Assignment 1 Details and Reporting: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 22:39, 11 October 2009

For help getting started with Wikipedia see: Help With Wikipedia

Details

  1. To complete this assignment, you must log in to wikipedia (if you do not have a wikipedia account, you can create one). Note: a wikipedia account is not the same thing as an account for our class wiki. You need both.
  2. Choose an article for which you know something about the topic. Below you will find a (non-comprehensive) list of suggested articles to edit. Ideally, the article you choose should relate in some way to the themes of the class, but this is not required. There are over 1.6 million Wikipedia entries to choose from.
  3. Make substantial edits to the article you have chosen. This means that the edits should be more than cosmetic and should actually enhance the substance of the article.
  4. Add the article to your "watchlist". From the article page, click on the "watch" tab at the top of the article. You can access your watchlist at any time by clicking on "my watchlist" at the very top of any page.
  5. Report which article you edited, and the nature of your edits below. At the end of your notes, type --~~~~ (two dashes and four tilde's) and the wiki will automatically fill in your name. Note: you must have created an account on our class wiki and be logged in for this to work.
  6. If changes are made to your article, you may also want to make further edits to go along with those changes.
  7. Monitor subsequent changes to the article leading up to the assignment due date, and add notes about what happens to your report below.

Choosing an Article

You have several choices in choosing an article. You can create an article on a topic that is not currently in Wikipedia. You can choose a topic that is underdeveloped, and add information. Or, you could pick an article that needs substantial cleanup/revision. Wikipedia (English) has 1.6 million entries. As such, it may be difficult to find a completely unexplored topic. Start by browsing the Wikipedia topics that you feel you can best contribute to. Many Wikipedia pages have banners that indicate the article is in need of some specific editing. Banners typically refer to a cleanup categories or controversy. These banners are indexed so that contributors can quickly find pages that are in need of editing.

Some of the most useful indexes are:

Article Suggestions

Assignment 1 Reporting

  • Name: Ms. Example

The wikipedia page I have been working on is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush under the user name BushFan. My experience while attempting to edit Wikipedia is that....

Name: Trsci E. Thomas Username: HARVEYHONEY

After a detailed search, I was surprised NOT to have found an article regarding Chelsy Sullenberger, an US Air commercial pilot who saved 150 passengers and 5 crew members from a horrifying death. Moreover, Sullenberger is qualified as an aviation symbol and model for all who assume the responsibility of transporting passengers. It was shocking to see that no entry was submitted to introduce or define Sullenberger's character. Therefore, I submitted the following article to enlighten audiences worldwide:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/user_talk-HARVEYHONEY

> On February 11, 2009 a request was made to have the entry deleted. The recommendation came from an anonymous user who wishes to remain anonymous. The suggestion states the entry is SPAM as the text seems irrelevant to the online encyclopedia. I personally disagree, and evidentially Wikipedia agrees as the entry is still present as it does not violate Neutrality or Biased Point of View.

Name: Paul Lester

My username on Wikipedia is Paulglester.

I decided to edit the page on Twitter, the microblogging service. The 'In media' section peaked my interest. I remember when the Mumbai terror attacks occurred, news outlets reported how important Twitter played a crucial role in informing the public about what was happening on the ground. I conducted a Google search and found an article on CNN.com about Twitter and the attacks, which I thought was the perfect fit for what I was attempting to add. I began editing the section, taking note of how previous users formatted the page.

This is what I inputted: "During the [[2008 Mumbai attacks]], eyewitnesses sent an estimated 80 tweets every five seconds as the tragedy unfolded. Twitter users on the ground helped in compiling a list of the dead and injured. In addition, users sent out vital information such as emergency phone numbers and the location of hospitals that needed blood donations. <ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/27/mumbai.twitter/index.html Tweeting the terror: How social media reacted to Mumbai], ''[[CNN]]'', November 28, 2008</ref>"

After saving the file, I noticed the reference was automatically added to the bottom of the page. I added the page to my watch list and noticed my edits were not deleted or altered. However, there were some changes to the topic including: a fix to a grammatical error, Cluebot's removal of vandalism, two additions to the 'Prominent users' section, two reverted edits and an addition of a hashtag re-direct.


