come to this Artwalk each month






#DigitalBanner { width: 990px ;

margin-left: auto ;

margin-right: auto ; }









Activate SubscribeGo to floridatimesunion.com

LOG INTO JACKSONVILLE.COM





Home

News

Local

Areas >>

Clay

Beaches

Southside

South Georgia

St. Johns

Florida

Nation

World

Crime

Traffic

Databases

Health & Fitness

Military

Obituaries

Pets

Politics & Government

Schools

Transportation

Values & Religion

Sports

Jaguars

UF Gators

UGa Bulldogs

FSU Seminoles

UNF Ospreys

JU Dolphins

High Schools

Running

Golf

Suns

Outdoors

Auto Racing

Money

Blogs

Real Estate

Small Business

Submit News

Personal Finance

Life

Arts

Comics

Contests

De Paseo

Food & Dining

PrimeTime

Games

Home & Garden

Horoscope

Lottery

Movies

Relationships

Events

TV

Reason

Opinion

Editorials

Ron Littlepage

Forums

Letters from Readers

Opinion Page Blog

Rants & Raves

Savvy Citizen

Site Help

Obits

Photos

Photos Blog

Entertainment

Sports

News

Share

Areas of Town

T-U Photographers

Community Photographers

Groups

Most Recent

Videos

News

Entertainment

Sports

Jaguars

Florida/Nation/World

Great Parks

MATTAboutJAX

Community Video

Classifieds

Place an Ad

Homes

Autos

Merchandise

Garage Sales

Pets

Announcements

Services

Legals

YouPayHalf

Cars

Find A Vehicle

Find a Dealer

Under $9,999

Research Vehicles

Compare Cars

Search by Lifestyle

New on the Lot

Pod Rods

First Coast Gears

Jobs

Top Jobs

Advertise with Us

Contact Us

Virtual Career Fair

Homes

Deals

Daily Deal

Your Money

Deals from the Web

Grocery Coupons

Couponing Tips

Find Cheap Gas

#wl-wrapper-header .wl-container { height: 80px !important;}

#wl-wrapper-container #wl-wrapper-header { height: 80px !important;}

#wl-wrapper-leaderboard {margin-top: 0 !important;}

.nav .block-block .wl-container {

display: block;

}

#staticnav .menu,

#staticnav .menu ul,

#staticnav .menu li,

#staticnav .menu a {

margin: 0;

padding: 0;

border: none;

outline: none;

}

#staticnav .menu {

height: 35px;

width: 975px;

background: #1C4477;

/* -webkit-border-radius: 0 0 5 5px;

-moz-border-radius: 0 0 5 5px;

border-radius: 0 0 5 5px; */

}

#staticnav .menu li {

position: relative;

list-style: none;

float: left;

display: block;

height: 35px;

background: #1C4477;

}

#staticnav .menu li a {

display: block;

padding: 10px 7px;

margin: 0;

line-height: 1.2;

text-decoration: none;

text-transform: uppercase;

border-left: 1px solid #E9F3F8;

border-right: 1px solid #E9F3F8;

font-family: helvetica, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;

font-weight: bold;

font-size: 13px;

text-shadow: 0px 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);

color: #fff;

-webkit-transition: color .2s ease-in-out;

-moz-transition: color .2s ease-in-out;

-o-transition: color .2s ease-in-out;

-ms-transition: color .2s ease-in-out;

transition: color .2s ease-in-out;

}

#staticnav .menu li:first-child a { border-left: none; }

#staticnav .menu li:last-child a{ border-right: none; }

#staticnav .menu li:hover { background-color: #FFC800; }

#staticnav .menu ul {

position: absolute;

top: 35px;

left: 0;

display: none;

opacity: 0;

background: #CCD9DF;

-webkit-transition: opacity .25s ease .1s;

-moz-transition: opacity .25s ease .1s;

-o-transition: opacity .25s ease .1s;

-ms-transition: opacity .25s ease .1s;

transition: opacity .25s ease .1s;

}

#staticnav .menu ul a {

color: #1C4477;

font-size: 12px;

font-weight: bold;

text-transform: none;

}

#staticnav .menu li:hover > ul { opacity: 1; display: block; }

#staticnav .menu ul li {

height: 0;

overflow: hidden;

padding: 0;

-webkit-transition: height .25s ease .1s;

-moz-transition: height .25s ease .1s;

-o-transition: height .25s ease .1s;

-ms-transition: height .25s ease .1s;

transition: height .25s ease .1s;

background: none;

}

#staticnav .menu li:hover > ul li {

height: 20px;

overflow: visible;

padding: 0;

}

#staticnav .menu ul li a {

width: 180px;

padding: 4px;

margin: 0;

border: none;

border-bottom: none;

}

#staticnav .menu ul li:last-child a { border: none; padding-bottom: 5px;}

#staticnav .menu ul.areas {

position: absolute;

top: 0px;

margin-left: 178px;

opacity: 0;

background: #ccc;

-webkit-transition: opacity .25s ease .1s;

-moz-transition: opacity .25s ease .1s;

-o-transition: opacity .25s ease .1s;

-ms-transition: opacity .25s ease .1s;

transition: opacity .25s ease .1s;

}

#staticnav .menu ul.last {

position: absolute;

top: 35px;

margin-left: -130px;

opacity: 0;

background: #CCD9DF;

-webkit-transition: opacity .25s ease .1s;

-moz-transition: opacity .25s ease .1s;

-o-transition: opacity .25s ease .1s;

-ms-transition: opacity .25s ease .1s;

transition: opacity .25s ease .1s;

}

#staticnav ul.menu li ul li ul.areas li a {

background: #F0F0F0;

}

#staticnav ul.menu li ul li ul.areas li a:hover {

background: #FFC800;

}

#staticnav .menu ul a:hover { color: #1C4477; }

#staticnav .menu li a {

*font-size: 13px /* IE7 and below */

}

/* IE8 and below */

#staticnav .menu li a {

font-size: 13px\9; }

#staticnav .menu ul li a {

font-size: 12px\9; }

#staticnav {

position: relative;

z-index: 99998;

clear: both;

}

.top_section .more_dots {display: none;}







#wl-wrapper-leaderboard #block-block-78 .wl-container{border-top:0px !important;}

Loading...







Comment













Jax Beach Art Walk celebrates first anniversary

Better Jacksonville Beach adds monthly car cruise to lineup

Posted: August 8, 2014 - 1:40pm



Michele Gillis for Shorelines

A collection of works displayed by Amy Michelle Gregory of AMEJ Art during last month's Jax Beach Art Walk.

Photos

Back Photo: 1 of 3 Next

Michele Gillis for Shorelines

Jon McGowan, president of Better Jacksonville Beach, organized and oversees the Jax Beach Art Walk.

