The 2008 Beijing Olympics and wikis

In celebration of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, I started my search for wikis devoted to the topic. It's a natural tool for those participating and attending the Olympics. It would be great to share information about navigating through the Olympics venues. It would be interesting to see information posted about the competition results, with feedback from attendees or armchair reporters. I found the Olympic wiki on Wikia. It only has 12 articles though. I also found a MediaWiki version of the Olympics wiki . It is much larger, with over 1880 articles. However, it appears that only one update has been made in the last 30 days. That's obviously a sign of a problem -- with currency of information, especially since the 2008 summer Olympics are underway. I also found a Chinese version but really can't tell much about its currency. I found Olympics 2008 Dashboard, a Zoho Wiki that is tracking the medal standings across countries. As you're glued to the TV watching the Olympics this week, why not visit one of these wiki sites and lend a hand? If you know of another wiki site on the 2008 Olympics, post a comment for us.

I love Lucy at the Lucille Ball Wiki

In celebration of Lucille Ball's birthday, today I'm featuring here on the Wiki'd Places blog, The Lucille Ball Wiki on Wikia. It's a small site and just getting started. They are working on 36 articles now on people and shows. If you're a fan of the I Love Lucy show or Lucille Ball, visit the wiki and join its community.

Wikinews, the free online news source

Today while celebrating the anniversary of the launch of MSNBC in 1996, I began to think about wiki sources of online news. The original slogan of MSNBC was "It's time to get connected" and a key feature of wikis is the ability to connect and to collaborate with others. I immediately thought of the Wikinews wiki, whose mission is to present reliable, unbiased, relevant and entertaining news. Wikinews is run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, which operates several other multilingual and free-content projects, such as Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, and Wikibooks. If you're interesting in contributing to this online news site, check out its Newsroom page, where it lists articles in development, articles marked ready for publishing, articles in dispute, collaboration requests, recently published articles, and lead articles. Like the traditional network news services and their Internet sites, Wikinews is not above controversy. Recently, some Web articles noted that Wikinews might not be as unbiased as they claim, particularly about news items related to the Wikimedia Foundation. The controversy is discussed on The Register and Slashdot. Regardless, it's interesting to watch the site and how communities are collaborating to report the news around the world.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Celebrating one million wikis!

Wetpaint is nearing an amazing milestone -- one million wikis! To celebrate this occasion, Wetpaint will reward the one-millionth site creator with the chance
to give back to their community and the planet! For one year, Wetpaint will offset the carbon emissions of both the home and car of the creator of the millionth wiki. Wetpaint will also sponsor the carbon offset of a local school or non-profit organization selected by the millionth site creator. Wetpaint is even taking it one step further by offering the package to the referrer of the millionth site.

Wetpaint has created a wiki to share the news and details about this amazing celebration. You can learn more about Wetpaint's celebration at One Million Sites, my wiki-of-the-day. This new wiki gives details about the package and the official rules. It provides badges that you can add to your blog, website, or social networking profile to promote the event. Maybe your site will be the referrer of the millionth wiki if you add a badge.

If you want to know more about wikis, visit the Everything Wiki site. Then, just click on the "start a wiki" link that is displayed at the bottom right corner of any page. If you're ready now, you can create your free website from this blogpost. I'd love to be the referrer of the millionth Wetpaint wiki!

To the top of the world with the NASA Everest Trek Wiki

Today in celebration of Sally Ride becoming the first American woman in space, I began a search for a wiki related to NASA or the space program. I did not exactly find what I originally set out to find. However, I found a neat little wiki about a NASA team on a quest to climb Mt Everest. The NASA Everest Trek wiki on PBWiki tells the story of a group of NASA employees on a great adventure -- not out of this world, but rather to the top of this world. It is a very very small wiki dedicated to a very specific event. It includes the Rocket Scientist Training page which describes how they prepared for this demanding adventure. It includes bios for the team and their itinerary. While on the adventure, the team updated a blog, whose link is included on the wiki.

What a great idea -- to share such a neat adventure through a wiki. However, the team stopped a bit short of the overall goal. I wish that the team members had updated the wiki with their pictures and stories about the adventure. One instead created her own website. They haven't been back very long --- hopefully, they will update the wiki with lots more interesting, neat information about their adventure.