--Paulglester 04:38, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Name: Meredith Whittaker

Wikipedia username: SoulSyndicate

Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_Hill,_Brooklyn

I decided to edit the page on Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, the neighborhood in which I live. I chose this as a test in matching empirical, day-to-day knowledge with the necessary authorized "facts" that form wikipedia's content; how much that I knew about my neighborhood had others chosen to document? There were a number of things that I know, that I wasn't able to find referenced (e.g. the actual cost of a cab from Manhattan, and that fact that you'd be lucky to find one willing to leave Manhattan). I'd be interested to hear others' thoughts on the kind of information that's elided when reference to a separate "authority" is necessary...

For my edits, I took this (still, admittedly) fairly weak article, and added the sections on "Notable Clinton Hill Residents" (Biggie Smalls? Yes.) and "Transportation," as well as a few additions to the introductory section. So far, no changes have been made since, and my edits stand.

UPDATE:

It being clear, per my watchlist, that Clinton Hill, Brooklyn is not a hot topic of Wikipedia debate, I added another edit, hoping for some discussion.

For this, I chose the topic of Internet Privacy, and added the "Legal Threats" section, since the laws enabling use of privacy-infringing technology had not been discussed in the article. I imagine (and hope) that this will lead to some good conversation, and will spur others to help flesh it out/find another way to include this angle in the article.

Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_privacy

Discussion (to which I also contributed an explanation of my reasoning for adding the section): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Internet_privacy

2/12 -- still no action. No one contested any of my edits, or replied to my comments in dicussion. I'm surprised by this, as I'd thought Internet Privacy was incendiary enough to draw guardians and gatekeepers.

Name: Adriana T. Albuquerque

My username on Wikipedia is adrianatassini

Wikipedia Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedge_fund_startup

I decided to create an article about hedge fund startup because currently I am working as an Internet Marketing & Sales Associate for a Hedge Fund company based in Portland. In the past year I have conducted Adwords-based keyword market research to identify new potential advertisers for an industry leading niche investment website. While searching the Wikipedia for some ideas, I noticed that the topic “Hedge Fund Startup” has not yet been added to the search list. Since the time that I have created and posted the article, no modifications have been made and so far the article has remained on Wikipedia. --Adriana Tassini 06:27, 6 February 2009 (UTC).

- After 2 days, no changes have occurred to the article. --Adriana Tassini 03:06, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

-I updated my own article today and I also added another source to it. Hopefully this article will remain on Wikipedia. --Adriana Tassini 18:56, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

-The article remains intact.--Adriana Tassini 23:08, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

- Surprisingly the article remains intact--Adriana Tassini 22:37, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

- The article remains intact. --Adriana Tassini 18:10, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Name: Josh Kapelman

My username on Wikipedia is JoshK48 and was KapelmanJ (I created a new one).

Originally, I edited the page on BlackBerry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry, in which I reformatted the page a little, and inserted a section about the RIM Stock Option Scandal. However, after some thought and clicking, I realized that the RIM Stock Option Scandal, and section on Patent Infringement did not belong on the BlackBerry page but instead on the RIM Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_In_Motion. I therefore moved my new section onto the RIM Wikipedia, and decided to join the telecommunications group and flag both Blackberry and Research in Motion to be merged (so far it has not yet been merged by a moderator).

This morning, I read in the news that the stock option scandal had reached a settlement, so I went to the RIM wiki to fix it, but someone else already did it. They did not, however, state that 9 million was going to the OSC and did not state the type of currency (CDN). Therefore, I went back and edited theirs to reflect those two things, and renaimed the section to RIM Stock Option Scandal Settlement.

If these pages are merged, or are edited I will report them here. --JoshK 18:01, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

UPDATE 1: Well, someone went in to both pages and removed the merge discussion image, saying that they are different. I left them off, but replied stating that because RIM only has one brand, Blackberry, there is a significant amount of overlap between the two. I also posted a request for discussion at the Telecommunications Project wiki, which is responsible for monitoring telecommunications related articles (I also joined them as a member) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Telecommunications. Again I will keep updated. --JoshK 08:04, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

  • Here is the link I mentioned about proposed mergers. The page seems pretty stagnant, so you might want to post it and then appeal to an admin in the group you joined to address the proposal. You can also look at the other mergers and find an admin that you think might be more sympathetic to your plea. They seem to want to keep discussion to the talk page, and you should keep that up, bring others in that you might think would have some investment in it (the other editors). --Ari 00:12, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Name: Jen Olds

The Wikipedia page I have been working on is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometrics#Biometricals under the name jenolds.

I’m out to save the data! Okay maybe not. This is my first time using Wikipedia and Goddess willing I’ll do it some kind of justice. I must say that I am learning a lot from this assignment.