Back Photo: 2 of 3 Next

Michele Gills for Shorelines

Artists Dino Baron and Jo Marie Carter from the L'Arche Rainbow Workshop show off their designs during the Jax Beach Art Walk.

Back Photo: 3 of 3 Next

Michele Gills for Shorelines

Amy Michelle Gregory of AMEJ Art paints a table during the Jax Beach Art Walk in July.

By Michele Gillis

As families and couples stroll by storefronts in downtown Jacksonville Beach, artist Amy Michelle Gregory puts the finishing touches on her latest piece of art.

“I like to paint live,” said Gregory of AMEJ Custom Artwork, one of approximately 70 artists featured in the Jax Beach Art Walk. “I love it. Sometimes it gets a little windy out here while painting, but I really enjoy creating art in front of the people walking by.”

Jacksonville Beach’s Art Walk celebrates its first anniversary this month. Held the second Tuesday of each month from 5-9 p.m., the event is staged along First Street between Beach Boulevard and Fifth Avenue North.

Gregory said the Art Walk is popular with both tourists and locals, allowing her an opportunity for marketing and networking while she paints. The free event is also free for the artists who participate; the only requirement is that all of the goods have to be handmade and the artists need to provide their display tables. The event, founded in August 2013 by Better Jacksonville Beach in an effort to bring families back to the downtown district, typically draws 500 to 1,000 people.

“We needed more family-friendly events at the beach,” said Jon McGowan, president of Better Jacksonville Beach and owner of McGowan Firearms in Atlantic Beach. “The real base of the program is the Art Walk, and last month we started a Classic Car Cruise.”

After a highly publicized fight in Jacksonville Beach on Memorial Day 2013, McGowan said he formed the nonprofit Better Jacksonville Beach by reaching out to business owners in the downtown area.

BJB now has five business owners on its board and about 20 other local business owners as members of the association.

“We wanted to get the business owners all together to work together to improve the area,” he said.

McGowan said he knew of the success of Art Walks in neighboring communities, and started by doing his homework, reaching out to organizers of other area art events and asking questions.

“It’s not just about the art, it’s about building the community and getting families to feel like they can come back down here again,” said McGowan. “They can bring their family and walk around, get reintroduced to the area and get familiar with all the neat restaurants.”

McGowan chose a Tuesday night to hold the walk because he believed the area is already overwhelmed on the weekends.

“We were trying to get families down here, and the best way is to start with a clean palate,” he said. “We started on a Tuesday night when there is no one in Jacksonville Beach.”

McGowan said his hope was that families would then start coming out other nights of the week and eventually rowdier crowds would stay away as families come back in.

“Families have abandoned it,” he said. “They felt it wasn’t theirs. It was just a place where college kids came to get drunk and party. If [families] went out to dinner, they’d go along Third Street or to Atlantic Beach. We have to let them know that this is their downtown again.”

McGowan said he didn’t struggle getting the event off the ground once word got out, noting that the City of Jacksonville Beach was helpful in the process. All he needed was a permit and insurance, which was paid for by the businesses involved in BJB.

“I threw the first one together in about three weeks and had 45 artists,” he said.

Delcher Carter of Delcher’s Leather, which specializes in customer leatherwork in Neptune Beach, has been a part of the Art Walk since its inception.

“I’ve been here for nine years, and I think it’s really great for the community,” Delcher said.

Print and floral artist and Jacksonville Beach resident Tiffany Turner has been selling her hand-painted cards, prints and framed art in the Art Walk since the event’s beginning. She said she enjoys the sense of community that the local artists help create.

“The whole idea of the Art Walk is to let people know this is not a bad place; it’s a wonderful place,” said Turner. “That’s one of the reasons the Art Walk is great because more and more people are coming, including families with kids.”

Capitalizing on the weekday family-friendly event, Better Jacksonville Beach introduced a Classic Car Cruise every third Tuesday of the month from 6 to 8:30 p.m. More than 40 cars owners took part in the first event two months ago, but there were visibility and organizational problems that needed tweaking. The City of Jacksonville Beach has since partnered with BJB to improve the event. Now, about 30 vehicles are selected to park in Latham Plaza and the Sea Walk Pavilion. Other cruisers are encouraged to start parking in the northwest corner of the city parking lot between Latham Plaza and Sneakers. At 8:30 p.m., participants are joined by attendees for an organized cruise along First Street.

“... It is becoming a fixture in the community,” McGowan said. “I hope over the next year we’ll see more people start to show up, and we can continue to help make families feel the downtown is their area.”

Those interested in the Art Walk or the Classic Car Cruise can contact McGowan at info@betterjaxbeach.com.

Share Email Print

Subscription Offer

Subscribe to The Florida Times-Union







a:link {border:0;} /* unvisited link */

a:visited {border:0;} /* visited link */

a:hover {border:0;} /* mouse over link */

a:active {border:0;}

#containerDeal{

margin: 10px 0px 5px 3px;

width:300px;

height: 200px;

background-image: url(http://jacksonville.com/ads/dd2013logo/png3.png);

background-position: 0px -148px;



}

#containerDeal a:link {

color:#0F4B6A;

text-decoration:none;

} /* unvisited link */

#containerDeal a:visited {

color:#0F4B6A;

} /* visited link */

#containerDeal a:hover {

color:#0F4B6A;

} /* mouse over link */

#containerDeal a:active {

color:#0F4B6A;

} /* selected link */

.sidedealtitle{

font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

font-weight: bold;

font-size: 12px;

color: #0F4B6A;

display: inline-block;

width: 275px;

text-align: center;

padding: 10px 17px 0px 10px;

}

.logoimage {

height: 123px;

width: 135px;

float: left;

padding: 4px 0px 0px 4px;

}

.logoimage img{

height: auto;

width: 159px;

}

.sidedealimage {

height: 123px;

width: 135px;

float: right;

overflow: hidden;

padding: 4px 0px 0px 10px;

margin-right: 6px;

}

.sidedealimage img{

width:100%;

height:100%;



}

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/community/shorelines/2014-08-08/story/jax-beach-art-walk-celebrates-first-anniversary#ixzz39zUDfZ00


Faces of the Forest
Meet Jennifer H. Barnhart
Office of Communication
Tuesday, August 12, 2014 - 15:30

Jennifer Heisey Barnhart has always loved the outdoors so it is only logical that all of her jobs have been working outdoors. Jennifer currently works for the Andrew Pickens Ranger District on the Sumter National Forest in South Carolina. She is a fairly new employee of four years for the U.S. Forest Service, but the experience she brings to her natural resources specialist job in recreation is many years strong.

