User:Pharos/NWC
Appearance
Newbie Wiki Workshop , This page will be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Pharos/NWC this version, May 10, 2011
Reading and using Wikipedia
- Wikipedia and other sources
- What is distinctive about Wikipedia (Wikipedia:Five pillars, Wikipedia:Simplified ruleset)
- A free encyclopedia, free to read and to use, free of copyright (except for some Fair Use material)
- A comprehensive modern encyclopedia, with world-wide coverage, and at least some information about almost anything a person might look for in an encyclopedia; larger than print encyclopedias; extensively hyperlinked and categorized; lists; images & other media; watchlists and other software tools
- Verifiable, with references for the information, to check for accuracy and to find more material
- Open content: anyone can contribute – widest range of interests and knowledge; numerous contributors; Wikiprojects encourage collaboration
- Neutral and factual: all major points of view are covered in proportion, with sources for them (Wikipedia:Neutral point of view)
- Uncensored: with respect to sex, politics, and other difficult topics
- Open community: self-governing, with minimal structure; everyone is a volunteer
- Discussion, Edit, History: The magical secrets at the top of every Wikipedia article
- Comparison with Other free web sources
- ask.com for quick basic information
- IMDb.com for detailed information on movies
- WorldCat for comprehensive information about books
- Google News Search: for current events and Google News Archive for earlier ones.
- Wikia for details on games and hobbies
- PubMed+ for medical information from the National Library of Medicine
- Comparison with Library web sources (NYPL, available remotely with a Library card
- Biography Resource Center, Literature Reference Center
- Newspapers: National Newspaper Index, New York State Newspapers, Newspaper Source, Custom Newspapers (Gale)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/English_Wikipedia_contributors_by_country.png/300px-English_Wikipedia_contributors_by_country.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Size_of_English_Wikipedia_August_2007_by_subject.png/500px-Size_of_English_Wikipedia_August_2007_by_subject.png)
- Wikipedia's coverage
- What are the problems?:
- Accuracy; updating; stability; edit wars/WP:OWNership
- Fairness; WP:COI
- Poorly covered areas
- Uneven depth in even fairly well covered areas
- Spam
- Where is it strong:
- Popular culture: TV, movies, games
- Computers; Medicine; Sports; Politics
- United States, Great Britain
- WP:Featured Topics, WP:Featured Articles, WP:Good Articles
- Where it is weak or erratic (Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias)
- Classic literature and drama
- History and Religion
- Africa, most of Asia, Latin America
- Where it is too difficult for most people?:
- Mathematics, Linguistics, ...
- How to use Wikipedia (Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia)
- Searching
- Wikipedia Search box
- Google and other search engines
- Browsing Portal:Contents
- Wikipedia Portals of broad subjects Portal:Contents/Portals
- Wikipedia Categories & Complete A-Z list of categories, Outlines, and Lists; Timelines,Complete A-Z Index
- Links in articles
- Evaluating an article
- Sourcing (Wikipedia:Verifiability; WP:RS); External links (WP:EL)
- Article history (sometimes an old version contains useful information that has been dropped)
- Talk page - Wikiprojects rate their own articles; discussion of article improvement
- Quality and priority designations (Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Assessment)
- Problem designations: Cleanup, PovCheck, Unreferenced, Tone, Advert, Disputed, Update
- Examples:
- The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009 film) (and at IMDB). Compare H.M.S. Pinafore (19th century topic easier to illustrate) and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
- Malcolm X compared with Bill Clinton
- Fairy tale
- Macintosh
- Metal umlaut (video on article evolution)
- Other parts of the system than articles
- Commons: Pictures and media Files
- Wikitionary; WikiSource (& related projects elsewhere, such as Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive)
- other language Wikipedias
- Getting started (Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia)
Writing for Wikipedia
Stubs! good targets for your first edits
- Try to include references!
- Category:New York City stubs
- Category:African history stubs
- Category:Brand name food products stubs
- Category:United States federal legislation stubs
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/List of stubs
Other articles for first edits
Engaging in discussion
Wikimedia NYC and NYU class background
- meta:Wikimedia New York City, meta:Wikimedia New York City/State of the Chapter 2011
- Wikipedia:WikiProject United States Public Policy/Courses/Spring 2011/Copyright, Commerce, and Culture (Evan Hill-Ries)
Getting Help
- Wikipedia:Cheatsheet
- Wikimedia Bookshelf
- Wikipedia:Ambassadors/Resources
- Reader’s Guide to Wikipedia from Wikipedia:The Missing Manual by John Broughton & How Wikipedia Works by Phoebe Ayers, Charles Matthews, and Ben Yates
Follow-up
- Wikimedia NYC chapter and monthly Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC events - we'd love to help with any culturey/nonprofity project :)
- The teachers of the class can be directly contacted at User talk:DGG and User talk:Pharos, and by email, and will be glad to answer your questions.