Assignment 1 Details and Reporting
For help getting started with Wikipedia see: Help With Wikipedia
Details
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- If changes are made to your article, you may also want to make further edits to go along with those changes.
- 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
- Dot Com Bubble
- Network Neutrality
- Hacktivism
- Public Good
- Creative Commons
- Open Source
- ipod
- Copyright
- Napster
- Barak Obama
- Voting Machines
- Great Firewall of China
- Long Tail
- Digital Rights Management
- One Laptop Per Child
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....