1. Lecture 24: Wiki Writing
Dr. Jessica Laccetti
ALES 204 - 2012

2. Outline
• Wikis & Wikipedia
• Example: A Million Penguins
• Code
• Assignment
• Homework

3. • A wiki (wɪki/ wik-ee) is a website that allows
the creation and editing of any number of
interlinked web pages via a web browser using
a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG
text editor.
• Wikis are typically powered by wiki software
and are often used collaboratively by multiple
users.

4. Wikis
• Ward Cunningham, the
developer of the first wiki
software, WikiWikiWeb,
originally described it as
"the simplest online
database that could
possibly work.”
• "Wiki" (pronounced
[ˈwiti] or [ˈviti]) is a
Hawaiian word meaning
"fast" or "quick".

5. Wikipedia
• Wikipedia was formally launched on 15
January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry
Sanger
• Wales set one up and put it online on 10
January 2001

7. Revision History
• Wikis are generally designed with the
philosophy of making it easy to correct
mistakes, rather than making it difficult to
make them
• Though wikis are very open, they provide a
means to verify the validity of recent additions
to the body of pages

8. Recent Changes
• a specific list numbering recent edits, or a list of
edits made within a given time frame
• Some wikis can filter the list to remove minor
edits and edits made by automatic importing
scripts ("bots")
• the revision history shows previous page versions
and the diff feature highlights the changes
between two revisions
• Using the revision history, an editor can view and
restore a previous version of the article.

9. This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons.

10. Revision History
• In case unacceptable edits are missed on the "recent
changes" page, some wiki engines provide additional
content control.
• It can be monitored to ensure that a page, or a set of
pages, keeps its quality. A person willing to maintain
pages will be warned of modifications to the pages,
allowing him or her to verify the validity of new
editions quickly. A watchlist is a common
implementation of this.
• Some wikis also implement "patrolled revisions," in
which editors with the requisite credentials can mark
some edits as not vandalism. A "flagged revisions"
system can prevent edits from going live until they
have been reviewed.

11. Credibility?
• Critics of publicly editable wiki systems argue
that these systems could be easily tampered
with, while proponents argue that the
community of users can catch malicious
content and correct it.[2] Lars Aronsson, a
data systems specialist says:

13. Credibility
• High editorial standards in medicine have led to the idea of
expert-moderated wikis.
• Some wikis allow one to link to specific versions of articles,
which has been useful to the scientific community, in that
expert peer reviewers could analyse articles, improve them
and provide links to the trusted version of that article.
• Beth Simone Noveck:
"participants are accredited by members of the wiki
community, who have a vested interest in preserving
the quality of the work product, on the basis of their
ongoing participation."
• On controversial topics that have been subject to disruptive
editing, a wiki may restrict editing to registered users.

14. • In February 2007, Penguin Books and De
Montfort University launched ―A Million
Penguins,‖ a collaborative novel open to anyone
who wanted to help write it.
• The novel was to be created on MediaWiki, the
same software as Wikipedia, with a similar ethos
of collective authoring but the added spice of a
risky experiment in the heartland of commercial
publishing.
• Can a community write a novel?‖ asked Penguin
Digital Publisher Jeremy Ettinghausen

15. A Million Penguins
• Required users to register in order to edit.
• A team from DMU and Penguin Books actively
moderated the content.
• Contributors given free reign.

17. Background – statistics
• In just 5 weeks
– Nearly 1,500 registered for the site.
– Over 11,000 edits.
– 75,000 visitors to site.
– 280,000+ page views.
• Since then another 500,000+ page views

18. Types of Contributors
• The Performer
• The Vandal
• The Gardener

19. Performer
• Frequent edits
• Dramatic self-
portrayal
• Preferentially
edits text that
s/he creates
• Moulds work to
suit her/his ideas

20. Vandal
• Note: vandalism on Wikipedia is prohibited
• Add, remove or change content in a
DELIBERATE attempt to sabotage the
quality/integrity of Wikipedia
– Add irrelevant obscenities, crude humor, blanking
pages and/or inserting obvious nonsense (see
Wikipedia)
• Can result in being blocked

21. Gardener
• Frequent contributions
• Focuses on organising and correcting
• Usually edits in the user pages rather than
public talk pages

22. Code :: Wiki Markup
• You can format your text by
using wiki markup.
• This consists of normal
characters like asterisks, single
quotes or equal signs which have
a special function in the wiki,
sometimes depending on their
position.
• For example, to format a word in
italics, you include it in quotation
marks: ''this''.

23. Read more on mediawiki.org: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Formatting

24. Assignment
• In this assignment, each student will update one "stub," or incomplete article in
Wikipedia, to a complete encyclopedic article
• Caveats to keep in mind for this assignment:
– You will need to learn some basic wiki code. The code is not difficult, and there is a graphical
editor with buttons to insert links and the like.
– Others can (and will) alter your contribution. In most cases, other users will add to and
occasionally correct your work. But your work could be vandalized or deleted. You can always
change the page back to what it was before, but such "revert wars" are frowned upon.
– The entire Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, which means
you do not own the articles you work on.
– There is no standard length for a Wikipedia article. For the purposes of this assignment, a
reasonable article will contain 300-600 words, which correspond to 1.5-3 pages of standard
double-space text.
• Part 1: Select a stub (needs to be done BEFORE your lab)
• Read the Wikipedia Getting Started page.
• Create an account
• Find a "stub" that you would like to complete to a full article. Here is a list of stubs.
Particular stub categories that may be of interest include Endocrine, nutritional
and metabolic disease stubs and the Alberta Research Council stub.

25. Assignment
• Note: When you register with Wikipedia, it is a
good idea to use EITHER your twitter alias or your
real name (if you choose) so that I (along with the
Tas) can track your contributions.
• DUE: 5:00pm on Friday (11th Nov.)
• Students must include a link to their Wikipedia
article and blog post as a comment on the post
for Module 10 on the class blog.
• Note: this Wikipedia Assignment forms part of
your E-Portfolio.

26. Homework
• Choose your stub entry READY to work on
during your lab this week
• ONLINE class on Wednesday so you have
another opportunity to work on your
Wikipedia assignment!