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Wikipedia articles ClearlyExplained.Com

Wikipedia articles

ClearlyExplained.Com

4th January 2012

by Richard Conan-Davies BSc Dip Ed

A straightforward and quick introduction
to wikipedia articles from ClearlyExplained.Com

What are wikipedia articles?

Well very basically they are articles or pages that exist mainly on the wikipedia. This ia a website located at a http://wikipedia.org. The common English one is at http://en.wikipedia.org

Sometimes wikipedia articles can be found on other websites, as wikipedia articles can be distrubuted under creative commons licenses so it can appear on other sites. "For example, the Creative Commons Attribution (BY) license allows one to share and remix (create derivative works), even for commercial use, so long as attribution is given.[6]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons_license

What
Why
News
How
History
Future

Why are wikipedia articles important?

Wikipedia pages originally were developed by edits that came from the public. Essentially anyone can edit them. Most articles can be edited. Some articles are locked, indicated by a lock graphic. This usually means you need to be an authorised member of the site to change the information.

Wikipedia has also been used as a source in journalism, often without attribution, and several reporters have been dismissed for plagiarizing from Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia#Impact

from wikipedia itself

Impact on publishing
Some observers have stated that Wikipedia represents an economic threat to publishers of traditional encyclopedias, who may be unable to compete with a product that is essentially free. Nicholas Carr, wrote a 2005 essay, "The amorality of Web 2.0", that criticized websites with user-generated content, like Wikipedia, for possibly leading to professional (and, in his view, superior) content producers going out of business, because "free trumps quality all the time." Carr wrote, "Implicit in the ecstatic visions of Web 2.0 is the hegemony of the amateur. I for one can't imagine anything more frightening."[211] Others dispute the notion that Wikipedia, or similar efforts, will entirely displace traditional publications. For instance, Chris Anderson, the editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, wrote in Nature that the "wisdom of crowds" approach of Wikipedia will not displace top scientific journals, with their rigorous peer review process.[212]

reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia#Impact

News about wikipedia articles

Wikipedia articles are reported in the press from time to time. Often in a negative way due to errors and the vulnerabilities of the editing models. So for example reporting the death of someone and the article goes unedited or vandelised for a long time.

Try a Google news search for a wikipedia article.

Example of Wikipedia in the news, from wikiepedia itself again:

On September 16, 2007 The Washington Post reported that Wikipedia had become a focal point in the 2008 U.S. election campaign, saying, "Type a candidate's name into Google, and among the first results is a Wikipedia page, making those entries arguably as important as any ad in defining a candidate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia#Impact

How do wikipedia articles work?

A typical wikipedia article will start as a a 'stub' and over time it gets expanded upon. It can then typically develop a table of contents, graphics or images that cover the details of the article.

The typical contents of a page include

• The history of the object or idea
• Characteristics of the object or idea
• Sub classifications of the object or idea
• References
• External links

Wikipedia relies on three content policies

Neutral point of view – All Wikipedia articles and other encyclopedic content must be written from a neutral point of view, representing significant views fairly, proportionately and without bias.

Verifiability – Material challenged or likely to be challenged, and all quotations, must be attributed to a reliable, published source. The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth—meaning, in this context, whether readers are able to check that material added to Wikipedia has already been published by a reliable source, not whether we think it is true.

No original research – Wikipedia does not publish original thought: all material in Wikipedia must be attributable to a reliable, published source. Articles may not contain any new analysis or synthesis of published material that serves to advance a position not clearly advanced by the sources.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Core_content_policies

A screenshot of a wikipedia article about the loggerhead sea turtle. It was a featured article on the main English page on the 4th of January 2012.

History of wikipedia articles

Wikipedia itself was launched in January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. Sanger coined the name Wikipedia.

It is possible to view previous edits and versions of each wikipedia articles, essentially back to the beginning of an articles creation. It is interesting to see how some articles developed.

reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia

The earliest known proposal for an online encyclopedia was made by Rick Gates in 1993, but the concept of an open source web-based online encyclopedia was proposed by Richard Stallman around 1999. Wikipedia was formally launched on 15 January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, using the concept and technology of a wiki pioneered by Ward Cunningham.

References:"PACS-L Listserv message "The Internet Encyclopedia", Oct 25, 1993". Listserv.uh.edu. 25 October 1993. Retrieved 13 April 2010. and "The Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource"

Future of wikipedia articles

It is hard to speculate about how wikipedia articles will look in the future. But looking now it appears that many basic articles of well know ideas, concepts , places etc have a locked symbol. This indicates articles may change in the future but are less variable to major changes, unless there is an agreement with editors of that article.

Perhaps the principles of evolution are likely a starting point for how wikipedia may develop in the future. In some senses certain structures and styles may remain due to their 'survivability'. Comparing life forms can provide an example certain gene sequences that code for remain similar or the same across species. Similarly some wikipedia articles may remain largely the same, in the way some bacteria have remained essentially the same over millions of years.