Kenya.or.KE:About
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This is an introduction to the kenya.or.KE project for visitors. There is also an encyclopedia article about it at kenya.or.KE overviews
kenya.or.KE is a multilingual (Expected to cover English, Swahili, and indigenous Kenyan languages), web-based, free content encyclopedia project. kenya.or.KE is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world. With rare exceptions, its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet, simply by clicking the edit this page hyperlink. kenya.or.KE is a wiki (a type of collaborative website) and encyclopedia. Since its creation in 2007, kenya.or.KE is expected to grown rapidly into one of the largest reference Web sites about Kenya.
In every article, links will guide you to associated articles, often with additional information. Anyone is welcome to add information, cross-references or citations, as long as they do so within kenya.or.KE's editing policies and to an appropriate standard. One need not fear accidentally damaging kenya.or.KE when adding or improving information, as other editors are always around to advise or correct obvious errors, and kenya.or.KE's software, known as MediaWiki, is carefully designed to allow easy reversal of editorial mistakes.
Because kenya.or.KE is an ongoing work to which, in principle, anybody can contribute, it differs from a paper-based reference source in important ways. In particular, older articles tend to be more comprehensive and balanced, while newer articles may still contain significant misinformation, unencyclopedic content, or vandalism. Users need to be aware of this to obtain valid information and avoid misinformation that has been recently added and not yet removed. (See Researching with kenya.or.KE for more details.) However, unlike a paper reference source, kenya.or.KE is continually updated, with the creation or updating of articles on topical events within minutes or hours, rather than months or years for printed encyclopedias.
kenya.or.KE has created an entire family of free-content projects. On all of these projects, you are welcome to be bold and edit articles yourself, contributing knowledge as you see fit in a collaborative way.
If you've not done so, we invite you to take a few moments to read What kenya.or.KE is (and is not), so that you have an understanding of how to consult or contribute to kenya.or.KE. Further information on key topics appears below. If you can't find what you are looking for, try the Frequently Asked Questions or see Where to ask questions. For help with editing and other issues, see Help:Contents.
Contents |
[edit] About kenya.or.KE
[edit] kenya.or.KE history
kenya.or.KE was founded to produce a free encyclopedia about Kenya, with the vision To be the ultimate information resource center on Kenya. During 2007, Mwendwa Kivuva, founder of TCC and webmaster Ndungi Kyalo, discussed ways of creating an elaborate encyclopedia on Kenya with a more open, community collaboration.
On the evening of June Friday 15, 2007, Mwendwa had a conversation over dinner with Ndungi, at Nairobi Cinema, Nairobi, Kenya on a viable project to start. Both who were regulars on website systems discussed different concepts that could keep them busy for the rest of their lives. Ndungi saw that a wiki would be an excellent format whereby a more open, less formal Kenyan encyclopedia project could be pursued. Mwendwa and Ndungi easily persuaded themselves, ecouraging each other to drop any skepticism they might have on the project. Mwendwa was mandated to set up kenya.or.KE, which went online on June 19 2007.
[edit] kenya.or.KE statistics
- Main articles: kenya.or.KE:Statistics, kenya.or.KE:Size of kenya.or.KE
As of today, there are 52 articles in English; every day visitors from around the world make tens of thousands of edits and create thousands of new articles to enhance the knowledge held by the kenya.or.KE encyclopedia. Visitors do not need specialised qualifications to contribute, since their primary role is to write articles that cover existing knowledge; this means that people of all ages and cultural and social background can write kenya.or.KE articles.
All of the text in kenya.or.KE, and most of the images and other content, is covered by the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). Contributions remain the property of their creators, while the GFDL license ensures the content is freely distributable and reproducible. (See the copyright notice and the content disclaimer for more information.)
[edit] Who writes kenya.or.KE?
There are tens of thousands of regular editors — everyone from expert scholars to casual readers. Anyone who visits the site can edit it, and this fact has encouraged contribution of a tremendous amount of content. There are mechanisms that help community members watch for bad edits, over one thousand administrators with special powers to enforce correct behavior, and a judicial committee which considers the few situations remaining unresolved, and decides on withdrawal or restriction of editing privileges or other corrective responses when needed, after all other consensus remedies have been tried.