Biometrics is what I decided to educate the English reading world on. The page originally had a lot of bias information (now it has a little less), reading it I felt like the writer had no confidence in the hardware or the software designed to create a secured environment. The structure of the wiki was well kind of unsound. So, I started restructuring the format which allowed the information to flow a little easier. The corrections/changes I’ve made so far have not been modified. Please keep in mind that this little wiki is a serious work in progress and I will continue to work with it.

  1. UPDATE I've received no complaints, no threats and I don't see anyone holding signs in the front or the back of the house. Seriously, this must be one of the dullest topics; However, I chose this topic for a couple of reasons. The first reason for my choice, national security. The Biometric system detects if the user is dead or alive, the system also doesn't require the user to type in an id or password, unlike a fingerprint scanner. The second reason for my choice, health care. Biometrics will soon become a very valuable tool for our community practitioners. This new tool will allow for a quicker and more efficient diagnosis for patients suffering from a wide range of diseases, for instance detection of tumor growth/regrowth.

Name: Jan-Carlo De Hoyos

My user name on wikipedia is "Jay De Hoyos" and the wikipedia page I edited is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_Spider-Man_(comic_book)

I added information on the bonus Barack Obama issue that was released last January. I was originally going to add it to the Barack Obama page, but felt it fit better with the Spider-Man page.

I will continue watching the page and report any edits/changes that occur.

EDIT: as of February 10th, the only real change to my edit was that a link to the wikipedia page regarding the villain "The Chameleon" was made.

--Jan Carlo De Hoyos 20:19, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Name : Portia Darby My users name on wikipedia is " Portia_Darby" The article I edited could be found at :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_fate_of_the_universe

Many years people have been trying to prophecies the end of time with the fate of the universe. The information that was necessary to uplift this paticular article , that I proposed to help assist and give a backdrop of history about some views of religion was that Christian prophecies the end of times based on the accounts if the Bible, that the earth would be destroyed by fire, prior to the end of time there would be many signs of wonder as described in Mark Chapter 13 in the book of the Bible. When that time comes Jesus , the Christian prophet , says that no-one would know the exact date and time of the end of the world. According to Matthew 24:35-36, as quoted "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."

In addition to the christiona theology, Hinduism,devine belief in the unending cycle of apocalyptic destruction and re-creation *the recycling of the human spirit into another form or being.

The author did not like my imput and he/she deleted it !!! In which I thought was very funny! lol--Portia Darby 16:34, 7 February 2009 (UTC)Portia D

Name: Steve Kurlowecz

User name on wikipedia: "BerkI&S"

Wikipedia page I edited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software

I chose Open Source Software from the topic list because it was listed as in need of attention and I perform legal clearance on the Open Source code used in the commercial software products the company I work for sells. One of the disconnects I often encounter with users of Open Source is the fundamental understanding of the difference between ownership of a work itself (e.g., a software file), the ownership of the rights to the work (e.g., Copyrights) and licenses to the rights to the work. I made substantial edits to the Licensing section of the Open Source Software entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software) to clarify that distinction.

Activity based on Watch List viewing (after 2 days): February 7, 2009

  • (diff) (hist) . . m Open source software‎; 22:47 . . (-91) . . RossPatterson (Talk | contribs) (Reverted edits by 71.112.175.188 (talk) to last version by BerkI&S)

Name: David Cooperstein

I edited the Wikipedia page on the RIAA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA I used (created) the Wikipedia name: DavidCoop

I edited the section that addressed the legal efforts of the RIAA to curb file sharing. My edit included information on a relatively new lawsuit against Usenet.com. I felt that the Usenet.com suit was a worthwhile edit, given that seeking legal recourse against a service provider for infringements that the service provider has no right and/or ability to remove, significantly moves the anti-filesharing campaign in a very radical direction. So far my changes have been left intact, but we will see if they stay that way. --05:14, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Name: Zeeshan Ali

I edited the Wikipedia page on Public Goods: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good Username on Wikipedia : "mzesh123"

I edited the article on Public Goods because i wanted to use my knowledge as well as my books to expand this aticle further. I edited the section "Efficient production levels of public goods" , which i thought required more of explaination than just economic terms (eg. marginal rate of transformation) so that the reader from a different background may not have any difficulty in understanding the article. I will continue watching the page and editing till the date of project submission. --Zeshally 17:06, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Name: Bhim P. Upadhyaya Wiki ID: bpupadhyaya Course wiki ID: Bhim

I chose a wiki article entitled "Open Source" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source). I went through the article and found that an important section was missing, and that section is "Certification". I did some research on Open Source Software Certification, also I reminded myself about the talk that I had with an expert from Austria who was working for United Nations. Based on personal conversation and some online research I added content for newly added section, Certification. Also, I provided appropriate references (URLs).


