Help wanted on Wikpedia

[Steve Sawyer]

I have found the Wikipedia to be an invaluable resource over the years. There is a tremendous store of information that people carry around in their heads, and the Wikipedia is a place for people to share that information in a "peer reviewed" and even scholarly format. It's very much in keeping with the spirit of forums like this one, Woodnet and others.

Whenever a new business term or concept crops up, my first stop is Wikipedia. People in the business community have done an outstanding job of fleshing out the business-related topics.

Not surprisingly, issues and topics relevant to computers, networking, software and other IT technologies are pretty well covered. Other technical disciplines have pretty good coverage (at least for me as a non-specialist) such as metallurgy and metalworking, industrial processes, materials and manufacturing technologies.

I have even made a few minor contributions (see the entry on the Acme Thread Form :) ). However, I've found that information on the field of woodworking is a bit thin.

Just today I stumbled across a page that summarizes the deficiencies in this area, and calls for people in the woodworking community to contribute (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Woodworking).

Please take a look, and contribute if you can. Don't worry about being 100% accurate or complete. Others will see your work and help to refine it. There are some definite stylistic rules that the Wikipedia moderators enforce. But again, it's a community effort so those who are more adept at fine-tuning entries to adhere to these standards will jump in and do their part.

[Eric Wong]

Thanks for posting that! I am a big fan of Wikipedia, and have a search plug-in for it installed in Firefox. Its often the first place I go, too.

I wasn't aware of this project, I'll definitely take a look!

[Jay Fields]

Steve have you seen the new woodworking wiki at;
http://www.thegaloot.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
It is a start at what you are suggesting.

[Steve Sawyer]

Steve have you seen the new woodworking wiki at;
http://www.thegaloot.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
It is a start at what you are suggesting.
Well, no, my suggestion was to contribute to an existing Wikipedia project to improve their coverage of woodworking related topics.

But as to your question, yes, at least one of the folks behind this Wiki is Brad Olsen, a member of our local WW club. He made me aware of it when I posted a similar call in our club's forum. It's just getting off the ground, and I immediately registered (I've long been a registered contributor at Wikipedia).

I suggested that we cross-fertilize between the two; Wikipedia's articles are geared toward the general public, and tend to be more "scholarly" in the need for references and the discouragement of personal comment and opinion, and wouldn't go into the depth that I would expect the Wiki associated with The Galoot would do. However, if there is a good article on the WWW, there is no reason that someone couldn't copy and paste it to Wikipedia, perhaps paring it down from some of the detail that might appear on the WWW entry, and maybe removing some editorial comment that may not be consistent with Wikipedia's style.

Similarly, if there is a good article on Wikipedia without a corresponding topic on WWW (a condition I'd expect to only exist early-on), we could use the Wikipedia content to "rough-in" the topic on WWW, then folks could refine and expand on it specifically for the woodworking community.

I think both projects are worth our time and effort, as they're designed for different audiences and may be maintained by different communities. The more WW information out there, the happeir I am! :)