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From Wikibooks, open books for an open world
The Wikimedia community logo.
Wikimedia
This book is about the Wikimedia Foundation, its goals, websites, criticisms and culture and how people can contribute to it.
Table of Contents
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printable version
of Wikimedia is available.
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Administrative:
Contributing to this book
Chapters:
What is Wikimedia?
How to Use Wikis
Editing
Basic Markup Language
Images
Templates
Categories
What are namespaces?
Administrators
User Rights
Protection
The Wikis of Wikimedia, and What Goes Where
Meta
The History of Meta
The Culture of Meta
The Meta MOS
Global Rights
Wikimedia Incubator
The History of Wikimedia Incubator
The Culture of Wikimedia Incubator
Wikipedia
The History of Wikipedia
The Culture of Wikipedia
The Wikipedia MOS
Wiktionary
The History of Wiktionary
The Culture of Wiktionary
The Wiktionary MOS
Wikibooks
The History of Wikibooks
The Culture of Wikibooks
The Wikibooks MOS
Wikinews
The History of Wikinews
The Culture of Wikinews
The Wikinews Style Guide
Wikiquote
The History of Wikiquote
The Culture of Wikiquote
The Wikiquote MOS
Wikivoyage
The History of Wikivoyage
The Culture of Wikivoyage
The Wikivoyage MOS
Wikiversity
The History of Wikiversity
The Culture of Wikiversity
The Wikiversity MOS
Wikisource
The History of Wikisource
The Culture of Wikisource
The Wikisource MOS
Wikispecies
The History of Wikispecies
The Culture of Wikispecies
The Wikispecies MOS
Wikimedia Commons
The History of Wikimedia Commons
The Culture of Wikimedia Commons
The Wikicommons MOS
Wikimedia Cloud Services
The History of Wikimedia Cloud Services
Outreach
The History of Outreach
The Culture of Outreach
The Outreach MOS
Wikifunctions
The History of Wikifunctions
The Culture of Wikifunctions
The Wikifunctions MOS
MediaWiki
The History of MediaWiki
The Culture of MediaWiki
The MediaWiki MOS
Wikidata
The History of Wikidata
The Culture of Wikidata
How Wikidata works
Acknowledgements
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The creators of Wikibooks, those who contributed financially and so generously of their time, the administrators who assist in copyright compliance, layout and copyediting, the co-editors this book is expected to attract, and most of all the readers whom, though they may not edit, contribute by reading and pondering the writing, for, without readers, there would be no point to writing. In particular, Adrignoli was very helpful with an earlier book by this book's lead author, and by establishing a tone of genuine academic and bibliophilic collegiality, made wikibooks a true refuge in a wikiworld often full of wicked ways.
Outside agitators
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In the wikipaediae outside of wikibooks,
James Neill
, an administrator and bureaucrat at wikiversity has really been a very positive and welcoming force which is reciprocally quite welcome indeed. On Wiktionary,
User: Internoob
has been a sage and innovative source of information, insight and encouragement in often contentious debates.
Technical note for contributors
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Please feel free to peruse Things to Do on the discussion page. You are also invited to the discussion page to suggest possible ways to handle the layout, which is at this time under study. Contributors are requested to read the text, unless making grammatical corrections, adding citations, or similar contributions which are not contingent upon understanding the overall vision of the book. The purpose of this request is to establish the unity which underlies that which is, in fact, a book, and to help contributors establish a feel for what this book is about. Of course, suggestions are always welcome for those who do not have the time to read the whole book but who have a burning desire to contribute an insight. Comments are also welcome on this request, whether it is regarded as draconian, or as an invitation to a reckless free for all of under-qualified editorial experiments!
Local manual of style
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Introduction
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Wikipaediae is the evolving culture of collaborative internet creativity utilizing wiki software. It includes the various projects of Wikimedia Foundation and separate groups which utilize similar software and collective protocol. It includes an ever-expanding array of projects, which in turn has fostered a subset of projects to provide intellectual
and technical,
Template:Fix/category
citation needed
infrastructure and support. Sometimes these are referred to as backstage projects.
Included are variants of Wikipedia in multiple languages, but also collaborative media which utilize similar or derivative software and interactional models. These include wiktionary,
wikibooks,wikiversity, which are respectively online dictionary, publishing consortium and (as yet unaccredited) university in cyberspace. Some accredited institutes of higher education utilize one or more resources in the world of wikipaediae, including wikiversity courses.
Other species of wikipaediae provide support to Wikipedia and its offshoots. These include wikicommons, which provides content, and mediawiki,which provides developer support in utilizing the software. The latter is not to be confused with Wikimedia, which hosts strategic planning papers and discussion.
Overview
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Different wikis or projects necessarily encounter different issues depending upon the underlying structure of the wiki, its language, audience, contributors and administrators.
Disputes inevitably arise and the mechanisms for disposing of disputes itself has an effect upon the contributors and content attracted.
Shared policies and philosophies
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An underlying ethic across wiki projects is well expressed by the strategic planning motto:
"Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge."
Consistent with this motto, many wikipaediae are interested in proliferating the benefits of their project. This reaches across linguistic barriers, a difficulty facilitated by translation software. Wikiversity Beta is a multilingual hub for the coordination of Wikiversity projects in different languages.
