Customer Reviews

Wikipedia: The Missing Manual

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Wikipedia, the free access online encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute, is a remarkable achievement. Started only in 2001, it now comprises over 9 million articles is written in over 250 languages, and is the first choice for reference material for millions of Internet users. Despite criticisms by some for the variable quality of its material, the value of the contributions of tens of thousands of unpaid volunteers is enormous, not only in notable and verified content accessible to the vast majority of the world's population in their native languages, but in the opportunity for everyone to contribute to this repository of knowledge in his or her own way (subject to the review and editing of others just like themselves.)

More importantly, in my view, is the model it represents in human collaboration efforts, this one in creating a repository of knowledge, but applicable more broadly to other efforts. Besides merely creating enormously useful things, the collaborative efforts result in a community of people and groups which has its own intrinsic values. Imagine thousands of volunteers committing their personal time and effort into a nonhierarchical, consensus-based collaboration having as its selfless main purpose the improvement of human society. Socialism at its best! It seems to me that the model may be useful in areas of politics, management and administration, education, and other social endeavors.. The Open-Source software movement, predating Wikipedia, operates in much the same way. Perhaps the earliest example of this collaborative model was the developmental years of the Internet.

As a casual user of Wikipedia, I had no idea of the nature of the Wikipedia project (and its sister projects - Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikibooks, Wikisource, Wikispecies, Wikinews, and Wikiversity - and no doubt others yet to come) until I read "Wikipedia: the Missing Manual," by John Broughton. He is an experienced Wikipedia editor with over 15,000 edits to his credit and is the creator of the "Editor's Index to Wikipedia" which lists every reference page on Wikipedia as well as other off site pages with information useful for serious Wikipedia editors. "Wikipedia: the Missing Manual" is an extremely thorough guide to creating and editing Wikipedia articles. The book is intended to help train new writers and editors and to improve the skills and knowledge of existing participants.

Broughton encourages people to join the Wikipedia community of researchers, fact checkers, and proofreaders. This community seems to be made up of committed, skilled, and serious people who take great pride in the project. There is little organizational hierarchy involved and a minimum of formal participatory rules, but a large set of informal mores and practices which help maintain production, efficiency, civility, and quality. There is always a need for more articles, although of the thousands created every day, nearly one half of them are deleted within 24 hours by attentive editors for a number of reasons explained in the book.

The book starts with an introduction to the basic principles of the Wikipedia project involving notability, credibility, balance, consensus, and good faith and moves quickly into the process of registering with Wikipedia, setting up a user account, and starting out practicing writing, previewing, and saving edits.

In six parts and 21 chapters, the book covers how to document sources, set up an editor's account, and personal workspaces, create new articles, use page histories, monitor changes, and dealing with vandalism and spam. It explains the value of collaborating with other editors and participants in creating and editing articles and in special Wiki Projects and other group efforts. There are several chapters describing how to deal with the inevitable conflict between editors and explains the Wikipedia editing mores of civility, ethics, legality (mostly copyright issues), and efficiency. He explains why editors disagree, in what ways, and how they resolve disputes. He also provides guidance on how disputes can be avoided in the first place.

Separate chapters of the book detail how to work with article pages and sections, tables, lists, markups and links, images and media, and categories. There are descriptions of what makes a good article and what doesn't and there are step-by-step tutorials on creating better articles and being systematic about good editing practices. A most interesting feature of Wikipedia is its large collection of free-to-use images, videos, sound clips, and other media in the Wikipedia Media Commons area which is available for article use and for non-Wikipedia use by anyone for any purpose.

Advanced topics include customizing your user account via preferences and skins and using JavaScript and templates to facilitate efficiency. There is a short 20 page appendix for those people content with being mere users of Wikipedia and learning how to get the most out of it. More involved users will benefit from Appendix C which itemizes the huge amount of Wikipedia help, reference, coaching, and other educational sources especially valuable for those determined to become better editors or higher-level participants like administrators of Wikipedia.

The presentation is thorough and articulate. It covers basic and advanced editing skills. Broughton frequently notes keyword search items and tips to be more productive and efficient. The community norms demand attentive and educated participants. Experience with coding is appreciated. The book has plenty of screenshots illustrating the discussions of Wikipedia features. Most of the sections contain Notes and Tips which provide more detailed explanations of features and an experienced editor's perspective to the prospective new editor as to how and why to do things. Broughton is (perhaps unintentionally) inspiring about participating in the Wikipedia editor community.