Jennifer Heisey BarnhartHow did you get started with your natural resource career?
I started working for state parks in Pennsylvania at a young age and that’s where I learned to appreciate the outdoors. I was involved in my high school’s environmental club competing in envirothons. In college, I decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree in natural resources recreation with a minor in forestry and then went on for a master’s degree in natural resources management for recreation. I also continued to work while pursuing both degrees.

After graduate school, I took a job with the Green Mountain Club

External Links icon
, a non-profit partner with the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont, as a backcountry caretaker. I was living in the woods solo for four months out of the year. I would be out for five days straight, only to come out for 48 hours and then go back. I was performing trail maintenance and educating hikers on Leave No Trace
External Links icon
when they would come through on the Long Trail which is co-aligned with the Appalachian Trail. That was the only interaction I had with the outside world until I went out to restock on food and shower. It is one of my favorite jobs ever.

I’ve also worked for the Appalachian Mountain Club as an outdoor recreation planner and with Virginia State Parks as a district resource specialist. The U.S. Forest Service hired me as a full-time permanent employee on the Calcasieu Ranger District as their natural resources specialist for recreation. I had been applying for years and years because it was my ultimate goal to get in with the Forest Service. I am really excited to be working for the agency and very thankful to the Calcasieu Ranger District who gave me my start. I recently took the same position with the Andrew Pickens Ranger District on the Sumter National Forest in South Carolina, which includes the management of the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River and the Ellicott Rock Wilderness.

What or who has had the greatest influence on your life?
I wouldn’t say one person, but instead will focus on what gave me the drive to work hard. I came from a blue-collar family and was the first person in my family to go to college. I was very driven to get a degree and somehow I ended up getting my master’s degree – which was awesome. I was determined to keep working hard and moving up, always trying to set goals and be able to accomplish them. So, I think my biggest influence is coming from a hard working blue-collar family.

As a child, did you know what you wanted to be when you grew up?
I started working as a teenager for Pennsylvania State Parks. I knew I was into the environment, enjoyed the outdoors and always wanted to help protect it. Once I figured out I could go to school and get a degree in forestry, wildlife or recreation, I finally narrowed it down to natural resources recreation. So yes, I knew early where I was headed.

I based my answer on where I grew up which was close to the Appalachian Trail, surrounded by state forests and state parks, not national forests. But I had an upbringing in a beautiful area and that really influenced me.

Jennifer Heisey Barnhart If you could be or do anything else, what would it be?
I would run a non-profit organization related to promoting outdoor recreation amongst youth and families.

Since you’ve only been working on a forest for about four years, have you had any opportunity to tackle a big project dealing with a recreation area?
There are all kinds of major repairs and daily crises. We did have a major event happen just before Thanksgiving several years ago that I was involved in. Our Louisiana campgrounds are very popular in the state because our developed campgrounds have water and electric. We generally fill our 41 sites completely each year at Thanksgiving. It was close to the end of the day when the water pump completely shut down. I had to immediately figure out who I could get before a holiday to repair or put in a new pump. I was desperate, but I was able to call our local town’s water system and they gave me a contact.

Thankfully, a repair person was able to come out on short notice and actually fix the pump. I had to get approvals on very short notice and we all worked on Thanksgiving trying to repair the site for campers to have water to cook their turkeys. That was a big deal for me, being fairly new in the agency, trying to communicate with the campground hosts and campers while keeping them calm and informed of all of the developments.

Another big accomplishment was increasing the volunteer program on the Calcasieu District. I was able to partner with a lot of different organizations such as the Kisatchie Bicycle Club and our mountain biking community to do trail work for us. The mountain bikers re-blazed an entire tail system. The trail system was re-marked in the hopes of becoming more user-friendly. I also co-coordinated National Get Outdoors Day in June 2013. We were able to have local organizations donate their time and materials to lead mountain bike rides, yoga demonstrations, kayaking, and hikes to an awesome eagles’ nest. Everything was free for the community to come and enjoy.

If you could meet and greet some famous people in history, who would they be?
I guess one person would be John Muir. I learned about him in my conservation classes and he seemed interesting, traveling all over the country trying to preserve different natural public lands that we have today. In late 2013, Gifford Pinchot’s home, Grey Towers celebrated its 50th anniversary. Both Muir and Pinchot were great conservationists in the Roosevelt era.

Another person folks may not know is “Molly Pitcher” from Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She was the first woman to set foot on the battle ground in the Revolutionary War. She would give pitchers of water to the men and when one of the men went down, she actually took over the cannon. She was very interesting and I learned about her when I was in the fourth or fifth grade. She is actually buried in my hometown. Revolutionary War buffs might have heard of her.

Do you have any hobbies?
I’m super into outdoor recreation. I’m a mountain biker, runner, cyclist and a swimmer. In the past two years, I’ve competed in triathlons. In the summer of 2012, I competed in my first Ironman competition at Lake Placid up in the Adirondacks. It took me about 14 hours to complete the whole race – a mere 140.6 miles! I was actually able to train on the Calcasieu Ranger District’s trails in the winter and on the roads around the Kisatchie National Forest in the summer. It’s a great hobby for me, but also beneficial to work on the forest, be outdoors and to be able to easily do that right outside your office.

What do you like about working for the Forest Service?
I love that I’m able to do what I’m obviously passionate about in my personal life: being outdoors and loving recreation, having access to public land and being able to be a manager in that area. I’m happy that I can make positive contributions to the community by making sure the recreation areas and trails are managed to meet high standards and tax payers can directly see and experience these benefits.

I say this to my employees because a lot of them don’t realize that their shoulders are holding up the weight of the public’s image of the national forests. Recreation areas and trails are what the public directly experience regularly and that reflects back on our image. The public doesn’t necessarily directly see the positives of what’s going on in the timber, wildlife and fire programs. So we’re the ones holding it on our shoulders to make sure that the public views what the Forest Service does as beneficial and important.
Tags
faces of the forest

Faces of the Forest
Meet Jennifer H. Barnhart
Office of Communication
Tuesday, August 12, 2014 - 15:30

Jennifer Heisey Barnhart has always loved the outdoors so it is only logical that all of her jobs have been working outdoors. Jennifer currently works for the Andrew Pickens Ranger District on the Sumter National Forest in South Carolina. She is a fairly new employee of four years for the U.S. Forest Service, but the experience she brings to her natural resources specialist job in recreation is many years strong.

Jennifer Heisey BarnhartHow did you get started with your natural resource career?
I started working for state parks in Pennsylvania at a young age and that’s where I learned to appreciate the outdoors. I was involved in my high school’s environmental club competing in envirothons. In college, I decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree in natural resources recreation with a minor in forestry and then went on for a master’s degree in natural resources management for recreation. I also continued to work while pursuing both degrees.