Nevertheless, the NASA Everest Trek wiki meets my basic criteria for an interesting, informative, and entertaining wiki. It just left me hungry for more information. : )



Photo credits:
Mt Everest from space by NASA from the NASA Everest Trek blog
Team pic from luciebeth's site

Indiana Jones Wiki

The Indiana Jones Wiki, for fans of Dr Jones and his adventures

This weekend I had the pleasure of going to the movies with my two nephews. We enjoyed watching the new Indiana Jones movie together. I've seen all the movies, but they had not yet seen them all. I'm not sure they understood his fear of snakes or his history with Marion. I now have a great Christmas present idea for the boys. The set is also on my wish list too.

Today I was glad to find The Indiana Jones Wiki . It strives to be a comprehensive reference for the Indiana Jones fiction, including the feature films, the television series, novels, comics, and video games. The wiki launched in September 2005 on Wikia. It now has over 1100 articles.

If you're also a fan of Dr Jones, visit the wiki and lend a hand. If you're looking for that small bit of information that slipped your mind over the years, check out the detail on the wiki. It's definitely interesting, informative, and entertaining.

Yo-Yo Wiki, the online yo-yo resource that anyone can edit

Today in celebration of Yo-Yo Day, I was pleased to find a nice wiki on the yo-yo.

The Y0-Yo Wiki is hosted on Wikia and has over 1,100 articles. It offers"how to" guides, yo-yo reviews, and information on famous yo-yoers. It has information on the types of yo-yos and their maintenance. It includes articles on the history of yo-yo. There are articles on yo-yo tricks and styles of play. There is also information on the yo-yo contests and the people of yo-yo. It also lists the many places in the media (including TV, movies, magazines, and video games) where yo-yos may be seen.

I was a little disappointed though -- I was hoping to see videos of the various yo-yo masters in action and how to perform yo-yo tricks (similar to those seen at How to YoYo). Nevertheless, the Yo-Yo Wiki is definitely interesting and informative -- it could just be a little bit more entertaining for a non-yo-yo master like me. : )

Twitter Fan Wiki, a wiki for the community of tweeters

The Twitter Fan Wiki is a sweet wiki'd place for tweeters.

In experimenting with Twitter this week, I was glad to find the Twitter Fan Wiki on PBWiki. It is a neat wiki'd place for both new and experienced Twitter users. On the wiki you can view and post events, groups, and feature requests. You can learn about neat Apps and Bots available for Twitter users. There is also some geeky stuff, like Scripts and Mashups. The Newbies Corner has links to a helpful etiquette guide and a glossary for the jargon of this experience. Although small (with less than 100 pages) it seems to be a tweet place for tweeters, a twittastic wiki'd place with a twittionary with twexplanations so twewbies like me and other twitteritas won't be tweetards and will avoid twoops and mistweeks. If you are new to Twitter or want to share your expertise, visit the Twitter Fan Wiki.

Road Trips USA, one guide to the open highway

This weekend is the start of the summer vacation season. Monday is the Memorial Day holiday. There will be hamburgers and hotdogs on many grills. It's already hot in Texas and a pool sounds like a really great idea. Usually many of my friends plan extended road trips during the summer. However, with the price of gas so high, and still climbing, many are looking for the shorter road trips. I found a cute little wiki Road Trips USA on Wetpaint that offers many suggestions.

Road Trips USA is a small wiki (with less than 60 pages) but has a growing community. In addition to suggested road trips, it has other interesting information, such as fun pit stops, car games, and road trip movies. You may want to also load your MP3 player with the many road trip tunes listed on the wiki. Although you may not be planning the great American cross-country road trip (like Oprah and her friend Gayle took), there are suggested multi-day trips and short Sunday drives on the wiki that might interest you. They list their fourteen most scenic drives on the wiki. You might be interested in such a road trip this Sunday and still will be home to celebrate the holiday on Monday. However, I, myself, will be totally focused on the Indy 500 this Sunday. ; )

The following song comes to my mind when thinking about a road trip: On the Road Again by Willie Nelson (and you can see the video in this blogpost).
As posted on YouTube by dynocounter

Hopefully, if you're thinking about taking an adventure on the open highway (go ahead, the price of gas is probably going to continue to rise even higher later), you might find some interesting and informative details on this little wiki. Also, if you can suggest a neat short, road trip in your area, why not visit Road Trips USA and update the wiki?

