User:S1tongYang/Report

I have always known that Wikipedia is a platform that everyone can participate in and collaborate with each other to produce the information and knowledge to the public, but among the past time of consuming the information and taking advantage of this platform, I have never had the conscience or urge to make any contribution. COM 482 Wikipedia Assignment offered me an opportunity to experience this online community from the communication lens and present my own work on Wikipedia. For the assignment, I chose the article Aubette (building), which is ranked as stub-class, to improve and expand. With the introduction and help provided by Wiki Edu and TA, I learned the rules and norms on Wikipedia and evaluated articles from peer and random Wikipedians, taking a glance of the interpersonal mechanism of this community. From this process, based on the theoretical concepts from the lectures, I also came up with some suggestions that may help Wikipedia become a better community.

When I was introduced to the assignment at the first lecture, I have already made the choice of my topic. The Aubette was a modern architecture that I did research on in my art history class and I found very little information on Wikipedia. So with a clear goal in mind, I got started by closely following the guidance of Wiki Edu on Wikipedia policies. The primary thing that I bore in mind was how Wikipedia takes plagiarism and copyright seriously to protect the originality of works, which led me to double-check the copyright of sources when I worked on my article. Although with this familiar topic I had a bunch of handful sources, most journals and books are still protected by copyright and are not able to share in public, and there was one academic paper lately written that I was unsure if it could be used so I emailed the author to ask if it was available. Also, in order to follow the Wikipedia rules to prevent plagiarism, it is necessary to fully comprehend the sources and demonstrate the information in my own words, which gave me a chance to re-ingest the knowledge of the topic I chose and practice summarizing and paraphrasing skills. The attitude and rules Wikipedia adopted to treat plagiarism and copyright further underlies the importance of protecting originality in my mind and taught me the responsibility as an information-intermediator, a contributor on Wikipedia.

Except the policies on plagiarism and copyright, from the training sessions on Wiki Edu, I also learned the functions of Sandbox and Talk Page, which are two essential tools for working on Wikipedia. Sandbox is where Wikipedians can write their drafts and organize the structure before publishing. In order to present the article as best as possible in public, I wrote and polished my article in Sandbox and with the visual editing function I got to organize the layout and see how it would look like before officially publishing. Sandbox is not exclusive to the users themselves, which enables other to evaluate the articles and give suggestion to improve. For my article, I had two other classmates to evaluate mine which were certainly helpful to cover my blind spots and make the article better. Talk Page is crucial to facilitate interpersonal communication for Wikipedians. For example, after my classmates evaluating my article, Talk Page is the channel for them to leave messages and notify me and for us to communicate. Besides, it allows Wikipedians who contribute on a topic to tell others the changes the make or the mistakes they correct.

As mentioned above, evaluation is an important part of this assignment. The class provided us a useful template to guide us to evaluate step by step, which I found the most helpful for me not only to learn what elements make a good Wikipedia article and what I need to be careful, but also to keep the critical-thinking mindset when I read other’s work. The common issue I found when I evaluated the c-class article Peter Pan (1953 film) and two classmates’ works was keeping the neutral tone with no attempt to persuade the audience, which was also one thing I struggled at first when I wrote, since for the past writing experience making a solid argument to persuade other was the primary goal. So when I polished the draft, to avoid bias, I deleted the amount of unnecessary adjectives I used and focused on transferring the information logically and accurately.

Overall, I learned the rules and functions about Wikipedia efficiently and didn't take a detour. But my experience on Wikipedia doesn't apply to everyone. At first, the class and the grades extrinsically incentivized me to get started and later I had the help from the Professor, the TA, and Wiki Edu system. Most people are voluntary to contribute with intrinsic motivation. In regarding of this, based on my experience on Wikipedia, I have several suggestions Wikipedia could consider making it better. As I mentioned at the very beginning, I initially have no urge and conscience to contribute to Wikipedia as a volunteer, and as far as I know most people are being comfortable as takers like me. I think the basic reason of this status quo is lack of advertising. One of the communication theories from COM 200 class is that if one cannot see it, one cannot be it. Therefore, it is important and necessary for Wikipedia to increase the exposé of the message especially on social media and online platform to tell everyone they can contribute, and broadcast the purpose of contribution and the achievement so far. The advertisement would not only bring with newcomers and also signifies the identity-based and normative commitment of the old timer. Secondly, right now Wikipedia welcomes everyone to come and work, and every Wikipedian has the same right to edit articles and make changes. I believe the easy entrance is an efficient way to recruit and attract people to participate. But at the same time, it brings with problem. People with no knowledge of the mechanism on Wikipedia may do more harm than good such as accidentally deleting useful information or publishing information unreliable, which causes extra effort for others to maintain and correct. Therefore, without abolishing the free entrance, I think Wikipedia could adopt the similar system of Wiki Edu to design a quick introductory training to introduce the basic function and norms of Wikipedia for everyone, which would facilitate the efficiency and accuracy of the whole platform and be beneficial for the community. Also, I suggest Wikipedia set up a tutor system to help newcomers. Wikipedia could match a tutor for those who ask one to help each other and evaluate works. The small group in the large Wikipedia environment would increase the chance for newcomers to stay and altruism can incentivize the old-timers intrinsically. Therefore, it would facilitate the bond-based commitment and normative commitment and protect the norms and rules on Wikipedia.

In a nutshell, my experience enables me to learn and recognize the reasons why Wikipedia becomes and maintain as one of the largest open online communities from a different perspective, and I believe the implementation on advertising, introductory training, and tutor system would make Wikipedia a better and stronger community.