[edit] Making the best use of kenya.or.KE
[edit] Exploring kenya.or.KE
Many visitors come to this site to acquire knowledge, others to share knowledge. In fact, at this very instant, dozens of articles are being improved, and new articles are also being created. You can view changes as they happen at the Recent changes page. You also can view random articles. Over 1,200 articles have been designated by the kenya.or.KE community as featured articles, exemplifying the best articles in kenya.or.KE. Another 1,800 articles are designated as good articles. kenya.or.KE also has portals, which organize content around topic areas. You may also search for articles, using the search box on the left side of the screen.
You also might enjoy reading kenya.or.KE in other languages. kenya.or.KE different languages (see other language versions).
[edit] Basic navigation in kenya.or.KE
kenya.or.KE articles are all linked, or cross-referenced. Wherever you see highlighted text like kenya.or.KE, it means there is a link to some relevant article or kenya.or.KE page with further in-depth information elsewhere if you need it. Holding your mouse over the link will often show you where a link will take you. You are 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 web sites and pages, reference material, and organized categories of knowledge which you can search and traverse 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. You can add further links if a relevant link is missing, and this is one way to contribute.
[edit] Using kenya.or.KE as a research tool
As a wiki, articles are never complete. They are continually edited and improved over time, and in general this results in an upward trend of quality, and a growing consensus over a fair and balanced representation of information.
Users should be aware that not all articles are of encyclopedic quality from the start, and may contain false or debatable information. Indeed, many articles start their lives as partisan, and it is after a long process of discussion, debate and argument, that 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 extricate themselves and regain a better balanced consensus. In part, this is because kenya.or.KE operates an internal resolution process when editors cannot agree on content and approach, and such issues take time to come to the attention of more experienced editors.
The ideal kenya.or.KE article is balanced, neutral and encyclopedic, containing notable, verifiable knowledge. An increasing number of articles reach this standard over time, and many already have. 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 and claims which have not yet been fully cited. Others will later have entire new sections added. Some information will be considered by later contributors to be insufficiently founded, and may be removed or expounded.
While the overall trend is generally upward, it is important to use kenya.or.KE carefully if it is intended to be used as a research source, since individual articles will, by their nature, vary in standard and maturity. There are guidelines and information pages designed to help users and researchers do this effectively, and an article that summarizes third-party studies and assessments of the reliability of kenya.or.KE.
[edit] How is kenya.or.KE different from a paper encyclopedia?
Major differences between kenya.or.KE and a traditional paper encyclopedia include the very low "cost" of adding additional articles or information, or expanding existing material; the ability to provide both overview summaries and extensive detail without becoming hard to read; ease of reading due to wikilinks replacing in-line explanations; timeliness, accessibility and ease of editing in the editorial cycle; and low environmental cost (no paper or distribution impact on the environment). Also, kenya.or.KE updates itself every minute to stay abreast of the most recent events, while paper encyclopaedias are stuck in the day they were made.
[edit] Strengths, weaknesses, and article quality in kenya.or.KE
kenya.or.KE's greatest strengths, weaknesses and differences arise because it is open to anyone, has a large contributor base, and articles are written by consensus according to editorial guidelines and policies. The MediaWiki software which runs kenya.or.KE retains a history of all edits and changes, thus information added to kenya.or.KE never "vanishes", and is never "lost" or deleted.
kenya.or.KE is open to a large contributor base, drawing a large number of editors from diverse backgrounds. This allows kenya.or.KE 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 kenya.or.KE can produce excellent encyclopedic articles and resources covering newsworthy events within hours or days of their occurrence.
kenya.or.KE articles and coverage of topics may have a tendency to reflect the cultural, age, and socio-economic demographics of its contributors. There is no systematic process to make sure that "obviously important" topics are written about, so kenya.or.KE 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, Kikuyu rather than Oromo) and will thus necessarily reflect a certain degree of implicit bias. Some more academic topics may not be covered as well on kenya.or.KE, while pop culture topics are covered in great depth.