Although the book deserves great credit for its content and its tone a few problems with the layout and design detract a bit. The layout is dense with graphics a bit too tightly packed in with the text. Captions at the bottom of grayscale illustrations occasionally refer to nonexistent color clues resulting in some confusion. The density seems to reflect the nature of Wikipedia editing itself, which can be very involved. But, rewarding.

I'll admit I was tempted think "why do you need a manual for Wikipedia?". I mean, you go in, you edit an article, you save it, and you're done, right? Not so fast... Wikipedia: The Missing Manual by John Broughton goes into great depth about how Wikipedia works, how to get the most out of it, and (in my opinion) how best to become part of the trusted Wikipedia contributors group. There's a lot more to Wikipedia than you might expect...

Contents:
Part 1 - Editing, Creating, and Maintaining Articles: Editing for the First Time; Documenting Your Sources; Setting Up Your Account and Personal Workspace; Creating a New Article; Who Did What - Page Histories and Reverting; Monitoring Changes; Dealing with Vandalism and Spam
Part 2 - Collaborating with Other Editors: Communicating with your Fellow Editors; WikiProjects and Other Group Efforts; Resolving Content Disputes; Handling Incivility and Personal Attacks; Lending Other Editors a Hand
Part 3 - Formatting and Illustrating Articles: Article Sections and Tables of Contents; Creating Lists and Tables; Adding Images
Part 4 - Building A Stronger Encyclopedia: Getting Readers to the Right Article - Naming, Redirects, and Disambiguation; Categorizing Articles; Better Articles - A Systematic Approach; Deleting Existing Articles
Part 5 - Customizing Wikipedia: Customizing with Preferences; Easier Editing with JavaScript
Part 6 - Appendixes: A Tour of the Wikipedia Page; Reader's Guide to Wikipedia; Learning More; Index

Broughton doesn't spend much time with a fluffy introduction to Wikipedia and all the benefits and drawbacks of the site. He just dives right in to how to use it. You learn the markup language, as well as the formal way a Wikipedia article is laid out in terms of headers, footnotes, etc. Meanwhile, he's also introducing you to the "rules" of Wikipedia that you'll need to know in order to be an effective contributor. Concepts such as "neutral point of view", "conflict of interest", "notability", and many others are essential to understand so that you don't end up getting locked out of the site before you even get started. One thing I didn't know about were all the shortcut paths to get to certain topics. For instance, typing WP:COI takes you automatically to the Conflict of Interest page so that you can find out how to handle that situation. Couple all his technical "how to" information with his knowledge of the Wikipedia culture, and you have a book that is an essential read for someone planning on adding content.

Another element you get out of this book is the understanding of how wikis work (or how they *should* work). If you're starting a wiki of your own, it's best to learn from someone who has been there and done that. Since Wikipedia is the best known example of a large-scale wiki implementation, you can use this book to understand what features you'll need as well as what controls you'll have to have in place to make it all work properly. After I finish this review, I'm mailing my copy off to someone who is in charge of a community wiki effort for a software firm. I have no doubt that this will help them gain a better understanding of what and where things are going...

If you are at all involved in the world of wikis, this book should be on your short list of titles to get.

Are you an editor that has an inquiring mind that needs to know? If you are, then this book is for you. Author John Broughton, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that is about the English edition of Wikipedia.

Broughton, begins by showing you the right way to edit, why you want to be a registered editor, how to become one, and everything you need to know about figuring out, tracking, and reversing changes to articles when appropriate. Then, the author discusses the rules of engagement, how normal conversations occur, the standard Wikipedia processes for disagreements over content, and dealing with incivility and personal attacks. Next, he introduces you to some parts of articles that aren't text or links: The table of contents, lists and tables, and images and other media. The author also shows you that an article isn't locked in stone--you can rename it, split it up, merge it with other articles, or even ask for it to be deleted. Finally, the author discusses every option that you have to customize Wikipedia to suit yourself, using choices you find when you click My Preferences.