If driving, remember to buckle up. If passing through the Lone Star state on your road trip, "don't mess with Texas" (don't litter). And, never drink and drive. Have a nice, safe Memorial Day holiday.

ArmchairGM, the ultimate community of sports fans

In honor of the debut of ABC's World Wide of Sports in 1961 on this date, today I've selected the ArmchairGM wiki as my wiki-of-the-day.

ArmchairGM, based on MediaWiki, aims to be the ultimate community of sports fans. It includes articles on sports in many categories, including baseball, basketball, football, soccer, ice hockey, auto racing, golf, cycling, olympic events, combat sports, extreme sports,water sports, horse races, and many more! Writers of articles within this sports encyclopedia can embed flash videos (such as YouTube video clips). Unlike some encyclopedias, fans on ArmchairGM may write Opinions describing what they think about different sports-related topics.

Any and all sports fans are welcome to join the ArmchairGM community and contribute. Community members can post to the community blog -- articles are filtered by the community. Articles with enough votes appear front-and-center on ArmchairGM and hit the RSS feed. ArmchairGM lets fans rate "virtually anything in the sports world" and also make it easy for its fans to grab the ratings and stick them elsewhere. Fans on ArmchairGM can get recognition through points for virtually every activity on the site. Top fans are honored on an ongoing, monthly, and weekly basis. Fans can advance up levels, starting as Little Leaguers and up to the Legends level.

ArmchairGM has been described as an example of Wiki 2.0, combining the features of open source wiki software with social networking features. Each fan can build a profile and include their own photo galleries. Fans may join networks of other fans of their favorite teams. They can meet new people and add friends. Likewise, it also has a counterpart where you can add a fan to your network of foes. It also has a virtual gift component where little icons can be sent to another fan with a personal message (e.g., tissues for team losses, asterisk for accolades). Fans can also create gifts themselves by uploading images.

ArmchairGM has been quite successful. It was acquired by Wikia for $2 million. In March 2008, the Sports Illustrated site SI.com added to its new SI Vault section the "SI Wiki" which is powered by ArmchairGM. This wiki has obviously been found "worthy enough and rich with information" of being the sports wiki for SI.com.

For those who celebrate the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, visit the ArmchairGM wiki, join the community, and jump right in!

Wiki resources for mathematics education

Today, in celebration of Math Education Month, I set out on a quest to find wikis devoted to mathematics and math education. I was pleasantly surprised to find numerous wikis that have been created on these topics. I found wikis with resources for teachers of mathematics. I also found wikis developed by classes and schools to share information about their mathematics curriculum or courses. I've posted in this blog post a few examples of the wikis I found.


Resources for Mathematics Teachers:
k12wiki - Effective Math Videos, a site which includes links to videos that can be used in teaching mathematics
PlanetMath.Org's mathematics encyclopedia , "Math for the people, by the people"
Wikibooks: Mathematics bookshelf, For those looking for some more traditional resources for teaching math, check out the math textbooks collection on Wikibooks
Wikiversity: Mathematics Portal, for learning resources on various topics in mathematics developed in various Wikiversity content development projects

Examples of how schools are using wikis for math education:
All About Math at Marstons Mills East Horace Mann Charter Public School, an example wiki developed about the mathematics curriculum at one K-4 school
Primary math, a wiki set up for primary classes (K-2) to share their math learning with other classes around the world
York University's Department of Mathematics and Statistics wiki site

I also found a wiki for those in the academic mathematics job market:
Notable Mathematics Wiki

Today, I hope that you see the variety of wiki sites that can be created on a topic and the variety of wiki user groups

Image credit: Robert Fant's math wiki

Wikicartoon, the free cartoon encyclopedia

In celebration of Daffy Duck's first appearance on this date in 1937, I started my search for a wiki related to cartoons. I first found Wikicartoon. It is hosted on Wikia. It was started on February 3, 2006. The home page notes that they are currently working on 107 articles. It appears to have been idle for awhile recently, but there's been some activity lately. Five new pages have been created in 2008, but there have only been 8 changes during the last 30 days and none of those within the last two weeks. The wiki could definitely use some help. It currently has at least 1,000 items on its wanted pages list. There's no page devoted to Daffy Duck yet on the wiki, but Daffy is mentioned on the Warner Brothers Cartoons and Looney Tunes wiki pages.