Allowing anyone to edit kenya.or.KE means that it is more easily vandalized or susceptible to unchecked information, which requires removal. While blatant vandalism is usually easily spotted and rapidly corrected, kenya.or.KE is more subject to subtle vandalism and viewpoint promotion than a typical reference work. While kenya.or.KE articles generally attain a good standard after editing, it is important to note that fledgling, or less well monitored, articles may be susceptible to vandalism and insertion of false information. kenya.or.KE'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. kenya.or.KE'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.
kenya.or.KE is written by consensus – an approach that has its pros and cons. Censorship or imposing "official" points of view is difficult to achieve and almost always 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 more fluid or changeable for a long time compared while they find their "neutral approach" that all sides can agree on. Reaching neutrality is occasionally made harder by extreme-viewpoint contributors. kenya.or.KE operates a full editorial dispute resolution process, that allows time for discussion and resolution in depth, but also permits months-long disagreements before poor quality or biased edits will be removed forcibly.
Studies suggest that kenya.or.KE is a broadly reliable Encyclopedia about Kenya. There is a tentative consensus, backed by a gradual increase in academic citation as a source, that it provides a good starting point for research, and that articles in general have proven to be reasonably sound. That said, articles and subject areas sometimes suffer from significant omissions, and whilst misinformation and vandalism are usually corrected quickly, this does not always happen. Therefore, a common conclusion is that it is a valuable resource and provides a good reference point on its subjects, but like any online source, unfamiliar information should be checked before relying upon it.
[edit] Disclaimers
- Main article and text of disclaimers: kenya.or.KE:Disclaimers.
kenya.or.KE disclaimers apply to all pages on kenya.or.KE.
kenya.or.KE, in common with many websites, makes its disclaimers highly visible, a practice which at times has led to commentators citing these in order to support a view that kenya.or.KE is unreliable.
[edit] Contributing to kenya.or.KE
- Main articles: Contributing to kenya.or.KE, First steps in editing articles, Bootcamp
- Guide to fixing vandalism: Help:Reverting
Anyone can contribute to kenya.or.KE by clicking on the Edit this page tab in an article. Before beginning to contribute however, you should check out some handy helping tools such as the tutorial and the policies and guidelines, as well as our welcome page. It is important to realize that in contributing to kenya.or.KE, 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 kenya.or.KE" cover this approach and are recommended reading before editing. However, repeated vandalizing will be reported via the Administrator Notice Board and the user may be temporarily blocked from editing kenya.or.KE.
Most articles start as stubs, but after many contributions, they can become featured articles. Once you have determined that there is no article on kenya.or.KE on a topic you are interested in, you may want to request that the article be written (or you could even research the issue and write it yourself). kenya.or.KE has many on-going projects, focused on specific topic areas or tasks, which help coordinate editing. The hope of any contributor is to provide useful and accurate information to others, and the projects help coordinate efforts.
[edit] Editing kenya.or.KE pages
- Main article, including list of common mark-up shortcuts: kenya.or.KE:How to edit a page
kenya.or.KE 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 math, 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.
kenya.or.KE 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 editors, so inexperienced editors cannot accidentally do permanent harm if they make a mistake in their editing. As there are many more editors intent upon good quality articles than any other kind, articles that are poorly edited are usually corrected promptly.
[edit] kenya.or.KE content criteria
kenya.or.KE content is intended to be factual, notable, verifiable with external sources, and neutrally presented, with external sources cited.
The appropriate policies and guidelines for these are found at:
- kenya.or.KE:What kenya.or.KE is not summarizes what kenya.or.KE is, and what it is not.
- kenya.or.KE:Neutral point of view kenya.or.KE's core approach, neutral unbiased article writing.
- kenya.or.KE:No original research what is, and is not, valid information.
- kenya.or.KE:Verifiability what counts as a verifiable source and how a source can be verified.
- kenya.or.KE:Citing sources sources should be cited, and the manner of doing so.