Divergent policies and philosophies
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Wikimedia projects have divergent policies with regard to content and administration. For instance, the rule of thumb on Wikipedia is to encourage contributions based upon primary sources. Commensurately, Wikipedia discourages original research. However, throughout the world of wikipaedie, there are different views in this matter. For instance wikinews, which aspires to a specific vision of journalism, has a policy page titled "Original reporting" which establishes guidelines for preparing material which is novel in the world of publishing.
Wikiversity specifically encourages original research as long as it is consistent with its guidelines.
Shared Structures, Different Functions
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Portals
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Portals are designed as an easy user interface to facilitate reading. They originated in the Polish and German Wikipedias. In early 2005, the concept was imported to the English Wikipedia.
Projects
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Projects are similar to portals in that they aggregate content but they are not as user friendly and are more apt to be used by editors.
Shared problems
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Wikipaediae, not unlike frontiers in the gold rush days, is disproportionately comprised of men. Many Wikimedia projects report under-representation of women in its editorial and administrative teams.
Editor retention is also a frequently discussed problem area.
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citation needed
Advocacy agendas
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Wikimedia projects tend to emphasize non-ideological, policy-neutral approaches to content, but with regard to the fundamental social contract which is the matrix of its operations, Wikipedians of all type can be fiercely protective. Free speech, censorship and public policy which impacts internet infrastructure are issues of concern across all WMF projects and other internet enterprises.
Wikigames
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The wikigame is a competition to see who can reach a "homebase" or destination wiki article from a random starting point solely by clicking links within wiki articles.
Major WMF projects
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Wikibooks
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Wikipedia
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Wikisource
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Wikimedia Foundation projects focused on policy
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Wikimedia Outreach
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Wikimedia Outreach is an offshoot of WikiMedia and is focused on building the numerical strength of foundation projects. It purports to serve as a home for multiple outreach and collaborative initiatives with "a bookshelf, a collection of best practices, and a coordination point for any activity that is directed to the public, to cultural institutions or to universities."
Meta-focused wiki:Strategy wiki
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Strategic planning for Wikimedia projects is an outgrowth of metawiki. In July 2009, the project began the first strategy-development project with the intention of producing a five-year strategic plan for the entire Wikimedia movement. More than 1,000 people from around the world contributed in more than 50 languages. Technologies deployed included IRC, [[Skype, mailing lists and wiki pages. The Bridgespan Group provided data andanalysis. Other important participants included Eugene Eric Kim of Blue Oxen Associates and Wikipedian Philippe Beaudette.
Meta-focused backstage project: MediaWiki
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MediaWiki
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provides software documentation and technical discussion for projects utilizing wiki software. Meta-focused wikis such as Wikimedia Outreach and Wikimedia Strategy are specialized projects that have their roots in Meta-Wiki.
Technologically-focused backstage projects
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Bugzilla
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Bugzilla is a bug tracker for MediaWiki. To use bugzilla you need to create an account.
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Incubator
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Incubator is a project for potential new language versions of wiki projects.
Wikimedia Mailservices
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Wikimedia Mailservices administers Wikimedia Mailing Lists.
Wikitech
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Wikitech is similar to mediawiki but includes server issues and overall Wikimedia technical documentation.
Test Wikipedia
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Test Wikipedia is for testing software changes
Wikistats
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Wikistats is for collecting and processing Wikimedia statistics.
Bibliography
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[1]
Wikimedia Laboratories
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Wikimedia Laboratories is for developing new extensions and features.
Appendixes and Afterword
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Appendix A: List of Wikimedia Foundation Projects
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Appendix B: List Non-WMF Wiki Projects (Non-Profit)
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Contributors and copyright information
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Geoffery Bard initiated this wikibook and all content in the first post was based upon a Wikipedia article of which he was, at that time, the sole contributor. Much of the information was found at the introductory pages of various WMF projects.
Other anticipated contributors welcome
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Adrignoli is an active administrator at Wikibooks and it is anticipated that Adrignoli will provide/has provided the usually excellent support and technical oversight of this project.
Other contributors are welcome but are requested to read all text and contributor notes in place and as they may arise, including the discussion page, in order to maintain consistency of style and relevance to the topic.
If you wish to republish
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Please comply with the following, taken from
Wikimedia website
Re-use of text:
"Attribution: To re-distribute a text page in any form, provide credit to the authors either by including a) a hyperlink (where possible) or URL to the page or pages you are re-using, b) a hyperlink (where possible) or URL to an alternative, stable online copy which is freely accessible, which conforms with the license, and which provides credit to the authors in a manner equivalent to the credit given on this website, or c) a list of all authors. (Any list of authors may be filtered to exclude very small or irrelevant contributions.) This applies to text developed by the Wikimedia community."
CC-BY-SA 3.0 License and the GFDL. By using this text, you agree to provide a hyperlink or URL back to this wikibook or a lawful successor site and that is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
References
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"Communication Projects Group"
. Retrieved
May 14,
2011
"interwiki"
. Retrieved
May 14,
2011
"Wikimedia projects"
. Retrieved
May 14,
2011
"http://beta.wikiversity.org/wiki/Main_Page"
. Retrieved
May 14,
2011
{{
cite web
}}
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help
"Wikimedia Outreach"
. Retrieved
May 14,
2011
"Board approved summary"
. Retrieved
May 14,
2011
"MediaWiki contributors, "MediaWiki," MediaWiki, The Free Wiki Engine,"
. Retrieved
May 14,
2011
"omitted"
. Retrieved
May 14,
2011
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