--Bhim 07:01, 18 January 2009 (UTC)


The article was edited eight times till Jan 31 since I first edited it on Jan 18. Here are the details: [1] The first edit was a short edit, some characters were added in a script/language that I cannot read/understand. [2] Second editing was a link: [1]The link points to interesting article in BBC that links Open source with Sun Microsystems (6 billion devices containing Java now), calls 44th president of US as "Open Source President" because of his open policies. I read the article in its entirety, it helped to update my knowledge in open source. [3] The third edit was just removal of spaces [4] Very interesting sub-section was added. It made me think that I should add more content in my section though it did not require as my section added an aspect in the article where as this edit enriched existing aspect very successfully. The section talks about Open Source Journalism, Weblogs, Messageboards, Open Documents, Open Source Movie Production, Open-IPTV. Really motivating section added! [5] The whole content reported in step 4 was reverted by the same IP as that of contributor [6] A paragraph on business model was deleted, it seems it contained useful information. [7] Space removal [8] Again some non-readable characters (for me) were added as I reported in step 1.


--Bhim 05:06, 1 February 2009 (UTC)


The article was edited once in February and that was a cosmetic edit. The section that I added was not deleted and also was not modified in this period (Jan 18 - Feb 8).

--Bhim 21:29, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Name: Samuel Saidel Goley

Wikipedia username: Ssaidel

Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kisik_Lee

I noticed that there wasn't a Wiki entry for the controversial US Olympic Archery Coach, Kisik Lee. So, I created a new page dealing with Mr. Lee. While the page is meant to be a biographical entry, I was primarily interested in the controversy regarding the alleged religious misconduct that took place at the Olympic Training Center prior to the Beijing Games. Particularly, the baptisms and religious training that archers at the center went through in accordance with Kisik Lee's beliefs that sport and spirituality go hand in hand. I supported my facts with NY Times articles and links from Mr. Lee's personal website. I was careful to exclude information that I could not back up with articles or direct sources. There is much more on this issue that remains unreleased and unverified including allegations of physical abuse and assault, however, the sources of this information are reluctant to come forward for fear of losing their positions at the center and their status as athletes there. I am hoping that this Wiki entry may allow for an anonymous exchange of information on this issue.


at 05:37, 5 February 2009 I posted the page.

at 16:27, 9 February 2009 I added a line and a link to photos of baptisms at the Olympic Training Center.

The article has remained online and unedited (apart from once by me) since it first went up on the 5th.

  • Name: Devon
  • Wikipedia username: devonklind
  • Wikipedia article: Cyberethics

Despite coming up with a few non-course related topics, I wanted to try something that would tie into the course. I first came across Internet Ethics which consisted of a 5 pt bulleted list from the 1989 IAB statement defining unethical activity; pretty meager and out of date. This led me on a search of related topics, concluding at Cyberethics. I was pretty disappointed by the general state of this article as well. The sections outlined seemed sparse and incomprehensive not surprising, since cyberethics is an expansive topic and anyone willing to take it on would inevitably be opening Pandora’s box. Seems more like a post LTSU E-120 course project, no?

  • In brief: It took a lot longer to ready my offline version for my Wikipedia editorial debut than: expected? –perhaps intended? –debatable, I still don’t feel done. This must be why monkeys are so addicted, it never ends -)
  • Edits: Made a substantial edit more than doubling length of article. Reorganized to better focus main cyberethic debates by adding whole sections, deleting and merging others (full description of changes). If you have the time to tinker, I welcome you to check it out; I think there still need to be 2 subsections added to the 'Privacy' section: 'Individual Rights' and 'Consumer Rights' that is, if you are willing to take on the box.
  • Status: All changes intact.

--Devonklind 06:44, 10 February 2009 (UTC+8)

  • Status Update: All changes still intact.

--Devonklind 07:42, 21 February 2009 (UTC+8)

Name: Jay Eberhard

Wikipedia username: Jeberhard8383

Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Rational_ClearQuest

For my update I chose to cover the page for Rational ClearQuest, a software development tool used at my place of employment. I was surprised how this piece of widely used software in the corporate world had so little information in wikipedia. Other Rational software is not as sparsely covered, but I was unaware this particular program was so obscure. My first edit was to highlight some of the lesser known features of the program, but when I saw no activity on my edit I moved into more controversial subject matter, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the program. Perhaps my content was not as biased as I originally thought, or maybe not many people at all care about ClearQuest, but my edits still stand in their original form. The thought of posting something more inflammatory on my subject to get activity crossed my mind but I didn't want to provoke a response and ultimately waste the resources of wikipedia.

