Wikipedia Training Manual - Wikimedia Commons

[Pages:30]Exploring Wikipedia Content Creation Training Manual

A collaboration between Wikimedia Australia and the State Library of Queensland

Date: ................................................................................................................................ Name: ..............................................................................................................................

Wikipedia logo used with permission from Wikimedia Australia.

Version 3.0 Updated 01/02/2013

? State of Queensland (State Library of Queensland) 2013 This manual is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence. You are free to copy, communicate and

adapt this work, so long as you attribute the State Library of Queensland.

Wikipedia Training Manual

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Contents

Background Information

? 1 - About the collaboration between Wikimedia and SLQ ...................................... 4 ? 2 - Wikipedia: the benefits for your Community...................................................... 4 ? 3 - The World of Wiki................................................................................................. 5

o Wikimedia Australia o Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wiktionary, Wikisource, Wikibooks o Other Wiki projects ? 4 ? Wikipedia and its reliability................................................................................. 6

Step-by-step Procedures for using Wikipedia

? 1 - Creating an account............................................................................................. 7 ? 2 - My Wiki Account ? Some special features ......................................................... 9

o My Preferences o My Watchlist o My Contributions

? 3 - Creating a new article .......................................................................................... 11 ? 4 - Editing an article .................................................................................................. 15 ? 5 ? View Article's History and Reverting an Edit..................................................... 16 ? 6 - Formatting, writing using a Wiki ......................................................................... 18 ? 7 ? Adding Categories .............................................................................................. 20 ? 8 ? Submitting your draft article............................................................................... 21 ? 9 ? Cross Linking ? Getting online traffic to your page.......................................... 23 ? 10 ? Statistics ? How many people are looking at your article? ............................ 23 ? 11 - Wikimedia Commons ? Uploading Images to use for Wikipedia Articles ...... 24 ? 12 - Useful links to more information....................................................................... 29

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Background Information

1 - About the collaboration between Wikimedia and the State Library of Queensland

In 2010 Wikimedia Australia approached the State Library of Queensland (SLQ) to work collaboratively to build content in Wikimedia Commons (), the repository of images and resources that Wikipedia authors use to support their articles.

The State Library agreed to share 50,000 Queensland images from its copyright free collections and as a result Wikimedia are now actively seeking content from other libraries, galleries, museums and archives, especially content from regional communities.

The State Library has a leading role in ensuring that Queensland's documentary heritage is made accessible to all communities throughout Queensland and that each community has the opportunity to engage with its collections and create

Louise Denoon, Executive Manager Queensland Memory, handing over the State Library's donation of 50,000 copyright free images to Wikimedia Australia's Treasurer, Craig Franklin.

their own content. Having SLQ images on Wikipedia increases the State Library's potential engagement on a

global scale. To put this in perspective, the State Library's images are accessible via the State Library website

which received 16 million page requests in 2010-11. In comparison, Wikipedia gets an average of 300 million

hits per day. In addition to wider community exposure, the Wikipedia community uses State Library's images to

illustrate their articles, their captions and article content, these are reported on to actively help describe and

identify SLQ images, and this enhanced metadata will be incorporated back into the record for the item.

Wikimedia Australia benefits from the partnership by gaining access to new, reputable content through libraries and the ability to utilise this content to enhance their current articles and create new ones. Through working with Queensland's public libraries Wikimedia Australia will get the chance to promote their product throughout the state and gain access to local knowledge and content creators, living and working in regional communities.

2 ? Wikipedia: the benefits for your community

Wikimedia Australia is committed to growing regional Australian content within Wikipedia, and recognises that public libraries have the local knowledge and contacts required to generate the articles needed to enhance the Queensland subject coverage of Wikipedia. This approach also supports the State Library's goal of creating a statewide distributed collection of Queensland Memory and gives regional Queensland communities a practical way of to promoting their own local history and showcasing their collections online.

By creating Wikipedia articles on your local community's stories, people and places, you have the opportunity for your content to be searchable and linked into other articles on Wikipedia, the worlds 5th most searched website. Wikipedia will also give your public library and its community the ability to promote itself on the world stage with a website that has a well known international reputation. By creating content you will also get the opportunity to partner with other similar organisations both locally and further afield. (E.g. Local museums, historical societies etc)

This training manual will give you the skills to create new articles for Wikipedia () and enhance existing articles using images from your local collections as well as from the 50,000 images available from State Library. By learning how to use Wikipedia you can then transfer these skills to other interested people in you're community such as; local historians, museums, art galleries, family history groups, public librarians, teachers or anyone who has knowledge of the local community and wants to be part of one of the most searched encyclopedias in the world.

Craig Franklin, Treasurer Wikimedia Australia assisting participants from the Western Downs community at the Miles pilot of Wikipedia Training.

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Using Wikipedia will benefit your local community by:

? Providing locals with the skills they can use, wherever and whenever they are online, to create, edit and link articles in Wikipedia about local landmarks, locations, historical and contemporary events and notable people from your area, accessible on a global basis.

? Allowing your community to access a platform where your digital collections and expert knowledge can be uploaded and made available to all Wikipedia authors who then use them in new articles and add value to the images through their own knowledge and research.

? Enhancing the local profile and attractions of your area on Wikipedia through the development and expansion of the Wikipedia articles that have already been written regarding your community.

? Providing an opportunity to network with likeminded local knowledge specialists and library services within the region as well as a professional development opportunity for all library staff.

? Placing the library in the centre of this initiative, as host, content provider and facilitator

3 ? The world of Wiki

What is a Wiki? - A Wiki is a website whose users can add, modify or delete its contents via a web browser using simplified markup language or rich text editor. These websites are developed collaboratively by a community of users, allowing any user to edit and add content.

