Anoop & Julian WikiArticle

A. Introduction

· ‘Content Creation’ has wider connotation. When we talk of content creation today, emphasis is on User generated content (UGC), also known as Consumer Generated Media (CGM) or User created Content (UCC), which refers to various kinds of media content, publicly available, that are produced by end-users.

· The word "content" is often used colloquially to refer to ‘media <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_(communication)> ’, which is not correct as it instead means the contents of the medium rather than the medium itself. Content creation will include creation of content by owner as well as user. Content on a website may have been completely created by the owner, partly by owner and partly by users (e.g. www.amazon.com), or completely by user. Our scope of discussion today is about UGC.

· We often talk about “Digital Content Creation” which generally denotes the creation and modification of digital content, such as animation, audio, graphics, images or video, as part of the production process before presentation in its final medium.

· UGC attained prominence during 2005 having arisen in web publishing and new media <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media> content production circles. Its use for a wide range of applications including problem processing, news <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News> , gossip <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossip> and research <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research> reflects the expansion of media production through new technologies that are accessible and affordable to the general public. All digital media technologies are included, such as question-answer databases, digital video <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_video> , blogging <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogging> , podcasting <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting> , mobile phone photography <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_phone> and wikis <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki> . In addition to these technologies, user generated content may also employ a combination of open source <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source> , free software <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software> , and flexible licensing <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licensing> or related agreements to further reduce the barriers to collaboration <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration> , skill-building <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skill> and discovery <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_(observation)> .

· Often UGC is partially or totally monitored by website administrators to avoid offensive content or language, copyright infringement issues, or simply to determine if the content posted is relevant to the site's general theme.

· The advent of user generated content marks a shift among some media organizations from creating on-line content to creating the facilities and framework for non-media professionals (i.e. 'ordinary people') to publish their own content in prominent places.

· User generated content has also been characterized as 'Conversational Media' <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_media> , as opposed to the 'Packaged Goods Media'. The former is a two-way process in contrast to the one-way distribution of the latter. Conversational or two-way media is a key characteristic of so-called Web 2.0 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0> which encourages the publishing of one's own content and commenting on other people's.

· The notion of the passive audience therefore has shifted since the birth of New Media, and an ever-growing number of participatory users are taking advantage of the interactive opportunities, especially on the Internet to create independent content.

· The active, participatory and creative audience is prevailing today with relatively accessible media, tools and applications, and its culture is in turn affecting mass media corporations and global audiences.

· There are different types of user generated content, such as:

- Discussion boards <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discussion_board> - Blogs <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs> - Wikis <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki> - Social networking sites <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_site> - News Sites - Trip planners - Mobile Photos & Videos - Customer review sites <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Review_site> - Experience or photo sharing sites - Any other website that offers the opportunity for the consumer to share their knowledge and familiarity with a product or experience. · There are numerous examples of website based on UGC.

B.Content Creation

1. Introduction

Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based, free content encyclopedia project. The name Wikipedia is a combination of the words wiki (a type of collaborative Web site) and encyclopedia. Wikipedia's articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world. Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference Web sites, attracting at least 684 million visitors yearly by 2008. There are more than 75,000 active contributors working on more than 10,000,000 articles in more than 250 languages. As of today, there are 2,547,772 articles in English; every day hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world make tens of thousands of edits and create thousands of new articles to enhance the knowledge held by the Wikipedia encyclopedia. Visitors do not need specialized qualifications to contribute, since their primary role is to write articles that cover existing knowledge; this means that people of all ages and cultural and social backgrounds can write Wikipedia articles. Most of the articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet, simply by clicking the edit this page link. Anyone is welcome to add information, cross-references or citations, as long as they do so within Wikipedia's editing policies and to an appropriate standard. Substandard or disputed information is subject to removal. Users need not worry about accidentally damaging Wikipedia when adding or improving information, as other editors are always around to advise or correct obvious errors, and Wikipedia's software is carefully designed to allow easy reversal of editorial mistakes. Because Wikipedia is an ongoing work to which, in principle, anybody can contribute, it differs from a paper-based reference source in important ways. In particular, older articles tend to be more comprehensive and balanced, while newer articles more frequently contain significant misinformation, unencyclopedic content, or vandalism. Users need to be aware of this to obtain valid information and avoid misinformation that has been recently added and not yet removed (see Researching with Wikipedia for more details). However, unlike a paper reference source, Wikipedia is continually updated, with the creation or updating of articles on topical events within seconds, minutes or hours, rather than months or years for printed encyclopedias. Wikipedia is written in several languages.

