I just had a thought of how we at the UAE Community can do something meaningful and productive together. The idea would be to pool our knowledge as UAE insiders and our talent at writing and posting online to have an Edit Wikipedia day or week. Wikipedia is an excellent and now very popular source for info on virtually any subject. Search any term on Google and you're likely to come up with Wikipedia links.
So the idea would be for us as a community to focus for a day or week on updating or adding Wikipedia edits with relevance to the UAE. I really think this would be a fun and worthwhile project to do as community. What about it--would it be worth a go?
10 April, 2007
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14 comments:
I'd do more on wikipedia but all I ever get is a "vote for deletion" within seconds of creating something /:
You know, it might have been a good idea if all contributors on this board were non-partisan. As it stands, I find a very large percentage of postings here to be quite subjective (unashamedly so, if I may add).
Yeah, there's a well defined set of publishing guidelines to follow on Wikipedia. And because of people abusing it in the past, they've become far more stringent on the way things are published -- citations and references are now a key element to success (actual facts can and are still manipulated, unfortunately).
The best way to get the hang of it is to go to the sandbox section on the site -- it's an area where you can play around and practice creating articles without doing any actual damage to existing work.
I'm all for a community effort on the UAE entry -- I don't know that the neutrality on the help page would change from "disputed" to "undisputed," but I certainly think that UAE bloggers could provide a unique perspective.
I remain an "unashamedly" subjective blogger, BTW. I'm not entirely sure that objectivity is something you would want in a blog or blogger. I want their opinion, not some wishy-washy rehash of the evening news...
samuraisam said...
I'd do more on wikipedia but all I ever get is a "vote for deletion" within seconds of creating something /:
That right there speaks volumes. you should listen to those votes.
Instead of we play with Wikipedia for free, Rich Emaraties can hire few indians to do it for them. if this government is willing to pay to advertise its good image so why not helping some other people make money out of it!
Wikipedia's weakness is that it has mistaken concensus for truth.
And now I think about it, so has The Gulf News.
"...I'm not entirely sure that objectivity is something you would want in a blog or blogger."
Quite.
It's not something we'd want to see carried over to Wikipedia, though.
I was, of course, referring to lack of objectivity. E&OE.
To Anonymous, no one said anything about trying to promote the UAE. The fact that we live here means we know both the good and bad. Objective or not, it's an inside perspective. How many of us when looking up something on the internet don't follow the Wikipedia links that we're presented with. I think most of us do. It may not be a perfect repository of info, but it is one of the most widely viewed.
"The fact that we live here means..."
The fact that you live here means that when ALL is considered, both the good and bad, the heat, the cold, your income, your life, HERE is BETTER than wherever you're from. if that isnt the case you're an illogical person, because no one would want to live somewhere worse than what they had.
So stop bitching.
"Instead of we play with Wikipedia for free, Rich Emaraties can hire few indians to do it for them. if this government is willing to pay to advertise its good image so why not helping some other people make money out of it!"
You say this like it's a bad thing. I'm sorry that you didnt have the privilege of being born into a country who's government makes most of it's citizens able to afford said Indians... and by doing so, transfers assets to them, assets they would otherwise not have. Maybe instead of pointing out how bitter and worthless you are you should walk upto your government's officials and shoot them.
You also bitch too much.
abiat, you are a sicko
actually this is idd the solution to solve all misery and help all poor people :
ask your government to make a law, that every house must 'rent','help','use','guide', a poor human being...
if i comme up with this worldview (i mean how many housing space is there being beilt, the UAE alone can extinguish poverty)
people do pay more for water and electricty and gasonline, so the new bill is that 30 days 30 dollars and help somebody that has NOTHING
This post is basically about people collaborating to produce informative Wikipedia entries.
But why should that in any way stop the "blessing" from inserting himself into the midst of this terrible "tragedy"?
Got some kind of chip on your shoulder, friend?
I didn't realize Wikipedia had so many detractors. I should have prefaced this call for a community project with a discussion on the merits of Wikipedia. My feeling is that the positive outweighs the negative in this type of resource.
True, you have some biased and perhaps even deliberately falsified info. That should mean the reader has to exercise critical thinking. On the other hand, the great benefit that I see in Wikipedia is that it often sheds light on even the most obscure of topics, where one might otherwise find nothing at all.
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