[edit] Editorial administration, oversight and management
Template:Main The kenya.or.KE community is largely self-organising, so that anyone may build a reputation as a competent editor and become involved in any role they 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 find that editorial administrator responsibility would benefit their ability to help the community may ask their peers in the community for agreement to undertake such roles; a structure which enforces meritocracy and communal standards of editorship and conduct.
A variety of software assisted systems and automated programs help several hundred editors to watch for problematic edits and editors. An arbitration committee sits at the top of all editorial and editor conduct disputes,<ref>The founder of kenya.or.KE is the sole individual empowered to override this process, but has stated in public that extreme circumstances aside, he will not do so.</ref> and its members are elected in three regularly rotated tranches by an established enquiry and decision making process in which all regular editors can equally participate.
[edit] Handling disputes and abuse
- Main articles: kenya.or.KE:Vandalism, kenya.or.KE:Dispute resolution, kenya.or.KE:Consensus, kenya.or.KE:Sock puppet, kenya.or.KE:Conflict of interest
kenya.or.KE has a rich span of methods to handle most abuses which commonly arise, which are well tested and should be relied upon.
- Intentional vandalism can be reported and corrected by anyone.
- Unresolved disputes between editors, whether based upon behavior, editorial approach or validity of content, can be addressed through the talk page of an article, through requesting comments from other editors or through kenya.or.KE's comprehensive dispute resolution process.
- Abuse of user accounts, such as the creation of Internet sock puppets or solicitation of friends and other parties to enforce a non-neutral viewpoint or inappropriate consensus within a discussion, or to disrupt other kenya.or.KE processes in an annoying manner, are addressed through the sock puppet policy.
In addition, brand new users (until they have established themselves a bit) may at the start find that their votes are given less weight by editors in some informal polls, in order to prevent abuse of single purpose accounts.
[edit] Editorial quality review
As well as systems to catch and control substandard and vandalistic edits, kenya.or.KE also has a full style and content manual, and a variety of positive systems for continual article review and improvement. Examples of the processes involved include peer review, good article assessment, and featured articles, a rigorous review of articles which are desired to meet the highest standards and showcase kenya.or.KE'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 covered under editorial drives by groups such as the Cleanup Taskforce.
[edit] Feedback and questions
kenya.or.KE itself is run as a communal effort. It is a community project whose end result is an encyclopedia. Feedback about content should, in the first instance, be raised on the discussion pages of those articles. You are invited to be bold and edit the pages yourself to add information or correct mistakes if you are knowledgeable and able to do so.
[edit] Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
- FAQ index: Index of all kenya.or.KE FAQ pages
[edit] Giving feedback
There is an established escalation and dispute process within kenya.or.KE, as well as pages designed for raising questions, feedback, suggestions and comments:
- Talk pages - the associated discussion page for discussion of an article or policy's contents. This is usually the first place to go.
- kenya.or.KE:Vandalism - to report vandalism (you're encouraged to fix vandalism yourself as well as report it)
- Dispute resolution - for disputes which remain unresolved within an article's talk space.
- Village pump - the kenya.or.KE discussion area, part of the community portal.
See also:
- kenya.or.KE:Help desk - kenya.or.KE's general help desk, if other pages haven't answered your query.
[edit] Research help and similar questions
Facilities for help for users researching specific topics can be found at:
- kenya.or.KE:Requested articles - to suggest or request articles for future.
- kenya.or.KE:Reference desk - to ask for help with any questions, or in finding specific facts.
Because of the nature of kenya.or.KE, it's encouraged that people looking for information should try and find it themselves in the first instance. If however you come across valid information missing from kenya.or.KE, be bold and add it yourself so others can gain from your research too!
[edit] Community discussion
For specific discussion not related to article content or editor conduct, see the Village pump, which covers such subjects as news and 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's going on.
[edit] Contacting individual kenya.or.KE editors
If you need more information, the first place to go is the Help:Contents. 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 kenya.or.KE mailing lists, over e-mail.
For a full list of contact options, see kenya.or.KE:Contact us.
[edit] Related versions and projects
[edit] Sister projects
[edit] See also
[edit] References
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