This most excellent book provides structured guidance for people who want to learn the core curriculum, the information you absolutely need to avoid running afoul of the rules.. But, more importantly, the book will show you the structured process for learning all about editing, including all of the tips and tools that can make editing easier.

This is not the manual to guide you if you want to contribute good articles to Wikipedia. It is lacking good information on logos and trademarks, and its directions on how to use footnotes, citations, and various templates are maddeningly doublespeak. Wikipedia-specific pathologies such as disruptive editing are left untouched. Remember your fourth grade teacher who taught you never to define a word by using the word? Broughton may have been absent that day. I don't think this is a useful guide and it certainly isn't the muscular reference I had hoped for.

I downloaded to my Kindle the sample for this book. I was very disappointed.

Let me state that: 1. I love my Kindle and 2. I liked the book and plan to buy its printed version. But, the Kindle version is useless. This is not because of its contents but because of its images. The book, being a computer "how to", has a lot of pictures mostly screen captures. These pictures are an essential part of the book and are referred to by the text. Unfortunately they are illegible. This make the whole book useless.

Having used Wikipedia for a long time as a reference tool, I liked it for being able to quickly look up topics. I had no idea until reading this book what a huge amount of time and people's work to ensure it works smoothly. I also was unclear about the process involved in contributing an article to Wikipedia and the rules an article should conform to. This book answered a lot of questions I had about how Wikipedia operates.

For example, contributing an article can be easy if you have reliable sources to back up your information or it can be more difficult if not. The book's first part talks about creating (and editing) articles, along with setting up an account.There are also chapters about documenting your sources and what to do if your article gets "vandalized" or "spammed." Unfortunately with any large online endeavor, these threats are always present. Another problem online of course is dealing with personal attacks, one of the topics covered in Part II. I like the author's philosophy about this. They say when you read comments you feel are an attack, best to walk away for a few hours and then come back and comment. I've been in that situation many times myself in a variety of forums and I totally agree. This also holds true in resolving content disputes.

The book also covers formatting and illustrating articles and gives some handy tips about doing so. For example, insuring your article is not too wordy or that the Table of Contents for the article is not too long. If either of them are too long, you may consider splitting the article into two separate ones. And finally, there are chapters about properly categorizing articles, deleting articles if necessary and also customizing Wikipedia.

All in all, this is a great book to learn about the many facets of Wikipedia.

If you have ever thought about contributing to Wikipedia, or have done so in the past, this is the definitive book on how to contribute and become a successful Wikipedia editor.

The book is broken down into 5 major sections which cover:

Editing, Creating, and Maintaining Articles
Collaborating with Other Editors
Formatting and Illustrating Articles
Building a Stronger Encyclopedia
Customizing Wikipedia

Each section is very well written and presents the material in a well organized and easy to understand manner. There is information for everyone from the novice to the experienced editor.

This book is not intended for the casual Wikipedia user, although reading it will certainly provide a lot more insight in to the scale of the entire Wikipedia project. It assumes a certain base level of understanding about what Wikipedia is and why it has become one of the world's largest group writing project. Instead it provides a very complete and concise set of guidance on how to contribute and get it right from the start.

Wiki is a mystery when you sign up and try to do things, especially when you get a rejection or when your stuff just gets deleted.

This book shows the ins and outs and even explains what is deleted and why. Actually this book lets you know that Wiki sets out to be a very reliable source of free information.

If you want to know the ins and outs of Wikipedia without trying to wade throught their website to find your answers, this is the book to get! A MUST if you post on Wikipedia.

My earliest contributions to Wikipedia date back to 2005 but that means little when you consider I have created or edited an article on Wikipedia less than 50 times. So, by their standards that definitely makes me a rookie editor. That is why his Missing Manual came in so handy!

I confess to have made most of the mistakes this book warns you about: if I only had read it before, I would have saved myself (and some editors) a headache or two. "Wikipedia: The Missing Manual" is an absolute must for anyone considering taking the plunge in the waters of this fascinating online encyclopaedia as well as for those who have been doing it (a little bit like myself or those who claim to know it all, even) for a while.

This book crowns the list of Missing Manuals I have read in the past year or so and convinces me of the niche this series fills so perfectly: above the "For Dummies" series and below the "Bibles".