UPDATE

I've learned a lot about the specific formatting for wikipedia, and my edits to the article are still standing. Either my content is valuable, or not many people care about Rational ClearQuest. Sometimes I wish I could not care about it!

--Jeberhard 16:38, 10 February 2009 (UTC)



Several sources report that Melissa Hathaway will be named head of a new White House Office of Cybersecurity, and may be in running for "Cybersecurity Czar". I created a wikipedia article for Ms. Hathaway where one did not exist. I added some background information about Ms. Hathaway's experience, and included several references.

My first attempt was deleted under Criteria For Speedy Deletion A3. Lesson: don't edit in real time. I was in the middle of creating the outline for the entry when the article was deleted under A3. Those moderators work quickly. I accidentally deleted the CSD tag instead of adding the 'hangon" tag, but the moderators were helpful in pointing out the proper editing on my talk page.

My second attempt was marked for deletion under Criteria For Speedy Deletion A7 (the article does not indicate the importance or significance of the subject). This time, I contested the delete, because I think that Ms. Hathaway's expected nomination makes her a significant subject. I marked the CSD page with "hangon", and posted a message to the discussion page. Interestingly, another user added their own contest to the deletion.

I will continue to gather information about Ms. Hathaway (not much is available) and update the article if it is not removed. --Jparsons 00:56, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Update: the white house announcement was made official; updated article to include new title and further information. Article is still tagged for speedy deletion; we'll see what happens on review. --Jparsons 01:37, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Update: Interesting to watch the discussion unfold on the discussion page. The second deletion felt pretty arbitrary to me; seems some folks in the community agree. Also seems my article was timely; four comments in the 2 hours since posting. --Jparsons 02:05, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

  • Name: Murkin Martinez

The wikipedia page I have been working on is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neocolonialism under the user name Mercado79. To be honest, I'd only ever submitted changes to Wikipedia anonymously and usually very minor edits. Editing the page with an actual user account felt more like a "real" contribution and made me feel as if I was adding something important into the discussion. This is not to say that I didn't take Wikipedia seriously before, but rather that I felt a sense of ownership and responsibility towards the accuracy of the material.

I began by looking through some articles I'd saved from previous courses and picked out a couple I found interesting. With that as a basis, I began my research on Wikipedia. Initially, I figured I'd just add something to one of the sections on the page (Sino-African Relations), but before doing so, I read the entire article, clicked through to other sites, and eventually decided to add information to several sections including sections on the IMF and multi-national corporations. The first edits I made were purely cosmetic and/or typo corrections. Then I went back and added to pre-existing sections. Toward the end I created a new sub-section and researched additional supporting information and references.

For me, one of the most time consuming aspects of the process was entering the citations and reference information. Luckily, Wikipedia maintains a significant amount of tutorials and examples to guide you along. In the end, I wasn't 100% sure I'd cited a book correctly, but I did as best I could and I figured others might fix any issues if/when they came across them. --Murkin 02:04, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

The following is just a summary of my experience in Wikipedia for Assignment One. You can read everything I wrote about my experience here: Ari's Assignments

So, the Change Congress article was in more disrepair than I had thought. It hadn't had a substantial edit in almost a year, only a slight expansion of the history section.

This created a couple of problems:

  • half of the references had expired
  • more than half of the information was outdated

I started by finding new references and watching videos so that I could provide proper links in the references. I also deleted some of the information, and reorganized the history to be slightly more relevant and readable.

I then set out to provide a more comprehensive history and layout of the Change Congress strategy. It was then that I ran into my second problem; Change Congress had removed all of their information on candidate pledges, campaign tracking, and direct donations. They had also removed all site news from before 1/8/09. I tried to gather as many cached pages as I could, but I could only find one of any use. Archive.org didn't help either. Change Congress must have blocked bots or something, because archive.org had no caches from their page.

This was a major issue. I had wanted to lay out the Change Congress Strategy more, and mention how many candidates had pledged and changes in the tracking. This was all gone though. There was also very little from reliable third party references that could be used, since most of them covered superficial details of the Change Congress campaign that were covered already.

Since there was little information left, I proceeded to the final stage, which was to update the information on the page. This amounted to providing notices about the pledges, tracking, and donations being disabled, and adding a section about the current Donor Strike.

