Difference between revisions of "Wikispooks:Wikipedia+"

Revision as of 09:12, 15 June 2012

A short explanation of WP+ at [28C3], 2011-12-29

Ever fancy quick access to alternative viewpoints? Let Wikipedia+ suggest them for you

Wikipedia+ is a tool for Wikipedia users unhappy with only a single narrative. It is an open source browser extension which augments your Wikipedia experience. After looking at the language and page name Wikipedia+ silently checks the alternative websites you have chosen to see if they contain relevant information. If so, it displays a notification containing links to the matching pages, so alternative points of view are only one click away. N.B. Wikipedia+ has no affiliation whatever with the Wikipedia Foundation.

Rationale

Wikipedia is in one sense a victim of its own success; it has effectively become a mainstream media source, and as such it shares a well-established bias:

To the extent that a subject is judged threatening to established power and the widespread acceptance of 'official narratives' of events, the reliability and ultimate accuracy of Wikipedia articles touching on it is likely to be compromised. At the extremes of power and perceived threat, Wikipedia's 'Neutral-Point-of-View' ^[1] principle pretty much guarantees that the compromise will be fundamental. (See The Problem with Wikipedia for a fuller discussion)

Wikipedia+ alleviates this situation by allowing users to choose for themselves sources of information with which to supplement the information on Wikipedia. Wikipedia+'s searches in the background, and makes suggestions when it finds a page elsewhere of potential interest to you.

Requirements and Set Up

Wikipedia Plus currently requires Mozilla Firefox, version 3 or above.

Download the latest version here.
Wikispooks is enabled by default

Wikipedia+ installs discretely to the status bar in the bottom right

Use

Click on the suggestion buttons to see the corresponding page

When browsing Wikipedia, if you the extension detects pages on other sites that may correspond to the page you are at, a notification bar will appear as shown above. To go to the sites it suggests, click the corresponding button.