If you've spent a lot time on the cartoon networks, have fond memories of the cartoons of your childhood, or enjoy watching them even today, stop by Wikicartoon, join its community and lend a hand. Hey, why not surprise your kids and spend some quality time with them watching cartoons this week, for research to help on Wikicartoon?

Image credit: Wikia

No loss for words with Wiktionary

In celebration of the publishing of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language on this date in 1755, I've selected Wiktionary as my wiki-of-the-day.

Wiktionary is just one of the many projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation, which also runs Wikipedia, probably the most famous wiki of all. Wiktionary has 782,480 entries with English definitions. Wiktionary has grown beyond a standard dictionary. It now includes a thesaurus, a rhyme guide, phrasebooks, and language statistics. In addition to definitions, it includes entymologies, pronunciations, sample quotations, synonyms, antonyms, and translations.

If you're at a loss for the right words, then try out Wiktionary. Also, if you have a huge vocabulary with no problems completing crossword challenges, you might be challenged by the Wiktionary requested entries page. Today, think about lending a hand and contribute to this wiki project.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Everything Treo Wiki

In celebration of yesterday's anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell's first discernible speech transmitted over a telephone system, I started my search on the Web for a wiki to help me with a problem I'm experiencing with my fairly new Palm Treo. One of the reasons I bought this device was to be able to be connected anytime, anyplace. I successfully receive instant messages when I receive e-mail on some of my accounts. I can check my e-mail on several accounts. I am notified when pages of my wikis are updated and can easily and quickly check the site for updates from vandals. I had great plans of being able to connect to the Web using my laptop through the connectivity available from my new Treo. The hope of pseudo DSL speed for my laptop through my cell phone! After all, when I'm stuck on the farm with no computer connectivity (e.g., no DSL, no cable modem, no landline for even a dial connection), I wanted to connect my computer using my Palm Treo. I certainly need a break from work while on vacation, but I did not want to go cold-turkey from blog posts and checking updates to my wikis. : ) Well, my attempts at connecting my laptop using only my cell phone did not work over my Christmas holiday test. I'm not sure where to start at solving the problem either. It's likely a new user error. Now that I'm making plans for a spring vacation, I wondered what wiki resources may be on the Web to help me solve the problem. I thought that it might be a great wiki-of-the-day too on today's historic anniversary of Bell's achievement.

I found the Everything Treo Wiki on Wetpaint. However, I do not immediately see any information on the wiki that can help me with this problem. I noticed that although several new community members have joined in 2008, there really have been no page updates in 2008. I don't see my model on the wiki yet. However, I noticed that the wiki is connected to a parent Everything Treo site. It appears to be more up-to-date. Perhaps it will have something to help me. I'm disappointed that the wiki is not up-to-date and does not have more information on it about the recent models. I am encouraged by its connection to an active website though. If you're a Palm Treo user, visit the wiki and lend a hand and help bring the site up-to-date. Add an article on how to connect your laptop to the Internet using the Palm Treo technology! Or, post a comment or send me a message if you can refer me to a site that has a solution. : )

Well, even though this site was not as informative as I hoped, I'm still logging it as my wiki-of-the-day. Perhaps there's something we can learn from this experience: the need for currency and an active community. Plus, this is example of one wiki that is integrated into the structure of another website.

The Genealogy Wiki, celebrating family history

In celebration of Genealogy Day, the wiki-of-the-day is The Genealogy Wiki.

The Genealogy Wiki on Wikia hosts Familypedia. It's a place where you can create articles about your ancestors and link them to other articles about where and when they lived. The site not only includes historically significant people, but also includes the everyday people not generally listed in encyclopedias. A person's page includes personal facts (e.g., year of birth, place of birth), family data (e.g., names of the father, mother, siblings, spouse, children), public records, other records, notes, and contributors of the content. Pages can contain detailed data, pictures, and other images. This wiki is on Wikia's big wiki list. It currently has over 19,875 articles and many thousands of linked categories and information pages. This is a site where you may find one of your ancestors. It's also a place where you can store your family history.

