Successful Community Collaboration using Wikis Angela Beesley 27 September, 2007

A wiki is... ...a website that you can edit....

The Wikimedia Foundation Imagine a world where every person has free access to the sum of all human knowledge

Imagine a world where every person has free access to the sum of all human knowledge

Wikipedia Wikipedia Started in 2001 9 th most visited website Created by volunteers Openly editable Freely licensed 230 languages Run by a non-profit

Wikipedia

Wikipedia

Started in 2001

9 th most visited website

Created by volunteers

Openly editable

Freely licensed

230 languages

Run by a non-profit

Wikipedia English Wikipedia 5.4 million editors 2 million articles 10 million pages

Wikipedia

English Wikipedia

5.4 million editors

2 million articles

10 million pages

Wikipedia is a community Wikimania 2007, Taipei CC-BY-SA. Alex S.H. Lin

Wikipedia is a community with 5.4 million registered users Wikimania 2007, Taipei CC-BY-SA. Alex S.H. Lin

Wikipedia is a community with 5.4 million registered users collaborating in the creation of the world’s largest encyclopedia. Wikimania 2007, Taipei CC-BY-SA. Alex S.H. Lin

Can you trust user-generated content?

Trusting the process Open to correction and improvement Everything is reversible Changes are transparent Poor content is flagged

Open to correction and improvement

Everything is reversible

Changes are transparent

Poor content is flagged

Every edit is logged

Every edit is logged User-run bots highlight potential “bad edits”

Tagging of problematic content

The wiki community Working towards a shared goal Collaboration Welcoming to newcomers Rewarding to old-timers Dispute resolution processes

Working towards a shared goal

Collaboration

Welcoming to newcomers

Rewarding to old-timers

Dispute resolution processes

Dispute resolution

Wikipedia is the encyclopedia, Wikia is the rest of the library.

Wikipedia is the encyclopedia,

Wikia is the rest of the library.

Wikia Gaming Network 250,000 articles

MediaWiki Open Source wiki software application developed for Wikipedia

Open Source wiki software application developed for Wikipedia

Social tools

Promotion

Widgets

Integration with third-party tools

Wikitext Markup language Simplified alternative to HTML No standards

Markup language

Simplified alternative to HTML

No standards

Easy to learn, hard to master

WoWWiki.com

Properties of successful wikis

Advantages of wikis

Internal uses of wikis

External uses of wikis

Starting a wiki: hosted or self-installed

Encourage new editors Provide editing suggestions Make editing sound easy Examples from three top wikis... Wiki adoption

Encourage new editors

Provide editing suggestions

Make editing sound easy

Examples from three top wikis...

Wiki adoption

Wiki adoption

Wiki adoption

How could you use a wiki?

Angela Beesley Email: [email_address] Blog : wikiangela.com/blog

Angela Beesley

Email: [email_address]

Blog : wikiangela.com/blog