References

↑ Wikipedia 'Neutral point of view

[1] Wikipedia 'Neutral point of view

[1]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{WpBadge}}
 <div style="float:right;border-style: solid; border-width: 1px;  margin: 1em; z-index: 10; padding: 0.4em; margin-right:0px;">{{#widget:YouTube|id=a3Sq0vUxwrc}}<br/>A short explanation of WP+ at [28C3], 2011-12-29</div>
-{{Work|''Wikipedia+'' is a work-in-progress and feedback is most welcome.<br/>The latest version of the extension can be downloaded [http://www.WikipediaPlus.org/wiki/download here] (Requires Firefox).<br/>To give feedback, use this [[Special:EmailUser/Peter|Email form]] or the above discussion tab.
+<!-- {{Work|''Wikipedia+'' is a work-in-progress and feedback is most welcome.<br/>The latest version of the extension can be downloaded [http://www.WikipediaPlus.org/wiki/download here] (Requires Firefox).<br/>To give feedback, use this [[Special:EmailUser/Peter|Email form]] or the above discussion tab.
-}}
+}}-->
 [[File:WP notification example.600x308.gif | frame | Ever fancy quick access to alternative viewpoints?  Let Wikipedia+ suggest them for you]]
 '''''Wikipedia+'' is a tool for Wikipedia users unhappy with only a single narrative. It is an open source browser extension which augments your Wikipedia experience. After looking at the language and ''page name'' Wikipedia+ silently checks the alternative websites you have chosen to see if they contain relevant information. If so, it displays a notification containing links to the matching pages, so alternative points of view are only one click away. <small><u>N.B.</u> Wikipedia+ has no affiliation whatever with the [http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home Wikipedia Foundation].</small>'''
@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 }}
-'''Wikipedia+ alleviates this situation by allowing users to choose for themselves sources of information with which to supplement the information on Wikipedia.'''
+'''Wikipedia+ alleviates this situation by allowing users to choose for themselves sources of information with which to supplement the information on Wikipedia. Wikipedia+'s searches in the background, and makes suggestions when it finds a page elsewhere of potential interest to you.'''
-==Users==
+===Requirements and Set Up===
-Users benefit from the Wikipedia+'s helpful page suggestions. It searches in the background, and only makes suggestions when it has found a result of potential interest.
-===Requirements===
 Wikipedia Plus currently requires '''Mozilla Firefox''', version 3 or above.
 * Download the latest version [http://www.wikipediaplus.org/wiki/Download here].
+* ''Wikispooks'' is enabled by default
 [[File:WP_in_status_bar.jpg | frame | Wikipedia+ installs discretely to the status bar in the bottom right]]
-===Installation===
-*'''Firefox versions 4 & above:''' Select Tools/add-ons on the browser menu. From the drop-down box next to the search box at the top of the page, select "Install add-on from File....". Browse to the downloaded .XPI file and select it. You will be presented with a window warning you to ''"Install add-ons only from author whom you trust"'' and detailing the extension name and file selected.  Click the "Install Now" button. The extension should install and you will be prompted to restart your browser.
-*'''Firefox version 3:''' Select Tools/add-ons on the browser menu. A dialogue window will appear. Drag and drop the .XPI file to the window. You will be prompted to proceed/cancel the installation. Following installation a browser restart is required to use the extension.
-===Setup===
-After successful installation the extension icon and status will be present on the browser status bar (bottom-right).
-*Click the text to enable/disable Wikipedia+
-*Click the icon will pop-up the '''Wikipedia+ Preferences''' dialogue window. The window comprises 5 tabs plus OK/Cancel buttons.
-The '''Appearance''', '''Behaviour''', and '''About''' tabs are pretty self explanatory.
-====Configuring Websites====
-Wikipedia+ comes preloaded with some alternative sites which you may wish to use to supplement your Wikipedia experience, but the choice of sites is yours. The '''Sites''' tab is for configuring which sites Wikipedia+ checks. This tab shows a list of the sites, with the highest priority sites (checked first, appears on the left) at the top.
-*There is a set of reasonably intuitive navigation, information and editing buttons to the right.
-*Select a site and click on the pencil icon to the right (or just doubleclick the site) to bring up a dialog to edit it.
-*Select a site and click the up/down arrows to change site priority.
-*Click the plus icon to add a new site. A dialog will appear for you to input a name, a URL, and which language(s) it uses.
 ===Use===
 [[File:WP notification bar.600x59.gif | frame | left | Click on the suggestion buttons to see the corresponding page]]
-When browsing Wikipedia, if you the extension detects pages on other sites that may correspond to the page you are at, a notification bar will appear as shown above. To go to the sites it suggests, click the corresponding button. By default, these will appear in a new tab, though this can be changed from the options dialog.
+When browsing Wikipedia, if you the extension detects pages on other sites that may correspond to the page you are at, a notification bar will appear as shown above. To go to the sites it suggests, click the corresponding button.
-==Webmasters==
-The tool suits any websites whose material complements the content on Wikipedia, whether because it directly contradicts it, or simply because it contains more detail than is contained on Wikipedia. Making their site '''Wikipedia+''' capable will result in traffic from software users.
-===Requirements===
-Making a site Wikipedia+ capable is a pretty straightforward task, and doesn't require changing any existing pages. The main task is deciding which wikipedia pages you wish to associate with which of your sites pages.
-===Choosing an access URL===
-The first step is to choose a URL pattern by which Wikipedia+ can query the site, e.g. for this site, it is <font face="courier">http://www.wikispooks.com/wiki/{PageName}</font> This is requested by the browser add-in, with ''{PageName}'' replaced by the name of a Wikipedia page. It must return a 404 (Page Not Found) code unless a page is matching available.
-===Implementing the access URL===
-All the access URL has to need is to translate a request for a particular wikipedia ''PageName'' either into a locally available page, or give a 404 code if no such page is available. Your means of implementing this will depend on the technology which your site already uses.
-====General Method====
-One simple method is to have an access URL of the form <font face="courier"><nowiki>http://www.example.com/WP/index.php?page={PageName}</nowiki></font>, so that all incoming requests are served by a single script. This could read from a database of local page URL to match with wikipedia ''PageNames''. You may wish to use a simple script written for this purpose by Robin Upton, which is available [http://www.robinupton.com/WP/WP-site-index.0.1.1.zip here]. As well as acting as a Wikipedia Plus access point, it can also act as a primitive XML web editor for the index, to assist anyone unfamiliar with XML in creating the index.
-====Wikis only Method====
-If your site is a wiki, you could use dedicated namespace (this site uses <font face="courier">Wikipedia:</font>) to maintain an easy correspondence between your site's pages and Wikipedia's pages. If you already have content, the fastest way to make your site Wikipedia+ ready is to just add a redirect, so that <font face="courier">/wiki/Wikipedia:Some_Wikipedia_URL</font> contains <font face="courier"><nowiki>#REDIRECT[[Your_Local_URL]]</nowiki></font>.
 ==References==

Difference between revisions of "Wikispooks:Wikipedia+"

Revision as of 09:12, 15 June 2012

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