Researchers get a Wikipedia warm-up
By Steve Bennett:
Almost all researchers use Wikipedia, but very few edit it. Why is that? It’s technically complicated, but the labyrinth of rules and guidelines is the real headache. What if we could help?
A dozen brave researchers, librarians and other stuff turned up to our two-day Warm up to Wikipedia workshop, jointly run by ResBaz’s Steve Bennett, the eSRC’s Helen Morgan, and the Baillieu Library’s Caitlin Stone. We delved into the complex world of Verifiability, Neutral Point of View, Reliable Sources and the arcane rules of Notability. And then we let them loose, making tiny typo corrections and adding citations to existing articles.
Confident now that they wouldn’t be mistaken for vandals by Wikipedia’s hyper-vigilant Recent Changes Patrol, they began to craft new articles of their very own. They worked on them during the week-long gap between workshops, then polished them up.
Finally they had a choice. They could create their new article directly in Wikipedia, risking the wrath of the warhead-wielding warriors of the New Pages Patrol. Or, they could play it safe, opting for the warm, cuddly embrace of the Articles for Creation process - and its month-long backlog.
They were all gung-ho.
Our participants created these articles:
- Yellowknife Curling Centre - a sporting club in Canada.
- The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins - a book by the author of Trainspotting.
- Allan & Maria Myers Academic Centre - a teaching facility at St Mary’s College
- Chariot (vehicle) - a bus-tank hybrid from the TV show Lost in Space.
- Emilie Zoey Baker (still in sandbox) - an Australian slam poet
- Angela Savage (still in draft) - an Australian novelist