The TV IV

The TV IV wiki is a database of information about television shows that anyone can edit. It has >175,600 articles. It includes information on both classic and modern TV. For each show, you can add an overview, a summary profile, a cast listing, season information, and links to external sites. Some shows have detailed episode articles, with plot overviews, triva, behind the scenes info, quotes, and reviews. Its home page has an article on a featured show, the daily TV schedule line-up for the networks and cable, and recent DVD releases. This week you can vote for your favorites in its Readers' Choice IVy Awards.

This site definitely qualifies as a wiki-of-the-day on Wiki'd Places: it's interesting, informative, and dedicated to the entertainment industry. With the recent writer's strike, The TV IV might be a place to either get a full dose of information on your favorite TV shows or contribute online by adding information that you know about your favs.

Ready, set, go! Share your knowledge in the WikiAnswers AnswerThon March 1-2

WikiAnswers is a wiki-based website where visitors contribute what they know and ask about what they don't. Anyone can ask or answer a question. Here's a place to dump all your seemingly useless knowledge. Since the site is a wiki, anyone can improve the answer. It's a group effort -- all working toward creating the one correct, expert answer. WikiAnswers has 2,460 community-grown Q&A collections. Today, there are over 610,663 members now working on 1,928,979 questions. Their motto: WikiAnswers: Q&A, the Wiki way.

On March 1-2, WikiAnswers is hosting the WikiAnswers AnswerThon. An AnswerThon is an organized event designed to foster the sharing of knowledge on WikiAnswers. During 48 hours, participants will answer as many questions as they can to spread knowledge and to win prizes (of course!) The contest is on NOW! It began at midnight (ET) and concludes at midnight on Sunday night. Only answers posted during this 48-hour timeframe will be counted in the contest. Ok, you are probably thinking, besides the sheer pleasure of sharing my knowledge, what's-in-it-for-me? Tell me more about those prizes!

• 1st place winner who answers the most questions in 2 days will be crowned the AnswerThon Champion and receives a $500 Amazon gift certificate


• 2nd place - $250 Amazon gift certificate


• 3rd place - $100 Amazon gift certificate
  

All winners (including the next 10 runner ups) will receive WikiAnswers t-shirts. Don't forget to read all the rules!

For more information on what they're doing at WikiAnswers, read their blog no.stupid.answers

Image credit: Answers.com

Top Secret! Confidential!

Wikileaks is a wiki which allows whistleblowers, while remaining anonymous, to release government and corporate documents. It claims that postings are untraceable by anyone. Wikileaks was launched in December 2006 and has more than 1.2 million documents. Its primary interests are oppressive regions in Asia, the former Soviet block, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East, but may be used by anyone to reveal unethical behavior in their own governments and corporations. You may have heard about it leaking documents related to prisons in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.


You can usually quickly start a great debate about the value or danger of such a site. Some note the importance of being able to protect secret documents from leaking to the public, to protect national security. Others wonder if the documents are actually legitimate or fake documents posted as a joke. Many note that the documents could be easily misunderstood when read out of context with other documents that are unavailable. However, on Wikileaks, site visitors can discuss their interpretations and context.

Just recently it has become a little more difficult to get to the Wikileaks site. The main WikiLeaks.org DNS entry is currently unavailable, reportedly due to a restraining order related to some articles and documents released by Wikileaks about off-shore trust structures in the Cayman Islands. Therefore, the wiki is no longer available by entering its registered URL. An injunction granted by the California Northern District Court in San Francisco to Bank Julius Baer, a Swiss Bank, caused the domain to be taken offline in the US. Wikileaks had reportedly published documents from a whistleblower of the Swiss Bank purportedly showing offshore tax evasion and money laundering activities, perhaps by wealthy and politically sensitive clients.

You've always heard never put anything on the Internet and think you can just simply delete it later? Information spreads! This site is not an exception to that tail. It has mirror sites which can be used during outages. So, you can actually still view a mirror of the Wikileaks site and you can still reach the original Wikileaks site by using its direct link.

