How Wikipedia Works: Book Review

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Image by misterbisson via FlickrTwo weeks ago I wrote a post on 25 things you should know about Wikipedia. I learned most of that information from a recently published book titled How Wikipedia Works: and how you can be a part of it. The information that I gave out in my blog post was merely the tip of the iceberg of what you can learn in this extremely informative new book on Wikipedia.

How Wikipedia Works is written in a way that can be understood by anyone. However, there is a great deal in here for Wikipedia regulars also. The major goal of the book seems to be to show the reader how easy it is to edit Wikipedia. A large part of the book details everything that you need to know to actually edit or even write your own article. Links are given at the end of most sections for further reading, although everything is spelled out so well, the links are really optional.

I am including the book's table of contents below so that you can get a better idea of what the book is about:

Part I: Content
1. What's in Wikipedia?
2. The World Gets a Free Encyclopedia
3. Finding Wikipedia's Content
4. Understanding and Evaluating an Article

Part II: Editing
5. Basic Editing
6. Good Writing and Research
7. Cleanup, Projects, and Processes
8. Make and Mend Wikipedia's Web
9. Images, Templates and Special Characters
10. The Life Cycle of an Article

Part III: Community
11. Becoming a Wikipedian
12. Community and Communication
13. Policy and Your Input
14: Disputes, Blocks and Bans

Part IV: Other Projects
15. 200 Languages and Counting
16. Wikimedia Commons and Other Sister Projects
17. The Foundation and Project Coordination

Appendices include: Reusing content, Wikpedia for teachers, Edit jargon and a Glossary.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with any interest in Wikipedia. It is a must have for anyone that would like to give editing Wikipedia a try.