After graduate school, I took a job with the Green Mountain Club

External Links icon
, a non-profit partner with the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont, as a backcountry caretaker. I was living in the woods solo for four months out of the year. I would be out for five days straight, only to come out for 48 hours and then go back. I was performing trail maintenance and educating hikers on Leave No Trace
External Links icon
when they would come through on the Long Trail which is co-aligned with the Appalachian Trail. That was the only interaction I had with the outside world until I went out to restock on food and shower. It is one of my favorite jobs ever.

I’ve also worked for the Appalachian Mountain Club as an outdoor recreation planner and with Virginia State Parks as a district resource specialist. The U.S. Forest Service hired me as a full-time permanent employee on the Calcasieu Ranger District as their natural resources specialist for recreation. I had been applying for years and years because it was my ultimate goal to get in with the Forest Service. I am really excited to be working for the agency and very thankful to the Calcasieu Ranger District who gave me my start. I recently took the same position with the Andrew Pickens Ranger District on the Sumter National Forest in South Carolina, which includes the management of the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River and the Ellicott Rock Wilderness.

What or who has had the greatest influence on your life?
I wouldn’t say one person, but instead will focus on what gave me the drive to work hard. I came from a blue-collar family and was the first person in my family to go to college. I was very driven to get a degree and somehow I ended up getting my master’s degree – which was awesome. I was determined to keep working hard and moving up, always trying to set goals and be able to accomplish them. So, I think my biggest influence is coming from a hard working blue-collar family.

As a child, did you know what you wanted to be when you grew up?
I started working as a teenager for Pennsylvania State Parks. I knew I was into the environment, enjoyed the outdoors and always wanted to help protect it. Once I figured out I could go to school and get a degree in forestry, wildlife or recreation, I finally narrowed it down to natural resources recreation. So yes, I knew early where I was headed.

I based my answer on where I grew up which was close to the Appalachian Trail, surrounded by state forests and state parks, not national forests. But I had an upbringing in a beautiful area and that really influenced me.

Jennifer Heisey Barnhart If you could be or do anything else, what would it be?
I would run a non-profit organization related to promoting outdoor recreation amongst youth and families.

Since you’ve only been working on a forest for about four years, have you had any opportunity to tackle a big project dealing with a recreation area?
There are all kinds of major repairs and daily crises. We did have a major event happen just before Thanksgiving several years ago that I was involved in. Our Louisiana campgrounds are very popular in the state because our developed campgrounds have water and electric. We generally fill our 41 sites completely each year at Thanksgiving. It was close to the end of the day when the water pump completely shut down. I had to immediately figure out who I could get before a holiday to repair or put in a new pump. I was desperate, but I was able to call our local town’s water system and they gave me a contact.

Thankfully, a repair person was able to come out on short notice and actually fix the pump. I had to get approvals on very short notice and we all worked on Thanksgiving trying to repair the site for campers to have water to cook their turkeys. That was a big deal for me, being fairly new in the agency, trying to communicate with the campground hosts and campers while keeping them calm and informed of all of the developments.

Another big accomplishment was increasing the volunteer program on the Calcasieu District. I was able to partner with a lot of different organizations such as the Kisatchie Bicycle Club and our mountain biking community to do trail work for us. The mountain bikers re-blazed an entire tail system. The trail system was re-marked in the hopes of becoming more user-friendly. I also co-coordinated National Get Outdoors Day in June 2013. We were able to have local organizations donate their time and materials to lead mountain bike rides, yoga demonstrations, kayaking, and hikes to an awesome eagles’ nest. Everything was free for the community to come and enjoy.

If you could meet and greet some famous people in history, who would they be?
I guess one person would be John Muir. I learned about him in my conservation classes and he seemed interesting, traveling all over the country trying to preserve different natural public lands that we have today. In late 2013, Gifford Pinchot’s home, Grey Towers celebrated its 50th anniversary. Both Muir and Pinchot were great conservationists in the Roosevelt era.

Another person folks may not know is “Molly Pitcher” from Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She was the first woman to set foot on the battle ground in the Revolutionary War. She would give pitchers of water to the men and when one of the men went down, she actually took over the cannon. She was very interesting and I learned about her when I was in the fourth or fifth grade. She is actually buried in my hometown. Revolutionary War buffs might have heard of her.

Do you have any hobbies?
I’m super into outdoor recreation. I’m a mountain biker, runner, cyclist and a swimmer. In the past two years, I’ve competed in triathlons. In the summer of 2012, I competed in my first Ironman competition at Lake Placid up in the Adirondacks. It took me about 14 hours to complete the whole race – a mere 140.6 miles! I was actually able to train on the Calcasieu Ranger District’s trails in the winter and on the roads around the Kisatchie National Forest in the summer. It’s a great hobby for me, but also beneficial to work on the forest, be outdoors and to be able to easily do that right outside your office.

What do you like about working for the Forest Service?
I love that I’m able to do what I’m obviously passionate about in my personal life: being outdoors and loving recreation, having access to public land and being able to be a manager in that area. I’m happy that I can make positive contributions to the community by making sure the recreation areas and trails are managed to meet high standards and tax payers can directly see and experience these benefits.

I say this to my employees because a lot of them don’t realize that their shoulders are holding up the weight of the public’s image of the national forests. Recreation areas and trails are what the public directly experience regularly and that reflects back on our image. The public doesn’t necessarily directly see the positives of what’s going on in the timber, wildlife and fire programs. So we’re the ones holding it on our shoulders to make sure that the public views what the Forest Service does as beneficial and important.
Tags
faces of the forest

Wikipedia

Search results

Academy of American Poets

browse engage about us donate
last name title topic
cart 0 items
sign in
explore
explore a poem
explore new releases
explore poets
explore our community
highlighted
at the press

Poetry E-books Launched

Through a generous grant from the Paul G. Allen Foundation, and with tremendous technical support from Constellation and Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, Copper Canyon Press is proud to announce the publication of its first batch of e-books. More books are being added every week!

To see which Copper Canyon titles exist where, check out these links:

Kindle (Amazon.com)

Nook (BN.com)

Kobo (Indie stores)

readings and events
facebook

reader's reviews
Charles Lewin reviews
Selected Poems of T'ao Ch'ien

by David Hinton

This is the spring from which "being so" flows.

post your own comment

My Rocks Are Shifting.

My Rocks Are Shifting.
Can You Help My Ecology?

