User talk:GlennDanielWright

Course page
Greetings. I came across your course page when my watchlist revealed new editors actively working on articles with typically light editing activity. Good to see something like this coming from within the UA system, many corners of which are decidedly anti-Wikipedia. And why the hell not, as knowledge is a business too, right? The state constitution effectively grants UA a monopoly in that regard and they've certainly taken advantage of it (some of us remember $10/credit hour tuition).

Hope you don't mind, but I informed WikiProject Alaska about this course page and encouraged their participants to reach out. There are only two editors I'm aware of who have been recently active and live in Juneau. One announced this week that he was taking a break, then quickly reversed that. The other lurks mostly in the shadows, which may have to do with his professional career. One of your Southeast legislators was formerly active on here during his high school and college years. No naming names, though (see WP:OUTING, I may have said too much as it is). RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions 10:58, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

Howdy howdy!

Not sure what the appropriate protocol for replying to a message on my talk page is--maybe you can fill me in, RadioKAOS? Do I simply add (as I'm doing here), or do I add a new section? Or maybe there is something else I'm unfamiliar with?

Appreciate you reaching out--I've done a bit of editing in the past (though it has been years) but I certainly don't consider myself a Wikipedian, and this kind of class project with my students is definitely an experiment for me. As you can tell, I'm still a novice! Hopefully we contribute in a beneficial way, rather than causing trouble! There is of course a range of abilities in this class I'm teaching, and the class is an introduction, so many of these guys are just out of high school. Nonetheless, I typically have mostly very good students who are pretty conscientious. I will be tracking my students' progress, but if you see a problem emerging, please let me know and I'll do my best to address it.

I have made some suggestions for pages in need of revisions to my students, but my search was pretty cursory. Any suggestions for work we should tackle?

Handlebar (talk) 21:48, 17 September 2015 (UTC)

You did just fine in replying. Strangely though, your user signature appeared at the top of your post, where my signature should have been, in addition to appearing at the bottom. I don't have an explanation for that. I added a section header to this discussion. You can add one by typing "==Subject header==" (without the quotes, of course) at the top of the subject. Starting a new subject by clicking the tab at the top of the page with the plus sign will automatically create all that, too.

As for suggestions, I was getting to that. The course page provided me with an easy means to glance over students' progress. Among others, I noticed working on Mike Chenault. To provide both an example of the collaborative nature of Wikipedia and an example of what a biographical article should look like at minimum, I did a quick restructuring of the article, filling in a few basic details along the way so the end result didn't read like some awkward cut-and-paste stitch job. If that student wants to continue further on that article, here's a suggestion: it appears that Chenault began his political career at the Kenai Peninsula Borough level, and that he came to the speaker's chair through the House Finance Committee. You can go to any website and find out that Chenault is currently House Speaker, but information on his political career prior to taking that office may prove to be more rewarding were readers able to get that information here in a convenient form rather than having to search for it. For examples of well-researched and well-written articles of former Alaska legislators, see Mike Gravel and Tom Anderson (politician). RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions 10:58, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

Continuing...I haven't the time to pick over everything, but I sure do notice when there's activity in a particular area. I see the students working on articles such as Bill Walker (American politician) and Bob Bartlett. While nothing wrong with their efforts, as articles in Category:Top-importance Alaska articles and Category:High-importance Alaska articles should always receive the utmost attention, I just don't see any rush when it comes to higher-profile topics. The higher profile of the subject means that sources are typically more abundant and more enduring. You were looking for suggestions, here's a few:


 * Alaska Legislature needs a history section. I'm always pushing Bob DeArmond and Claus Naske down everyone's throats every chance I get.  Both have written about the territorial and state legislatures in some detail.  There also are/were dedicated legislative reporters such as Mildred Meiers Hansen, Kim Metcalfe and the Bradner brothers.  Of course, there are tons of sources of all types covering this topic.
 * Our coverage of boroughs and cities tends to ignore the governmental structure which exists in the respective municipalities. There was a recent effort (currently stalled) to improve List of cities in Alaska, in which the creation of a separate List of former cities in Alaska was suggested.  Our coverage of past mayors is rather skimpy, too, aside from the largest municipalities.  I was working on collecting source data on these topics in a portion of my user sandbox, but I haven't had the time yet to finish my research or to crank out any content.  Now, to someone who is in Juneau, between the state library (though I understand they have limited hours while the SLAM project is ongoing) and the Alaska Municipal League offices, it could be possible to come up with source material not easily found elsewhere to fill in these holes.
 * The course information indicates that during the class, the students will be creating new Wikipedia content. I offer some suggestions in that vein.  You'll notice that I repeatedly refer to figures of note in Juneau or Southeast.  I would think that you have a number of places where localized, high-quality sources (in most cases, probably not accessible online) can be obtained.
 * Our coverage of the signers of the state constitution is appallingly skimpy. The 50th anniversary of the convention coincided with the creation of WikiProject Alaska, but no one foresaw that the buzz created by that anniversary meant that sources would be a lot easier to find during that period than they would be today.  Still, the UA Statewide website, Who's Who in Alaskan Politics and Vic Fischer's 1975 book on the constitution are good starting points.
 * List of mayors of Juneau, Alaska is complete, but we're missing articles on a few people on that list who were important figures in Juneau's history, such as Ben Stewart, Bill Overstreet and Elton Engstrom (among others). Hugh Wade wasn't mayor, but he also had strong ties to Juneau.  Well, just look at the article, I don't need to say anymore.
 * In Category:Draft-Class Alaska articles, there's a few unfinished projects of possible interest. There's the remaining former justices of the state supreme court who lack articles and a very incomplete project covering important past members of the territorial and state legislators.  A number of those names are people with ties to Southeast.  There's also Draft:Laurie Hummel which could use some help; there was an attempt to delete it based on last year's assumptions of non-notability when she was an unsuccessful House candidate, which no longer apply now that Walker appointed her adjutant general.  Speaking of that: like I said, there's plenty of interest in Bill Walker, so I'm not so worried about that article.  What about his cabinet?  Sam Cotten was born in Juneau and has substantial ties to Alaska's political history, not only through his own accomplishments but also through his father and father-in-law.  In the context of the bigger picture, as opposed to the context of today's headlines, he's actually more notable than the governor he serves.

Let me know if these suggestions are of any help. RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions 02:43, 19 September 2015 (UTC)

Hey, this is all great. I will pass this advice on to my students. They will be choosing their own topics/pages, and I generally only make suggestions (typically I like students to find a research topic they're interested in, which leaves a lot up to them) so I'm not sure how many of these changes and revisions we will wind up making, but I will do my best. Appreciate the guidance!

Handlebar (talk) 03:48, 24 September 2015 (UTC)