Positioning messages (Bookshelf)
Positioning Messages Per Target Audience
Target audience: Potential new editors
[edit]“It started with one entry.”
Wikipedia is dedicated to free and open sharing of knowledge around the globe. Wikipedia depends upon volunteers like you to create and edit encyclopedia content and ensure the materials are trustworthy. You will be rewarded with a deeper understanding of your topic, by being able to share your expertise with others who will benefit from this newly available knowledge, and will be able to improve your communication and collaboration capabilities.
Be a part!
As an educator, you know your students are using Wikipedia. But can you be sure they are using it well? The Bookshelf materials provide you with the tools you need to ensure your students understand for which purposes Wikipedia can be used and for which it cannot. The Bookshelf materials also provide lesson plans you can adapt for teaching students how to research, write, edit and work collaboratively. Asking your students to improve Wikipedia articles will add some extra value to your courses.
By assigning Wikipedia articles as coursework to your students, they will:
- gain insights in the creation process of texts on Wikipedia. This enables them to gain experience in discerning between appropriate and inappropriate uses of Wikipedia and to strengthen their ability to think critically and evaluate information sources
- learn the difference between fact-based and analytical writing styles
- be held accountable to a global audience for knowledge they are sharing, and thus feel more devoted to the assignment as a whole
- learn how to work in a collaborative environment
You use Wikipedia every day. When you conduct a Google search for information, Wikipedia is among the first hits on the results list. But when you use Wikipedia, you need to be clear about what it is and what it isn't. You need to understand how to evaluate the content for reliability. You may also have questions about how content is created, who is in charge, and how to reach the volunteers who write Wikipedia. The Bookshelf materials provide the answers to these questions all in one place to make your daily work easier.
You want to ensure that Wikipedia information about your clients and stakeholders is accurate and up to date. Wikipedia readers have the same goals; they want to be sure the information they access is accurate and up to date too. All those who care about Wikipedia are invested in the quality and neutrality of the information. These Bookshelf materials show you how to avoid common pitfalls around editing on Wikipedia as a representative of a person or organization, and to get your work done effectively and efficiently.
Target audience: Wikipedians interested in the upcoming WikiProject Screencast
[edit]The Bookshelf Project needs your help! Our goal is to create screencasts that help others understand how Wikipedia works. And we want to be sure these video materials of the Bookshelf Project have legs: that they scale for a global audience and that they can be updated and remodeled as needed over time.
In a project with more than 260 languages we can only do that with your help. We want to enable you to create easy to understand and good looking instructional videos that help new users to take their first steps with editing Wikipedia.