GEOHistory

I am no Revisionist of History but need to check his views first. Geohistory is what I am into. It only subscribes to English American Topics and Verifiable FACT. Thank you


Popular Posts

Campgrounds

Campgrounds
Jacksonville Florida

Second Part of show

Thursday, March 28, 2013

make a good reascher, write research for your boss

MyTown (video game)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
MyTown is a mobile game for the iPhone and iPad. It was made by Booyah, a company who received a $4.5 Million First Round Funding from the iFund of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.[1] It also raised an additional $20 million funding from Accel Partners.[2] The company expects 6 million users by the end of 2010.[2] As of 2011, a sequel, called MyTown 2, has been released.[3]

Contents

 [hide

[edit] Overview

MyTown is based on a major, real time social networking application. It is based on the sales and buying out of real properties, whilst browsing for famous restaurants hotels and famous buildings.
Played by over 1 million people, MyTown is the most popular location-based social game for the iPhone and iPod Touch.[citation needed]
The entire development team draws its creativity not only from other game studios, including Blizzard Entertainment, Activision, Electronic Arts and Insomniac Games, but also from other industries, such as the semi-conductor, consumer web, and social gaming space. Booyah is financed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers iFund.[4]






March 28, 2013
Thursday

http://www.wikipedia.org


Electronic Arts, Inc. (EA) is an American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers responsible for its games. Electronic Arts is the world's third-largest gaming company by revenue after Nintendo and Activision Blizzard.[3]





[edit] Reception

148Apps gave MyTown a four out five star rating (Soul Sucking).[5]

[edit] Versions

  • Booyah released version 3.0 of MyTown on the iPhone.
  • Version 3.1 consisted of 10 new levels and many new items.
  • Version 4.0 contained another 10 levels, new items, a revamped UI and Item Creation. 4.0 also had a new logo.
  • Version 4.1.1 contained 10 more levels, a revamped check-in screen and more new items. This update was another to receive a new logo.
  • Version 4.2 contained 5 new levels and new items to create and collect. 4.2 also received a new logo.
  • Version 4.3 contained new levels and items.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Booyah Iphone Game Startup Gets 45m in Funding". Gigaom. 2009-04-30. Retrieved 2010-07-03. 
  2. ^ a b "Booyah Raises 20 Million From Accel - Expects 6 Million Users By the End of This Summer". Techcrunch. 2010-05-16. Retrieved 2010-07-03. 
  3. ^ https://itunes.apple.com/app/mytown-2/id442345455
  4. ^ "MyTown on Youtube". Youtube. Retrieved 2010-07-03. 
  5. ^ "My Town Reviews". 148 Apps. Retrieved 2010-07-03. 


Wikipedia:About

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Wikipedia (Listeni/ˌwɪkɨˈpdi.ə/ or Listeni/ˌwɪkiˈpdi.ə/ WIK-i-PEE-dee-ə) is a multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopedia project operated by the Wikimedia Foundation and based on an openly editable model. The name "Wikipedia" is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a technology for creating collaborative websites, from the Hawaiian word wiki, meaning "quick") and encyclopedia. Wikipedia's articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information.
Wikipedia is written collaboratively by largely anonymous Internet volunteers who write without pay. Anyone with Internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles, except in limited cases where editing is restricted to prevent disruption or vandalism. Users can contribute anonymously, under a pseudonym, or, if they choose to, with their real identity.
The fundamental principles by which Wikipedia operates are the five pillars. The Wikipedia community has developed many policies and guidelines to improve the encyclopedia; however, it is not a formal requirement to be familiar with them before contributing.
Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference websites, attracting 470 million unique visitors monthly as of February 2012.[1] There are more than 77,000 active contributors working on over 22,000,000 articles in 285 languages. As of today, there are 4,196,315 articles in English. Every day, hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world collectively make tens of thousands of edits and create thousands of new articles to augment the knowledge held by the Wikipedia encyclopedia. (See the statistics page for more information.)
People of all ages, cultures and backgrounds can add or edit article prose, references, images and other media here. What is contributed is more important than the expertise or qualifications of the contributor. What will remain depends upon whether the content is free of copyright restrictions and contentious material about living people, and whether it fits within Wikipedia's policies, including being verifiable against a published reliable source, thereby excluding editors' opinions and beliefs and unreviewed research. Contributions cannot damage Wikipedia because the software allows easy reversal of mistakes and many experienced editors are watching to help ensure that edits are cumulative improvements. Begin by simply clicking the Edit link at the top of any editable page!
Wikipedia is a live collaboration differing from paper-based reference sources in important ways. Unlike printed encyclopedias, Wikipedia is continually created and updated, with articles on historic events appearing within minutes, rather than months or years. Older articles tend to be more comprehensive and balanced; newer articles may contain misinformation, unencyclopedic content, or vandalism. Awareness of this helps the reader to obtain valid information and avoid recently added misinformation (see Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia).
What Wikipedia is not explains Wikipedia's scope. More information on key topics appears hereafter. Further advice is at Wikipedia:FAQ, Wikipedia:Advice for parents, and Wikipedia:Questions. For help getting started with editing or other issues, see Help:Contents.

Contents

 [hide

About Wikipedia

Wikipedia history

The www.wikipedia.org website, Wikipedia's homepage for all languages
Wikipedia was founded as an offshoot of Nupedia, a now-abandoned project to produce a free encyclopedia. Nupedia had an elaborate system of peer review and required highly qualified contributors, but the writing of articles was slow. During 2000, Jimmy Wales, founder of Nupedia, and Larry Sanger, whom Wales had employed to work on the project, discussed ways of supplementing Nupedia with a more open, complementary project. Multiple sources suggested that a wiki might allow members of the public to contribute material, and Nupedia's first wiki went online on January 10, 2001.
There was considerable resistance on the part of Nupedia's editors and reviewers to the idea of associating Nupedia with a website in the wiki format, so the new project was given the name "Wikipedia" and launched on its own domain, wikipedia.com, on January 15 (now called "Wikipedia Day" by some users). The bandwidth and server (in San Diego) were donated by Wales. Other current and past Bomis employees who have worked on the project include Tim Shell, one of the cofounders of Bomis and its current CEO, and programmer Jason Richey. The domain was eventually changed to the present wikipedia.org when the not-for-profit Wikimedia Foundation was launched as its new parent organization, with the ".org" top-level domain denoting its non-commercial nature.
In May 2001, a large number of non-English Wikipedias were launched — in Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, Esperanto, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish. These were soon joined by Arabic and Hungarian.[2] In September,[3] Polish was added, and further commitment to the multilingual provision of Wikipedia was made. At the end of the year, Afrikaans, Norwegian, and Serbo-Croatian versions were announced.

Trademarks and copyrights

Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the not-for-profit Wikimedia Foundation, which has created a family of free-content projects that are built by user contributions.
Most of Wikipedia's text and many of its images are dual-licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA) and the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts). Some text has been imported only under CC-BY-SA and CC-BY-SA-compatible license and cannot be reused under GFDL; such text is identified either on the page footer, in the page history or on the discussion page of the article that utilizes the text. Every image has a description page which indicates the license under which it is released or, if it is non-free, the rationale under which it is used.
Contributions remain the property of their creators, while the CC-BY-SA and GFDL licenses ensure the content is freely distributable and reproducible. (See the copyright notice and the content disclaimer for more information.)