Wikimedia Australia () ? is the Australian branch of the

international Wikimedia Foundation. Wikimedia Australia is an independent, not-for-profit organisation which hosts and supports a range of projects that contain information about Australia and Australians. These projects use the Wiki software.

Below are some of the Wikimedia projects that would be of interest:

Wikipedia () - is a free collaborative, multilingual

internet encyclopedia supported by the non profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site and it has about 100,000 regularly active contributors. As of February 2012, there are editions of Wikipedia in 283 languages. It has become the largest and most popular general reference work on the internet, ranking as the 6th most popular website on internet and having an estimated 365 million. It's estimated that Wikipedia receives 2.7 billion monthly page views from the US alone.

Wikimedia Commons () ? Often shortened to just

"Commons", this website is an online repository of free-use images, sounds, videos and other files. The scope of the material uploaded to the site is limited to educational material that is available under a free license. Photographs of your family BBQ are not in the scope! Wikimedia Commons however does have a good collection of historical public domain photos, wildlife and nature photography and images of buildings and architectural features.

Wiktionary () ? similar to Wikipedia, Wiktionary is a free

multilingual internet dictionary with meanings that can be created by anyone. Wiktionary has grown beyond a standard dictionary and now includes a thesaurus, a rhyme guide, phrase books, language statistics and extensive appendices. The site aims to include not only the definition of a word, but also enough information to really understand it. Thus etymologies, pronunciations, sample quotations, synonyms, antonyms and translations are included.

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Wikisource () ? The free library ? is a growing free content library

of source texts, as well as translations of source texts in any language. Wikisource is material not published by the Wiki project and can be viewed as a library of public domain works.

Wikibooks () ? While Wikisource focuses on collecting material

published outside of the Wiki projects, Wikibooks is a collection of open content text books,

annotated texts, instructional guides, and manuals written by the projects contributors themselves.

These materials can be used in a traditional classroom, an accredited or respected institution, a

home-school

environment,

as

part

of

a

Wikiversity

() course or for self-learning.

Other Wikimedia projects include

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Wikispecies ? () ? Info on all forms of species, animals, plants, fungi,

bacteria etc

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Wikinews ? () ? News written by Wiki Authors

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Wikiquote - () ? Quotes

?

Wikiversity ? () ? Self learning tools and courses

4 ? Wikipedia and its reliability

Wikipedia has the reputation of being an un-reliable source for information. However when referencing, research students should never use information on Wikipedia (or any other online encyclopedia) for formal purposes (such as school essays) until they have verified and evaluated the referenced sources. For this reason, Wikipedia, like any encyclopedia, is a great starting place for research but not always a great source for information itself. The reliability of a Wikipedia article is dependant on its external references. As you will learn though this manual only new Wikipedia articles with well sourced, reliable references get approved to go live. There are also multiple ways Wikipedia editors can monitor articles and revert edits which helps remove vandalism quickly. Having the ability to be edit articles also makes Wikipedia's content as up to date as it can be, especially compared to published sources of information. This project is another example of how Wikipedia is trying to make its content more reliable by encouraging subject specialist and those with local knowledge to become Wikipedia authors and contribute information and external sources to articles. More information, including results of studies done on Wikipedia's reliability can be found at and .

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Step-by-step Procedures for using Wikipedia

1. - Creating an Account

1.1 - Steps for creating your Wiki Account

Wikipedia has been described as the "encyclopaedia that anyone can edit", and in most cases doing so requires nothing more than visiting the site, selecting Edit, and making your changes (See the editing part of this manual for procedures, pg 10).

However having a Wiki account will give you the ability to create new articles, upload files and edit most articles, including those that have been semi protected (a move generally used to avoid vandalism within an article). You will also be able to customise how you view Wikipedia through your browser, gain access to specialised editing tools; track changes to articles you are interested in watching; and build a reputation as a valued contributor. In addition, through the use of one logon, your Wiki account can be used to edit all Wikimedia projects including ? Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wiki Dictionary, Wiki Source, Wiki Books etc.

Follow the below instructions to create your own Wiki account:

1. Load the Wikipedia website on your browser - . 2. Click on the Log In/Create account link in the top right corner of the webpage.

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3. This will bring you to the log in page which will give you the option to Log In or Create an Account. Click on the Create One link which will take you to the page where you will enter your details.

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4. When you come to the Create an Account page, read through the rules regarding creating an account then go to the bottom of the page and enter your details. First decipher the text in bold and enter it in the box provided. This is used to prove that you are creating a genuine account and not a computer creating an automated account. Then enter your details; choose a Username, password, then re-enter the password and enter your email address. You don't have to enter an email address however if you forget your username or password you wont be able to receive an email generated unlocking notification.

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5. Congratulations you now have a Wiki account. Write your username and password down somewhere safe so you don't forget it. You will now be directed to the below screen. You will notice the following new links available at the top right corner of your screen:

? Your username ? links to your personal user page ? My Preferences ? allows you to customise your personal settings for using Wikipedia. ? My Watchlist - allows you to bookmark pages you wish to edit or contribute to. ? My Talk ? links to a page you can receive and respond to messages from other Wiki contributors. ? My Contributions ? details all the edits you have made to Wikipedia since you created your account. ? Log Out ? the log out button for when you wish to leave your Wiki account (recommended to do when

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More detailed information on Creating an Account can be found through Wikipedia at .

1.2 - Creating your User Page

One of the first things you may wish to do is create your own user page. You can add as much or as little information as you wish - generally it is recommended that you do not include personal information, but you might consider adding some general information about yourself.

1. Click on your Wiki username link on the top right corner of your screen. 2. Click on Start the User: link.

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