2. Who contributes to Wikipedia

Anyone with web access can edit Wikipedia, and this openness encourages inclusion of a tremendous amount of content. About 75,000 editors — from expert scholars to casual readers — regularly edit Wikipedia, and these experienced editors often help to create a consistent style throughout the encyclopedia, following its Manual of Style. Several mechanisms are in place to help Wikipedia members carry out the important work of crafting a high-quality resource while maintaining civility. Editors are able to watch pages and techies can write editing programs to keep track of or rectify bad edits. Over 1,500 administrators with special powers ensure that behaviour conforms to Wikipedia guidelines and policies. Where there are disagreements on how to present facts editors work together to arrive at an article which fairly represents current expert opinion on the subject. Editors who fail to work with others in a civil manner can be temporarily or permanently banned from editing Wikipedia by the administrators. Although the Wikimedia Foundation (a non profit charitable organization) owns the site, it is largely uninvolved in writing and daily operations.

3. Salient Features of Wikipedia

- Wikipedia articles are all linked, or cross-referenced

- Articles are never complete; they are continually edited and improved over time, and in general this results in an upward trend of quality, and a growing consensus over a fair and balanced representation of information.

- Best articles are called Featured artcles and secnd best tier is called good articles.

- It is open to large contributor base

- Allows anyone to edit

- Written by open and transparent consensus

4. How the wikipedia is organized (Content)

a) Overviews of Wikipedia

• Overviews — key articles in 12 major subjects, providing an overview of each.

• List of academic disciplines — Wikipedia arranged like a college course curriculum

• Lists of basic topics — these pages present topic outlines, and together they form an outline of human knowledge (though it is still under development), as well as a general site map of Wikipedia's contents. Each outline presents its subject's structure, with links to the topics which make up its subject.

b) Featured content

Featured content represents the best Wikipedia has to offer, and undergoes vigorous peer review. It is found on the following directories:

• Featured articles — what they believe to be the best articles in Wikipedia.

• Featured pictures — images they consider beautiful, shocking, impressive, and informative.

• Featured lists — what they believe to be the best lists in Wikipedia.

• Featured portals — portals they regard as being particularly useful, attractive, and well maintained.

• Featured topics — topics they believe have coverage which is both comprehensive and well written.

• Featured sounds — sounds they find beautiful, impressive, and informative.

c) Lists

Wikipedia has thousands of topic lists; some are even lists of other lists.

• Lists of topics — a selective collection of article lists, arranged by subject.

• Category: Lists — a list of lists in the category system, arranged alphabetically.

Two of the broadest collections are:

• Lists of countries and many lists by country.

• Lists of people including by nationality and by occupation.

d) Glossaries

Glossaries are lists of terms with definitions:

• List of glossaries — a list of glossaries arranged by subject.

• Category:Glossaries — glossaries in the category and subcategories, arranged alphabetically.

e) Portals

Portals are pages that feature selected articles, images, and often news items about the Portal's theme subject. They also include topic lists, category lists, and to-do lists which are used mostly by Wikipedia's editors. Portals can be found at:

• List of portals — a list of active portals.

• Category:Portals — portals in the category and subcategories, arranged alphabetically.

f) Timelines

Timelines are lists of articles organized chronologically. These are the top-level timelines and lists of timelines:

• List of timelines — a selection of historical timelines, arranged by subject. More can be found in Category:Timelines.

• List of centuries — (e.g. 20th century)

• List of decades — (e.g. 1910s)

• List of historical anniversaries — (e.g. today).

• 2008 — major events this year.

• Portal:Current events — featured current events and related project activities.

• Recent deaths — notable recent deaths, by month.

• Category:Graphical timelines — graphical timelines in the category and subcategories, arranged alphabetically.