Overall the project was successful. I was dismayed though, because I wanted to provide more history of the movement. Without the history of the strategy behind the pledges, I felt that the philosophy behind them would be out of place. I could a provided nice sections on the idea behind the distorting effect of PAC money in Congress, but without the references to the actual pledges it would be inappropriate. I also might have thought of choosing a page that forced me to learn more Wiki mark-up. The most complex mark-up I had to do was reference naming and pointing.

I will probably go edit the List of logical fallacies sometime in the next couple of weeks like I had wanted to. While it would no longer be a part of this assignment I might post those results here anyway, as a reflection.

--Ari 11:52, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


I decided to edit the page on the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), as it is the first result on Google when one searches for "TARP" and I think it is important for the public to know what is happening with this program. I had made several substantial edits to it earlier this month, then under my IP address. When I began editing the page on Jan 20, few edits had been made in the previous 30 days and while the article contained key information, it was poorly organized and had not been updated with recent changes to the program or information from the Congressional Review Panel/s. Since then, the pace of editing has increased, and I found that while I was editing the page for this class that several other users were also editing the page. In particular, the section titled "Effects of the TARP" turned out to be highly controversial (perhaps unsurprisingly). One of my edits was "undone" by another user within minutes of the edit (I had removed links to blogs that were more editorial than fact, under the policy of Verifiability.)

I added information from the Treasury's press releases in October, information about attempts to cap executive pay for companies receiving TARP funding, and facts from the Congressional Oversight Board's investigation into TARP dispensation. Finally, I linked the page to another page on Oversight of the Troubled Assets Relief Program. Another user, Grundle2600, then commented "you raised some good points. This information should not be called "news," so I'm putting it in the already existing "effects" section instead". He renamed the section titled "Effects" to be titled "Controversies" and added sub-headings. A different user, 38.100.31.150, changed the spelling of 'assets' throughout the page to read 'asset (which broke one of the links I added). I fixed the broken link and reorganized the subheadings under controversies, merging similar issues.

After my edits, I still find that page itself does not flow well, and there is much redundant information. In my opinion, topics like the TARP are incredibly challenging to document well using a tool like Wikipedia. The topic is constantly changing and new information is coming to light, so information that is written in the current tense must be changed to the past tense and current assumptions must be constantly challenged. A big challenge is updating the page so that the program is represented in its current form, while the history of changes to the act is preserved.

-- Hilary 15:58, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

  • Name: William Alexander Duke
  • Wikipedia username: Wd208728
  • Article: Miles Vorkosigan [2]

The article I chose to edit is of a fictional character, one that has one the author numerous awards and accolades. When I began there were inconsistencies and information that was unclear or structured incorrectly, after tearing it up and cleaning it up a bit I began adding information to try to fit a more biographic time-line structure I have seen in articles dealing with real-life people. Apparently no one generally found my summation and description of the events of Miles Vorkosigan's life wrong. There were a few edits behind mine that generally cleaned up the style and clarified the article; in my opinion. I didn't get as much discussion and input on my edits as I would of liked, however I am happy with my work. I found this project extremely difficult, mostly because I am very critical of my writing; however coming through on the other side I found that I enjoyed it. It was difficult choosing an article for me because I found so many that were already very developed or were of topics I knew very little of. Now that I've really broken into wikipedia I think I will contribute regularly on article I have knowledge of.

WD208728 16:51, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

  • Name: Dan Daum
  • Wikipedia Name: Dan31415
  • Article: Foreign Policy of The Barack Obama Adminstration [3]

I decided to edit the foreign policy section of the “Presidency of Barrack Obama” page with regards to recent developments in nuclear arms reduction talks between the United States and Russia. My first impression with the Wikipedia editing process was surprise that the editing tool requires adding things such as page breaks. I would have expected a system with more similarities to modern WYSIWYG word processors. As of yet nobody has edited my page I will post reports here if/when this happens.

--Dan 17:37, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Name : Andrew Grant Wikipedia Username: OscarDDog Article: DECE, LLC [4]

Rather than edit an existing entry, I decided to add a new one. I chose to briefly summarize the recently announced DECE (Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem), a consortium of Hollywood studios and electronic industry players set on developing open commercial standards around the digital distribution of Hollywood content. The DECE standards are being designed to redefine the value of home entertainment in a networked world, counter the monopoly Apple (not presently a DECE member) has on digital distribution of premium content, and offer consumers an option that is "better than free" - essentially a superior substitute for pirated versions of the same due to the ease of interoperability and other service innovations built around the consortium standards. I was frankly surprised to find that the consortium was not yet entered into Wikipedia. I look forward to watching the edits unfold.

