Proceedings talk:KC1

This is the discussion page for Karen Christensen's presentation at Wikimania 2006, Reference publishing panel. Please join the discussion below!

Please add questions that you'd like to ask these editors/publishers!

• I want to know things about research: how they do it, if they hire people to do it, are there guidelines or quality controls -- jkbaumga

• How do you fact-check specific pieces of information? I'd like to know how you verify that the information you get back from your expert contributors is actually correct.

• I'm also wondering how you choose what topics to include or exclude in a general or special encyclopedia. Same with dictionaries: I guess it's easier to be comprehensive in a dictionary, but how do you make editorial choices on what is in or out? phoebe

And here are a few questions that the presenters would like to ask you!

• How do you--a Wikipedia contributor--decide on topics to correct or edit or add? Do you have a particular area of expertise that you want to share, or is it a more casual process?

• If there are certain topics you know a lot about, how do you manage to update them, and do you have a routine for checking changes others have made? If others make corrections to your work, how do you verify their information (or your own, before replacing with correct data)?

• Is it true that Wikipedia is much better for some subjects than others? Any thoughts about what a more traditional, expert-written encyclopedia is (or could be) better for?

• What was the main motivator behind your involvement in the Wikipedia world? Sharing what you know? Being involved in a freely available project?