Transcript How to Use Wikipedia

WIKIPEDIA
Not your
granddaddy’s
encyclopedia!
“Wikipedia is a
multilingual, webbased, free-content
encyclopedia project”
--Wikipedia:About
Wiki = collaborative website
Encyclopedia = a book containing
a series of alphabetized articles
providing general information on a
wide range of topics
What does this really mean???
Wikipedia is a
community
encyclopedia
ANYONE can add information
– real or otherwise!!
Strengths of Wikipedia
•Web-based
•Large number of active writers
and editors provides timely
coverage
•Topics kept current
•Hyperlinking to related topics
Weaknesses of Wikipedia
•Any article, at any time, may be in
the middle of a major edit or
vandalized
•Incomplete
•May be biased
•No verification of information
•Many contributors do not cite their
sources
RESEARCH on Wikipedia
From Wikipedia: Article Quality in Wikipedia
“Keep in mind that an
encyclopedia is intended to be a
starting point for serious
research, not an endpoint.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Researching_with_Wikipedia
RESEARCH on Wikipedia??
From “The Decline of Wikipedia” by Tom Simonite
“The volunteer workforce that built the project’s flagship, the Englishlanguage Wikipedia—and must defend it against vandalism, hoaxes, and
manipulation—has shrunk by more than a third since 2007 and is still
shrinking. Those participants left seem incapable of fixing the flaws that
keep Wikipedia from becoming a high-quality encyclopedia by any
standard, including the project’s own. Among the significant problems that
aren’t getting resolved is the site’s skewed coverage: its entries on
Pokemon… are comprehensive, but its pages on female novelists or
places in sub-Saharan Africa are sketchy. Authoritative entries remain
elusive. Of the 1,000 articles that the project’s own volunteers have
tagged as forming the core of a good encyclopedia, most don’t earn even
Wikipedia’s own middle ranking quality scores.”
Simonite, Tom. "Saving Wikipedia From Itself." MIT Technology Review. MIT
Technology Review, 22 Oct. 2013. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
Bottom Line-•It is YOUR responsibility to
find out what the rules are
for a website.
•It is NOT your teacher’s or
your parents’ responsibility.
•IGNORANCE is not a defense.
How to avoid
PLAGARISM
on Wikipedia
•Find the FAQ’s page
•READ what they have to say
about using their information
CITING Wikipedia
A civil war is a high-intensity
conflict often involving regular
armed forces, sustained,
organized and large-scale.
RESULTS:
• large numbers of casualties
• consumption of large
resources
Once you have
found the
information,
you MUST
give credit to
the
contributor.
“Civil War." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 9 November 2009, 10:55 UTC.
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 09 Nov. 2009.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plagiarism&oldid=5139350>.
If using photos or
images, you
MUST look for
the artist’s name.
Alfred Joseph Hitchcock
Palumbo, Fred. "Alfred Joseph Hitchcock." Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division. Web. 9 Nov 2009.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alfred_Hitchcock_NYWTSm.jpg>.
WORKS CITED
"Alfred Hitchcock." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 21 April 2009. Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc.,. 22 April 2009
http://en.wikihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_hitchcockpedia.org/
wiki/Wikipedia:About.
"The Birds Original Poster." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 21 April 2009.
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.,. 25 Nov. 2007
http://en.wikihthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=14412
480tp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_hitchcockpedia.org/wiki/Wikipe
dia:About.
“Research on Wikipeida." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 19 March 2009.
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.,. 22 April 2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Researching_with_Wikipedia
"Wikipedia:About." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 21 April 2009.
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.,. 22 April 2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About