Group items tagged

"Wikipedia can be a nightmare for a teacher, or it can be their best friend. For those teachers that have papers handed to them by students that are clearly copied from another source, Wikipedia tends to turn up early in the search and show that the students have indeed, been checking out what Wikipedia has to say. It's no wonder that teachers often have questions about what is good about the tool and how it might benefit their students. Today, we're taking a look at some more general facts and figures about one of the world's largest free, collaboratively written encyclopedia. Which is a pretty awesome concept, if you ask us. The handy infographic below will let you in on some interesting facts that you probably weren't privy to - and some of the numbers are pretty staggering! Keep reading to learn more!"

"Little is known about Wikipedia contributors' information behaviour and from where and how the information in the encyclopaedia originated...... Understanding the information source use of contributors helps us to understand how new Wikipedia articles emerge, how edits are motivated, where the information actually comes from and more generally, what kind of information may be expected to be found in Wikipedia. "

"Through Wikiproject Medicine, some medical professionals (and other health-savvy Wikipedia editors) have taken it upon themselves to improve the quality of medical information available on the site. And, in the same spirit, the University of California, San Francisco will be offering a class this year that gives fourth-year medical students course credit in exchange for editing Wikipedia articles."

This is absolutely amazing. We know that Wikipedia gets additions, edits, and deletions all of the time, but without a visualization we just have to assume that's the case. With Wikistream, we can see exactly what's happening on Wikipedia in real-time. The background image on the page updates randomly, and sometimes the stream goes so fast it's impossible to even see what's going on.

Screencast video that explains how to create a PDF or ODT book from a collection of Wikipedia articles.

Very handy utility and nice illustration how to use this tool.

Explore wikipedia visually

A superb game based on wikipedia and article linking

A great summary of how to go about doing research online from Chris Betcher.

A prett good website that makes Wkipedia searching more relevant and interesting.

Nothing like making Wikipedia easier to use!

Video Goes Open Source on Wikipedia: New Format, New Player, New Editing/Sharing Tools.

"T. Mills Kelly encourages his students to deceive thousands of people on the Web. This has angered many, but the experiment helps reveal the shifting nature of the truth on the Internet. "

Search faster with Heapr.com I'm serious. Just try it. It's faster. It's like 38% faster than the standard Google.com search. No, I did not just pull that statistic out of my ass. Ok maybe I did. But here's why it's faster: Searching on keypress One page load. Aggregation of results from Google, Twitter, Wikipedia, WolframAlpha, Flickr, and other sources. Other neat features: View Google Images alongside Flickr at images.heapr.com No ads. Zippo. Zero. Easily view YouTube, Hulu, and Vimeo videos without ever leaving the page at videos.heapr.com Download YouTube videos for free with just the click of a button. Just search for your video, and click Download. Real time tweets at twitter.heapr.com Just plain Google. With search on keypress. Insanely fast. At lite.heapr.com Get a super fast browser toolbar plugin so you can use that little search box in the top right of your browser

A cool tool that allows you to see the power of Wikipedia and how often it is upadated

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) will discontinue both its MSN Encarta reference Web sites as well as its Encarta software, which have both been surpassed by rising competitors, like Wikipedia. In a message posted on the MSN Encarta Web site, Microsoft says, "Encarta has been a popular product around the world for many years. However, the category of traditional encyclopedias and reference material has changed. People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past."

Text Adventure game based on a Wikipedia article on a geographical location that you choose.