Wikipedia contributors

Anyone with Web access can edit Wikipedia, and this openness encourages inclusion of a tremendous amount of content. About 77,000 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 our 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. Where there are disagreements on how to present facts, editors work together to arrive at an article that fairly represents current expert opinion on the subject.
Although the Wikimedia Foundation owns the site, it is largely uninvolved in writing and daily operations.

Credits

Text on Wikipedia is a collaborative work, and the efforts of individual contributors to a page are recorded in that page's history, which is publicly viewable. Information on the authorship of images and other media, such as sound files, can be found by clicking on the image itself or the nearby information icon to display the file page, which includes the author and source, where appropriate, along with other information.

Making the best use of Wikipedia

See also: Reader’s Guide to Wikipedia

Exploring Wikipedia

Many visitors come to Wikipedia to acquire knowledge, while others come to share knowledge. At this very instant, dozens of articles are being improved, and new articles are also being created. Changes can be viewed at the Recent changes page and a random page at random articles. Over 3,500 articles have been designated by the Wikipedia community as featured articles, exemplifying the best articles in the encyclopedia. Another 15,000 articles are designated as good articles. Some information on Wikipedia is organized into lists; the best of these are designated as featured lists. Wikipedia also has portals, which organize content around topic areas; our best portals are selected as featured portals. Articles can be found using the search box on the top-right side of the screen.
Wikipedia is available in languages other than English. Wikipedia has more than two hundred and eighty languages, including a Simple English version, and related projects include a dictionary, quotations, books, manuals, and scientific reference sources, and a news service (see sister projects). All of these are maintained, updated, and managed by separate communities, and often include information and articles that can be hard to find through other common sources.

Basic navigation in Wikipedia

Wikipedia articles are all linked, or cross-referenced. When highlighted text like this is seen, it means there is a link to some relevant article or Wikipedia page with further in-depth information. Holding the mouse over the link will often show to where the link will lead. The reader is always one click away from more information on any point that has a link attached. There are other links towards the ends of most articles, for other articles of interest, relevant external websites and pages, reference material, and organized categories of knowledge which can be searched and traversed in a loose hierarchy for more information. Some articles may also have links to dictionary definitions, audio-book readings, quotations, the same article in other languages, and further information available on our sister projects. Additional links can be easily made if a relevant link is missing–this is one simple way to contribute.

Using Wikipedia as a research tool

As wiki documents, articles are never considered complete and may be continually edited and improved. Over time, this generally results in an upward trend of quality and a growing consensus over a neutral representation of information.[citation needed]
Users should be aware that not all articles are of encyclopedic quality from the start: they may contain false or debatable information. Indeed, many articles start their lives as displaying a single viewpoint; and, after a long process of discussion, debate, and argument, they gradually take on a neutral point of view reached through consensus. Others may, for a while, become caught up in a heavily unbalanced viewpoint which can take some time—months perhaps—to achieve better balanced coverage of their subject. In part, this is because editors often contribute content in which they have a particular interest and do not attempt to make each article that they edit comprehensive. However, eventually, additional editors expand and contribute to articles and strive to achieve balance and comprehensive coverage. In addition, Wikipedia operates a number of internal resolution processes that can assist when editors disagree on content and approach. Usually, editors eventually reach a consensus on ways to improve the article.
The ideal Wikipedia article is well-written, balanced, neutral, and encyclopedic, containing comprehensive, notable, verifiable knowledge. An increasing number of articles reach this standard over time, and many already have. Our best articles are called Featured Articles (and display a small star in the upper right corner of the article), and our second best tier of articles are designated Good Articles. However, this is a process and can take months or years to be achieved, as each user adds their contribution in turn. Some articles contain statements which have not yet been fully cited. Others will later be augmented with new sections. Some information will be considered by later contributors to be insufficiently founded and, therefore, may be removed.
While the overall trend is toward improvement, it is important to use Wikipedia carefully if it is intended to be used as a research source, since individual articles will, by their nature, vary in quality and maturity. Guidelines and information pages are available to help users and researchers do this effectively, as is an article that summarizes third-party studies and assessments of the reliability of Wikipedia.

Wikipedia vs paper encyclopedias

Wikipedia has advantages over traditional paper encyclopedias. Wikipedia has a very low "publishing" cost for adding or expanding entries and a low environmental impact in some respects, since it never needs to be printed, although computers have their own environmental cost. In addition, Wikipedia has wikilinks instead of in-line explanations and it incorporates overview summaries (article introductions) with the extensive detail of full articles. Additionally, the editorial cycle is short. A paper encyclopedia stays the same until the next edition, whereas editors can update Wikipedia at any instant, around the clock, to help ensure that articles stay abreast of the most recent events and scholarship.