For more information about Wikileaks and its current access challenges:
Wikipedia article on Wikileaks
WikiNews article on Wikileaks

Post a comment telling us what you think about Wikileaks and the information it hosts.

wikiFido, The Dog Lover's Guide to Dogs

Ah-roo! Numero uno! Uno, the beagle rules.

Last week beagle lovers around the world celebrated the first win of the beagle breed at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. This year, Uno, nearly 3 years old and 15 inches tall lived up to his name and became the first beagle to win best in show at Westminster. The nation's new top dog was a clear crowd favorite at Madison Square Garden. There was a standing ovation from the sold-out audience when Uno was picked.

There's a lot of great press about this popular beagle. However, can you recognize these two other famous beagles?

Underdog from the popular tv series and Snoopy from the Peanuts comic strip, of course.

Today in celebration of Uno's win last week, the numero uno wiki-of-the-day is wikiFido.


wikiFido was created to be a resource for all dog lovers. It's a user-created community for the dog lovin' crowd. On wikiFido, you can register and create a personal profile for your dog. You can brag about your dog, show off pictures and videos and connect with other dog lovers. You can read about celebrities and their dogs. You can participate in online polls. You can also read and share information about dog-friendly resources in your city, including best parks/walks, veterinarians, pet sitters, groomers, boarders/kennels, trainers, breeders, shelters, and other services. There are articles about pure bred and mixed breed dogs, dog rescue, dog training, dog sports, and dog parties. You can find links to dog blogs and information on dog care (diet and nutrition, grooming), health (first aid, cold weather care, common ailments, issues for older dogs), garden hazards, dog gift guides, and jobs performed by dogs. On wikiFido, you can find neat badges to use as artwork on your site to link back to wikiFido, spreading the tail of wikiFido around your pack as a place where you all can bark about your dogs. Contests have been sponsored by wikiFido and DogExplorer too, including the 2006 World's Best Flying Disc Dog Picture Contest.

wikiFido has over 2500 community members, with 25 administrators and moderators. There are many new and recently updated pages and discussion threads. However, it appears to me that the site could use a little help from additional dog lovers. The home page shows the top dog breeds for 2006 with a link to the 25 most popular breeds for 2005. I expected to at least see the top breeds for 2007. I was also hoping to see something about the Westminster Kennel Club dog show and an article about Uno, the top dog for 2008. Wikis rely on community members and this great Wetpaint site barks, but could use a little help for a fresh coat here and there. If you're a dog lover, drop by the site and check it out. Join the community and contribute to the site.

By the way, after seeing Uno take the top dog spot, you might be interested in more information about the beagle breed. The wikiFido site has a page describing the beagle's history, physical description, grooming and exercise needs, temperament, common health problems, AKC category, life expectancy, and other online community resources.


Image credits:
Underdog, from the Wikipedia article on the tv series
Uno, from The Washington Post
Buy the print of Snoopy, No Way Out by Tom Everhart at AllPosters.com

All About Racin' - a community for Nascar fans

Today, in celebration of the 50th running of the Daytona 500, the wiki-of-the-day is All About Racin' on Wetpaint. I was looking for a wiki site for the 2008 Nascar fans. This site has 371 members and about 100 pages. It offers links to Nascar blogs and information on champions and crew chiefs. It has about 40 driver profiles on the site. It even has a page about the gossip on the driver wives and girlfriends. It includes some promising pages for Nascar fans for posting favorite memories and fan photos. It has pages to post favorite Nascar photos and videos of crashes. I'm a little disappointed though with the site. It needs a "fresh coat" for the 2008 season. I don't even see the winner of the 2007 Nextel Cup Series on the site. I don't yet see the 2008 racing schedule and profiles of the newest Nascar racers who are moving from the open-wheel racing leagues. I was hoping to see a great page about today's historic 50th running of the Daytona 500. I was hoping that the Nascar chat would be active during the race, but I was the only one there when I tested it. Because some pages have been recently updated and there are several active threads, I believe that the community is still alive, but it just does not seem to be thriving on this site yet for the 2008 season. This site was once a very active site with a growing community but appears to need a little help. If you're a Nascar fan, drop by the wiki and lend it a hand.

Image credit: SportsTraveler