Submissions:2018/Researching Local Heroes, When Google Isn't Enough

Title

Researching Local Heroes, When Google Isn't Enough

Theme

Relationship Building & Support, Inclusion & Diversity, Tech & Tools

Academic Peer Review option

Yes

Type of submission

Workshop

Author

Kofi Khemet

E-mail address

kkhemet@gmail.com

Wikimedia username

Kkhemet

Affiliation(s) (optional)

Blakfacts Educational Research, Inc., Akron Public Schools

Millions of new articles are added to Wikipedia every year. Many of these articles are well researched and edited. This is not always the case. in many instances I've noted articles with no warnings that the content is biased, inaccurate or erroneous. Sometimes it’s a matter of omission rather than commission.

Obviously there’s a need to make corrections. For most people their research does not go beyond doing a Google search and accessing a number of websites on the Internet. Unfortunately, many of those articles have referenced the very same inaccurate Wikipedia article they would like to correct, or newspaper articles that tend to reference AP or UPI articles. This being the case, unless someone wrote a detailed account of the person, place or thing, using verifiable, accurate, information; it’s going to be difficult to support additions or deletions to the Wikipedia article. Any changes made, may be changed a few hours later. The question we want to answer is what other resources are available and how reliable are they.

The first half of this workshop seeks to provide information, tips and tricks, as well as some hands on experience with various online and offline databases that are available, but often overlooked or underutilized. There are a plethora of sources out there, each of which can provide reliable information. However, all sources are not created equal. We will take some time during the workshop to go over some basic sources of information and look at the pros and cons of each one.

The second half of this workshop will focus on researching some topics/people and laying out a basic well sourced article for others to build on later. Participants should come with an electronic device that can access the Internet and someone or something they’d like to write about. Even if it’s just an article you’d like to revise, that’s fine. Just don’t come empty handed.

Everyone lives somewhere and wherever you live there are local heroes who are not being recognized or remembered outside of select groups of individuals. Their stories have been told, monuments have been erected and newspaper articles have been written. Their stories are still remembered and told, by those who know, but their stories, oftentimes are not being updated, expanded on and entered into the digital repositories of the future. Please keep in mind the focus of the workshop will be local heroes.

Length of presentation

75 minutes

Special requests

Wifi, 1 table, computer, projector & podium

Preferred room size

15-20

Have you presented on this topic previously? If yes, where/when?

No

If you will be incorporating a slidedeck during your presentation, do you agree to upload it to Commons before your session, with a CC-BY-SA 4.0 license, including suitable attribution in the slidedeck for any images used?

Yes

Will you attend WikiConference North America if your submission is not accepted?

Yes

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