think it would be helpful to find other examples of censorship. I think that the best way to structure the article would be to have one section on China and one section on "other" and then list the notable events under each of the headings.

Even though the content of this article is all on the overarching topic, as I have discussed, it is very limited in that it only describes two situation in which countries have censored the content on the iTunes store, and even then the examples were only mildly specific. The article is written in a way that is very neutral an only goes into covering what happened through the events and does not go into commenting on the legality or correctness of the events. However, some may argue that even people's perspectives of the facts in regard to this situation are different so it may be important to keep in mind that the narrative in China may be different than that in the West. Overall, I think that the article does an excellent job in staying neutral and presenting the facts as we know them regardless of how polarizing an issue political censorship can be.

As I have stated above, the article has not been edited recently so one of the most important things is to ensure that the article gets updated with the latest developments. The article is already heavily reliant upon news sources, and likely many of the additional citations will be news sources that are covering the more recent events that have occurred in China relating to the iTunes store and censorship. I think that it would be helpful to diversify the sources and include and reports that provide analysis on the censorship. I am compelled to believe that more academic and legal sources will be available now because of how high profile the VPN case has been with China. I think it is important to include some sources that take more of an analytical approach and are better sourced, rather than purely relying on news sources that are written in the moment that the event has occurred and often ties do not have a full picture of the facts.

Newspaper Theft
I thought that this subject was very interesting because it deals with a source of censorship that often times is initiated by an wealthy individual or by a private enterprise as a means to protect their reputation through the sue of their greater purchasing power. It has many parallels to what is done now-a-day though buying the rights to stories through a third-party so that it cannot be published, in both cases the purchaser is consuming a story that was meant for the public and is able to do so through their wealth. The content of this article all relates to the theft of newspapers, particularly with the intent of censoring the content that is contained within the newspaper, generally by the subject who the newspaper content is on. This article just contains very little information on the practice other than a vary basic definition of what it is and some short references to a very small number of instances where it has occurred. I think that it would be interesting to not only include more examples, but also include information on how successful (or unsuccessful) different attempts to censor in this way have been. I also think that expanding the section on laws relating to newspaper theft would be interesting because it gets describes a balance between limiting a groups right to purchase and free speech.

This article only has 5 works that are cited so overall I would say that it is fairly poorly cited in the quantity of citations that it has. the quality of the citations is also not very high with many of them coming form blog type sources or have links to pages that do not even exist. There needs to be an expansion of the sources used and also the quality of these sources so as to include more reputable sources that can provide more depth to the article. I think looking at more newspapers discussing this sort of censorship, perhaps on that has even been victim to it, would be interesting and it would also be valuable to have some more academic and legal sources that discuss the implication of this sort of censorship. This article is of such a low quality that I believe it would perhaps by the easiest to make a significant contribution to, it would just be a matter of finding sources that could effectively cover such a niche topic. From my brief research it would appear that there are enough sources, but more effort would be needed to find the high quality formal and academic sources that have analysis of this area that are not legal. This article is rated within the start class, which would support the notion that there are plenty of opportunities to improve this article.

Internet Censorship in Cuba
User:Rpmestre/Internet Censorship in Cuba

Newspaper Theft
User:Rpmestre/Newspaper Theft