--AndrewGrant 20:41, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Name : Lincoln Littlefield Wikipedia Username : Akhamy Article: Francis W Parker Charter School [5]

This is my high school, and I felt that the age describing it was very incomplete. I added some sections, though I did not give complete information on all of them, though I was pleased to find that despite my schools small size, quite a few of them flushed out very quickly. I also added some links to sections of the Parker school website, because I felt that they would improve the quality of the article. I was surprised at how long it took for my spelling mistakes to get corrected, even longer than it took for some of the incomplete sections to be added to.

Name: Shivaji Dhanabalan

Wikipedia Username: SDinternet

Article: 89' - 90' Boston Celtic Season [6]

I chose to clean up an existing article regarding the Celtics 1989-1990 NBA season. The roster has been updated. I also added a new sectios which includes interesting facts about the season. Regular season and post-season stats have been added. A table of stats for individual players has been posted under the heading of "depth chart". I will be sure to report any changes made to my page as they come.

--Shivaji1212 22:12, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Name: Alison K. Wikipedia Username: Zippy5976 Article: Photographic Print Toning [7]

I expanded on the "Metal Replacement Toner" section, including a specific process (GP-1 and split toning with Selenium) with which I am familiar and adding citations which the entry sorely needs. It was a bit tricky to understand the syntax rules of editing a wiki. I'm curious about how one creates a new subheading, as I would have contributed more, but it wasn't the right place to put it. Is there any debate as to whether accuracy or precision is favored with the contributions?

No additional edits to speak of in reponse to my changes at the moment, so I think I will follow suit of other classmates and add more significant changes. The entry could stand to be overhauled, as it is very limited in reliable references and citations. My impression is that being familiar with the subject matter is one thing, it's a bit more difficult to come up with the citations which ensure the longevity and validity of contributions. In searching for a topic, I found it interesting to note that entries were flagged as being more of a tutorial [8]. --Funzo


Name: Claudette G Wikipedia Username: eupelia Article: Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 [9]

The Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 article did not include anything on what individuals were doing in response to the market volatility. I decided to add a paragraph on what I experienced at work, it didn't really fit anywhere and I didn't know where to put it, but I felt it was important and I couldn't find where it best fit, so I added it near the bottom where I noticed the article is not as developed and starts to combine topics differently from the top, which just does it by date. My guess is some wiki-police will think it needs to be perhaps a separate article, or will think it doesn't fit in and may edit it! I'm excited to see what happens. Here is what I added:

Public Response to market volatility within 401(k) and Retirement Plans The Pension Protection Act of 2006 included a provision which changed the definition of Qualified Default Investments (QDI) for retirement plans from stable value investments, money market funds, and cash investments to investments which expose an individual to appropriate levels of stock and bond risk based on the years left to retirement. The Act required that Plan Sponsors move the assets of individuals who had never actively elected their investments and had their contributions in the default investment option. This meant that individuals who had defaulted into a cash fund with little fluctuation or growth would soon have their account balances moved to much more aggressive investments. Starting in early 2008 most employer sponsored plans sent notices to their employees informing them that the Plan default investment was changing from a cash/stable option to something new, like a Retirement Date fund which had significant market exposure. Most participants ignored these notices until September and October, when the market crash was on every news station and media outlet. It was then that participants called their 401(k) and retirement plan providers and discovered losses in excess of 30% in some cases. Call centers for 401(k) providers experienced record call volume and wait times, as millions of inexperienced investors struggled to understand how their investments had been changed so fundamentally without their explicit consent, and reacted in a panic by liquidating everything with any stock or bond exposure, locking in huge losses in their accounts. Due to the speculation and uncertainty in the market, discussion forums filled with questions about whether or not to liquidate assets[89] and financial gurus were swamped with questions about the right steps to take to protect what remained of their retirement accounts. During the third quarter of 2008, over 72 billions dollars left mutual fund investments that invested in stocks or bonds and rushed into Stable Value investments in the month of October[90]. Against the advice of financial experts, and ignoring historical data illustrating that long-term balanced investing has produced positive returns in all types of markets, [91] investors with decades to retirement instead sold their holdings during one of the largest drops in stock market history.