Strengths, weaknesses, and article quality in Wikipedia

Wikipedia's greatest strengths, weaknesses, and differences all arise because it is open to anyone, it has a large contributor base, and its articles are written by consensus, according to editorial guidelines and policies.
  • Wikipedia is open to a large contributor base, drawing a large number of editors from diverse backgrounds. This allows Wikipedia to significantly reduce regional and cultural bias found in many other publications, and makes it very difficult for any group to censor and impose bias. A large, diverse editor base also provides access and breadth on subject matter that is otherwise inaccessible or little documented. A large number of editors contributing at any moment also means that Wikipedia can produce encyclopedic articles and resources covering newsworthy events within hours or days of their occurrence. It also means that like any publication, Wikipedia may reflect the cultural, age, socio-economic, and other biases of its contributors. There is no systematic process to make sure that "obviously important" topics are written about, so Wikipedia may contain unexpected oversights and omissions. While most articles may be altered by anyone, in practice editing will be performed by a certain demographic (younger rather than older, male rather than female, rich enough to afford a computer rather than poor, et cetera) and may, therefore, show some bias. Some topics may not be covered well, while others may be covered in great depth.
  • Allowing anyone to edit Wikipedia means that it is more easily vandalized or susceptible to unchecked information, which requires removal. See Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism. While blatant vandalism is usually easily spotted and rapidly corrected, Wikipedia is more subject to subtle viewpoint promotion than a typical reference work. However, bias that would be unchallenged in a traditional reference work is likely to be ultimately challenged or considered on Wikipedia. While Wikipedia articles generally attain a good standard after editing, it is important to note that fledgling articles and those monitored less well may be susceptible to vandalism and insertion of false information. Wikipedia's radical openness also means that any given article may be, at any given moment, in a bad state, such as in the middle of a large edit, or a controversial rewrite. Many contributors do not yet comply fully with key policies, or may add information without citable sources. Wikipedia's open approach tremendously increases the chances that any particular factual error or misleading statement will be relatively promptly corrected. Numerous editors at any given time are monitoring recent changes and edits to articles on their watchlist.
  • Wikipedia is written by open and transparent consensus—an approach that has its pros and cons. Censorship or imposing "official" points of view is extremely difficult to achieve and usually fails after a time. Eventually for most articles, all notable views become fairly described and a neutral point of view reached. In reality, the process of reaching consensus may be long and drawn-out, with articles fluid or changeable for a long time while they find their "neutral approach" that all sides can agree on. Reaching neutrality is occasionally made harder by extreme-viewpoint contributors. Wikipedia operates a full editorial dispute resolution process, one that allows time for discussion and resolution in depth, but one that also permits disagreements to last for months before poor-quality or biased edits are removed. A common conclusion is that Wikipedia is a valuable resource and provides a good reference point on its subjects.
  • That said, articles and subject areas sometimes suffer from significant omissions, and while misinformation and vandalism are usually corrected quickly, this does not always happen. (See for example this incident in which a person inserted a fake biography linking a prominent journalist to the Kennedy assassinations and Soviet Russia as a joke on a co-worker which went undetected for four months, saying afterwards he "didn’t know Wikipedia was used as a serious reference tool".)
  • Wikipedia is written largely by amateurs. Those with expert credentials are given no additional weight. Some experts[who?] contend that such credentials are given less weight than contributions by amateurs. Wikipedia is also not subject to any peer review for scientific, medical or engineering articles. One advantage to having amateurs write in Wikipedia is that they have more free time on their hands so that they can make rapid changes in response to current events. The wider the general public interest in a topic, the more likely it is to attract contributions from non-specialists.
The MediaWiki software that runs Wikipedia retains a history of all edits and changes, thus information added to Wikipedia never "vanishes". Discussion pages are an important resource on contentious topics. Therefore, serious researchers can often find a wide range of vigorously or thoughtfully advocated viewpoints not present in the consensus article. As with any source, information should be checked. A 2005 editorial by a BBC technology writer comments that these debates are probably symptomatic of cultural changes that are happening across all sources of information (including search engines and the media), and may lead to "a better sense of how to evaluate information sources".[4]

Disclaimers

Wikipedia disclaimers apply to all pages on Wikipedia. However, the consensus in Wikipedia is to put all disclaimers only as links and at the end of each article. Proposals to have a warning box at the beginning have been rejected. Some do not like the way it looks or that it calls attention to possible errors in Wikipedia.
Wikipedia, in common with many websites, has a disclaimer that, at times, has led to commentators citing these in order to support a view that Wikipedia is unreliable. A selection of similar disclaimers from places which are often regarded as reliable (including sources such as Encyclopædia Britannica, Associated Press, and the Oxford English Dictionary) can be read and compared at Wikipedia:Non-Wikipedia disclaimers. Wikipedia content advisories can also be found here.

Contributing to Wikipedia

Anyone can contribute to Wikipedia by clicking on the Edit tab in an article. Before beginning to contribute, however, read some handy helping tools such as the tutorial and the policies and guidelines, as well as our welcome page. Creating an account offers many benefits. It is important to realize that in contributing to Wikipedia, users are expected to be civil and neutral, respecting all points of view, and only add verifiable and factual information rather than personal views and opinions. "The five pillars of Wikipedia" cover this approach and are recommended reading before editing. (Vandals are reported via the Administrator Notice Board and may be temporarily blocked from editing Wikipedia.)
Most articles start as stubs, but after many contributions, they can become featured articles. Once the contributor has decided a topic of interest, they may want to request that the article be written (or they could research the issue and write it themselves). Wikipedia has on-going projects, focused on specific topic areas or tasks, which help coordinate editing.
The ease of editing Wikipedia results in many people editing. That makes the updating of the encyclopedia very quick, almost as fast as news websites.

Editing Wikipedia pages

Wikipedia uses a simple yet powerful page layout to allow editors to concentrate on adding material rather than page design. These include automatic sections and subsections, automatic references and cross-references, image and table inclusion, indented and listed text, links, ISBNs, and maths, as well as usual formatting elements and most world alphabets and common symbols. Most of these have simple formats that are deliberately very easy and intuitive.
The page layout consists of tabs along the beginning. These are:
  • Article. Shows the main Wikipedia article.
  • Discussion. Shows a user discussion about the article's topic and possible revisions, controversies, etc.
  • Edit. This tab allows users to edit the article. Depending on the page’s susceptibility to vandalism, according to its visibility or the degree of controversy surrounding the topic, this tab may not be shown for all users. (For example, any user who is not an administrator will not be able to edit the Main Page).
  • View history. This tab allows readers to view the editors of the article and the changes that have been made.
  • Star. ("Watch") If you are logged in to your account, clicking on the star icon will cause any changes made to the article to be displayed on the watchlist. (Note: when this icon is clicked, it changes to a filled-in star.)
Wikipedia has robust version and reversion controls. This means that poor-quality edits or vandalism can quickly and easily be reversed or brought up to an appropriate standard by any other editor, so inexperienced editors cannot accidentally do permanent harm if they make a mistake in their editing. As there are many more editors intent on improving articles than not, error-ridden articles are usually corrected promptly.

Wikipedia content criteria

Wikipedia content is intended to be factual, notable, verifiable with cited external sources, and neutrally presented.
The appropriate policies and guidelines for these are found at:
  1. Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not, which summarizes what belongs in Wikipedia and what does not;
  2. Wikipedia:Neutral point of view, which describes Wikipedia's mandatory core approach to neutral, unbiased article-writing;
  3. Wikipedia:No original research, which prohibits the use of Wikipedia to publish personal views and original research of editors and defines Wikipedia's role as an encyclopedia of existing recognized knowledge;
  4. Wikipedia:Verifiability, which explains that it must be possible for readers to verify all content against credible external sources (following the guidance in the Wikipedia:Risk disclaimer that is linked-to at the end of every article);
  5. Wikipedia:Reliable sources, which explains what factors determine whether a source is acceptable;
  6. Wikipedia:Citing sources, which describes the manner of citing sources so that readers can verify content for themselves;
  7. And Wikipedia:Manual of Style, which offers a style guide—in general editors tend to acquire knowledge of appropriate writing styles and detailed formatting over time.
These are often abbreviated to WP:NOT, WP:NPOV, WP:NOR, WP:V, WP:RS, WP:CITE, and WP:MOS respectively.

