Wikipedia:WikiProject Molecular Biology/Computational Biology/ISMB 2014

About
''This page serves to organize a Wikipedia tutorial at ISMB 2014 in Boston. It will be steadily updated until the tutorial takes place on Saturday July 12, 2014.''

Wikipedia editing for computational biologists

 * Ben Moore & Daniel Mietchen
 * WikiProject Computational Biology

In this tutorial, we will provide a practical introduction to editing Wikipedia for scientists. By the end of the course, participants will understand the basics of editing and have made actual contributions to Wikipedia articles. Each participant will be required to bring some pre-prepared written material, images or multimedia files to add to an article of their choice in any language version of Wikipedia. In addition, we will teach the participants about the etiquette of being a Wikipedia editor as well as helping them to avoid some of the pitfalls that new editors sometimes come across. We will also introduce the PLOS Computational Biology Topic Pages destined for the English Wikipedia, inform about the ISCB Wikipedia Competition and provide an overview of some of the sister platforms of Wikipedia, notably Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons, and their coverage of Computational Biology.


 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Computational_Biology/ISMB_2014
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Computational_Biology/ISMB_2014
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Computational_Biology/ISMB_2014

Note: Please bring your own computer and prepare some materials for you to add to Wikipedia during the tutorial

Level: General

Tutors

 * Ben Moore
 * Daniel Mietchen

Topics

 * Introduction to Wikimedia and to the English Wikipedia in particular
 * Basic outline
 * Creating high-quality reviewed content
 * Hands-on part
 * Participants improve existing articles, draft new ones, or upload media
 * Raise awareness of ISCB article writing competition
 * Raise awareness of PLOS Computational Biology Topic Pages

Course materials

 * Complementing this on-wiki documentation, participants will receive a printed copy of
 * the course materials at User:Daniel Mietchen/Books/ISMB 2014 Tutorial 2

Logistics
See also ISMB 2014's tutorials page.
 * July 12, 2014, 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm (EDT), with a 30 min coffee break
 * Location: Hynes Convention Center
 * Room: TBD
 * Please remember to bring a laptop to the session!

Schedule

 * 1:30 Introduction - Motivation and editing basics
 * In this part, we will be discussing the role and importance of Wikipedia, focussing on scientific topics. We will explain what Wikipedia is and also what Wikipedia is not. We will cover the basics of editing a wiki and the basics of formatting text.


 * 2:30 Linking, citing references and interactions with other users
 * This part will look at using links between Wikipedia articles as well as how, when and what to cite in Wikipedia. In this session, we introduce the concept of discussions and how to communicate effectively with other users of Wikipedia. We will give advice on how to avoid conflicts with other editors.


 * 3:00 Coffee break
 * 3:30 Hands-on
 * During this part, participants will have the opportunity to practice editing Wikipedia and Wikidata on topics of their choice, in any language. This will provide an opportunity to put into practice all that has been learned during the previous sessions.

Homework
In order to prepare participants for the session, and especially the hands-on part, we suggest below a few things for them to do before the tutorial. None of these are obligatory, but we think they enrich the experience.
 * Create an account
 * Take a look at some Wikipedia articles (in any of your languages) on ISMB-related topics (try Category:Bioinformatics for a start, you can also search for e.g. high-importance but underdeveloped articles that have been tagged as within scope of the WikiProject.)
 * Assess their quality
 * Think about possible improvements (e.g. updates, better sources or illustrations) and prepare materials to remedy that during the hands-on part.
 * Take a look at the media in Bioinformatics category on Wikimedia Commons and think of Wikipedia articles where some of these might fit in, and how.