--Eupelia 02:44, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

I have been checking the page daily. I keep seeing edits for other sections, there is some interesting conversation on the talk page, a lot of discussion on what the title should be which I think is a little nit-picky. To the point where they discuss the type of hyphen to use in the title and whether a comma is used after the month before a year(silly). There is discussion about the organization of the parts, splitting the article because it's so long. Not much discussion about the content except when spam is inserted, and some people add vandalism like "MARK MY WORDS THE MARKET IS CRASHING TOMORROW" which is pretty funny and gets removed pretty quickly!

My section has only been edited once, and that was just to insert paragraph breaks. I like it! Good choice! Everything else stayed the same...it's kind of boring when no one is reverting your edits or arguing they shouldn't be there. I almost want to add something random, like info about Suzy Orman, who I can't stand! See if maybe it gets removed and I get a good laugh on the discussion page talking about her ugly jackets. I'm thinking about it. Part of me wonders if the reason my edit did not attract much attention is because my user name has been in existence for a while because I edited something months, maybe years back. I bet there is a hierarchy of alerts, like a brand new user inserting an edit results in a notification more often than not? --Eupelia 02:41, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Name : Roberto Soto My users name on wikipedia is " rrsoto" The article I edited could be found at :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selling

I decided to write about the process of selling, since, there is very little information on the actual profession. I had some hesitation to write about such broad topic. But I enjoyed doing since it was my first time.

  • Name: Anteneh Baymeta
  • Wikipiedia user Name: (1) Abyssinia
  • Wikipiedia user Name: (2) EthioWhittaker
  • Editing Assignment 1

I decided to edit the page on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nervous_Conditions under African literature Category. “ Nervous Conditions” novel by Dangarembga, Tsitsi. Nervous Conditions. California: Seal Press, 1989.

Nationalist leaders took to the challenge promising an Africa for Africans, and the end to the subjugation of all black Africans. African socialism served as the political and ideological requirement of achieving this goal. Despite its promises, many questions were left unanswered, such as, the possibility of returning to the source of African culture. Colonialism and colonial culture had drastically impacted the moral economy of African states. It is from this backdrop that Nervous Conditions takes form and the `nervous conditions' of its characters are rooted.

Name: Tessa McCue

My username on Wikipedia is TLeeMQ

I choose to edit the OLPC section on environmental impact, when I saw it was tagged with a request for additional information. I was surprised to see there was a limited amount of information surrounding this important issue. One of the most controversial topics in the debate about the rollout of OLPC is the impact on the environment and how the waste caused by the disposal of these laptops will impact the environment as well as the projects viability.


After researching I came across: (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Environmental_Impact)

This is a critical piece of information that needed to be added.


You can find my edited article here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC) under the Environmental Impact section.


My goal is to bring research, discussion and resolve to the concern about the waste created from the OLPC project so as not to see this project alignment with sustainability initiatives go to waste! As this article develops and more edits are made I hope to see a plan for a supply chain of sorts that may be developed for the pick-up and recycling of the plastics so as not to effect the developing world environments these laptops will be distributed into. Since then I have made some further minor edits, yet no additional changes have been made or removed thus far. I will continue to watch and update.--TLeeMQ 19:03, 18 February 2009 (UTC) -Tessa McCue

My name: Kyle Edmund Hauser My wiki username: Mozoom

Topic: The Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Community_Foundation_for_Palm_Beach_and_Martin_Counties

I became aware of this Foundation through an news article published online via the local paper in Palm Beach, FL. After searching for information on the Foundation I saw they are on the leading edge of creating a "digital public square" in concert with a grant from the Knight Foundation. As I continued my search I was very impressed with the vision and platform this foundation has in place. I saw a perfect fit. Being that the vision of the foundation going forward validates and is in alignment with theory and topics we are covering in class. This foundation may be a platform for effective economic development programs that are created out of the synergy of bringing labor, capital and technology together. Through collective decision making, a well informed public, inspired government and business leaders this area of the country may be able to govern their commons more effectively.

In the end, I found no article about the foundation and their advancement... on Wikipedia. I decided to be their first contributor in the digital commons. They are on their way in leading other foundations, municipalities and spawning other public-private partnerships through the integration of technology for a stronger Palm Beach/Martin County society and United States as a whole! I was able to launch them into wikipedia-sphere, lets see where it goes from here. I am excited!

I will keep posting updates as I see them.

Thanks. Kyle

April 13. 2009 -

On March 22. 2009 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Malcolmxl5) Malcolmmx15 edited the wiki page created for this assignemnent - he amended the references section and other parts of the page. His profile is linked above. How cool!

KYLE

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