Editorial administration, oversight, and management

The Wikipedia community is largely self-organising, so that anyone may build a reputation as a competent editor and become involved in any role he/she may choose, subject to peer approval. Individuals often will choose to become involved in specialised tasks, such as reviewing articles at others' request, watching current edits for vandalism, watching newly created articles for quality control purposes, or similar roles. Editors who believe they can serve the community better by taking on additional administrative responsibility may ask their peers for agreement to undertake such responsibilities. This structure enforces meritocracy and communal standards of editorship and conduct. At present a minimum approval of 75–80% from the community is required to take on these additional tools and responsibilities. This standard tends to ensure a high level of experience, trust, and familiarity across a broad front of aspects within Wikipedia.
A variety of software-assisted systems and automated programs help editors and administrators to watch for problematic edits and editors. Theoretically all editors and users are treated equally with no "power structure". There is, however a hierarchy of permissions and positions, some of which are listed hereafter:
  1. Anyone can edit most of the articles here. Some articles are protected due to vandalism or edit-warring, and can only be edited by certain editors.
  2. Anyone with an account that has been registered for four days or longer and has made at least ten edits becomes autoconfirmed, and gains the technical ability to do three things that non-autoconfirmed editors cannot:
    • Move articles.
    • Edit semi-protected articles.
    • Vote in certain elections (minimum edit count to receive suffrage varies depending on the election).
  3. Many editors with accounts obtain access to certain tools that make editing easier and faster. Few editors learn about most of those tools, but one common privilege granted to editors in good standing is "rollback", which is the ability to undo edits more easily.
  4. Administrators ("admins" or "sysops") have been approved by the community, and have access to some significant administrative tools. They can delete articles, block accounts or IP addresses, and edit fully protected articles.
  5. Bureaucrats are chosen in a process similar to that for selecting administrators. There are not very many bureaucrats. They have the technical ability to add or remove admin rights, approve or revoke "bot" privileges, and rename user accounts.
  6. The Arbitration Committee is analogous to Wikipedia's supreme court. They deal with disputes that remain unresolved after other attempts at dispute resolution have failed. Members of this Committee are elected by the community and tend to be selected from among the pool of experienced admins.
  7. Stewards are the top echelon of technical permissions, other than the Wikimedia Board of Directors. Stewards can do a few technical things, and one almost never hears much about them since they normally only act when a local admin or bureaucrat is not available, and hence almost never on the English Wikipedia. There are very few stewards.
  8. Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, has several special roles and privileges. In most instances, however, he does not expect to be treated differently than any other editor or administrator.

Handling disputes and abuse

Wikipedia has a rich set of methods to handle most abuses that commonly arise. These methods are well-tested and should be relied upon.
In addition, new users may initially find that their votes are given less weight by editors in some informal polls in order to prevent abuse of single-purpose accounts.

Editorial quality review

As well as systems to catch and control substandard and vandalistic edits, Wikipedia also has a full style and content manual and a variety of positive systems for continual article review and improvement. Examples of the processes include peer review, good article assessment, and the featured article process, a rigorous review of articles that are intended to meet the highest standards and showcase Wikipedia's capability to produce high-quality work.
In addition, specific types of article or fields often have their own specialized and comprehensive projects, assessment processes (such as biographical article assessment), and expert reviewers within specific subjects. Nominated articles are also frequently the subject of specific focus under projects such as the Neutrality Project or are covered under editorial drives by groups such as the Cleanup Taskforce.

Technical attributes

Wikipedia uses MediaWiki software, the open-source program used not only on Wikimedia projects but also on many other third-party websites. The hardware supporting the Wikimedia projects is based on several hundred servers in various hosting centers around the world. Full descriptions of these servers and their roles are available on this Meta-Wiki page. For technical information about Wikipedia, check Technical FAQ. Wikipedia publishes various types of metadata; and, across its pages, are many thousands of microformats.
Wikipedia does not place cookies or other tracking software on users' computers[5] except for cookies associated with logging into a Wikimedia account, including for the English Wikipedia.[6]

Feedback and questions

Wikipedia is run as a communal effort. It is a community project whose result is an encyclopedia. Feedback about content should, in the first instance, be raised on the discussion pages of those articles. Be bold and edit the pages to add information or correct mistakes.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Static help

The Help:Contents may be accessed by clicking help displayed under the Interaction tab at the top left of all pages.
  • Help:Contents/Browse—is a menu-style page that will direct you to the right place to find information.
  • Help:Contents/Directory—is a descriptive listing of all Wikipedia's informative, instructional and consultation pages.

Giving feedback

There is an established escalation-and-dispute process within Wikipedia, as well as pages designed for questions, feedback, suggestions, and comments:
See also:

Research help and similar questions

Facilities to help users researching specific topics can be found at:
Because of the nature of Wikipedia, it is encouraged that people looking for information should try to find it themselves in the first instance. If, however, information is found to be missing from Wikipedia, be bold and add it so others can gain.

Community discussion

For specific discussion not related to article content or editor conduct, see the Village pump, which covers such subjects as announcements, policy and technical discussion, and information on other specialized portals such as the help, reference and peer review desks. The Community Portal is a centralized place to find things to do, collaborations, and general editing help information, and find out what is happening. The Signpost, a community-edited newspaper, has recent news regarding Wikipedia, its sister projects, and the Wikimedia Foundation.

Contacting individual Wikipedia editors

To contact individual contributors, leave a message on their talk page. Standard places to ask policy and project-related questions are the Village Pump, online, and the Wikipedia mailing-lists, over e-mail. Reach other Wikipedians via IRC and e-mail.
In addition, the Wikimedia Foundation Meta-Wiki is a site for coordinating the various Wikipedia projects and sister projects (and abstract discussions of policy and direction). Also available are places for submitting bug reports and feature requests.
For a full list of contact options, see Wikipedia:Contact us.

Other languages

Sister projects

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects:
Please note that while other sites may also use MediaWiki software and therefore look similar to Wikipedia, or may have a name that includes “Wiki-” or “-pedia”, or a similar domain name, the only projects which are part of the Wikimedia Foundation are those listed above and Wikipedia, even if other projects claim to be part of it.

See also

References

  1. ^ Report card. Wikimedia. Retrieved July 5, 2012. .
  2. ^ "Wikipedia announcements — May 2001". http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Announcements_May_2001. Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.
  3. ^ "Wikipedia announcements — September 2001". http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Announcements_September_2001. Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.
  4. ^ Bill Thompson, "What is it with Wikipedia?" BBC, December 16, 2005.
  5. ^ Angwin, Julia, The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets: What They Know (a Wall St. J. Investigation) (1st in ser.), in The Wall Street Journal., § Weekend Journal, Jul. 31 – Aug. 1, 2010 (4-star ed.), p. W1, col. 2 (test of popular websites including Wikipedia found no tracking software was installed by Wikipedia).
  6. ^ E.g., the English Wikipedia user login page, as accessed Jan. 22, 2011.

Further reading

External links


http









No comments:

Post a Comment