AAPG Wiki:Wikification
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This article is a first draft, often just a set of initial notes (see all) |
Wikification is the process of turning ordinary content (plain prose with references and figures) into readable, linked, interactive content suitable for a wiki. You could think of it as all the things you need to do to the Encyclopedia Britannica or a mid-term essay into a Wikipedia article. The main element is formatting using wiki markup. See wikify in the Wikipedia glossary.
Broadly speaking, there are three steps to what we are going to do:
- Automated XML to wikitext conversion; this tool is in prototype
- Preparation of images for figures, tables, and equations, to the extent that this is possible
- Adding ledes, converting tables, images, adjusting page structure, etc, etc.
Automatic wikification
We are not yet certain we will be able to do all of these things.
| Content | |
|---|---|
| Convert text and sections headings | |
| Convert math to LaTeX | |
| Add See also section heading | |
| Add Datapages links section heading | |
| Add External links section heading | |
| Add reference tags and References section | |
| Navigation | |
| Add navigation aids at top of article (based on book?) | |
| Add category tags at bottom of article | |
| Style | |
| Add links based on book contents and indices (perhaps) | |
| Limit TOC if too many sections |
Human wikification
These steps will probably require human editors. Other wikification steps will be added by the page conversion tool.
| Content | |
|---|---|
| Add lede paragraph summarizing article | |
| Add internal links to See also section | |
| Add Datapages links | |
| Add External links (other technical papers, Wikipedia, SEG's wiki) | |
| OCR and wikify tables | |
| Navigation | |
| Add navigation aids at top of article (based on book?) | |
| Add category tags at bottom of article | |
| Add hatnotes |
Elements of wikification
Importance 1 = must-have, 3 = not critical Easiness 1 = easy, 3 = difficult
| Item | Importance | Easiness | Script | Non-geol | Geologist | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Headings | 1 | 1 | Template:Yes | Template:No | Template:No | |
| Heading & TOC clean | 2 | 2 | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | Template:No | Uncited references need adding |
| Navigation aid | 1 | 2 | Template:Yes | Template:No | Template:No | |
| Lede | 1 | 3 | Template:No | Template:Partial | Template:Yes | Most need writing |
| Links | 1 | 2 | Template:Yes | Template:Partial | Template:Partial | |
| Categories | 2 | 1 | Template:Yes | Template:Partial | Template:Partial | Need some engr input |
| References | 1 | 2 | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | Template:No | Uncited references need adding |
| See also | 2 | 2 | Template:No | Template:Yes | Template:No | Uncited references need adding |
| Hatnotes | 2 | 3 | Template:No | Template:Yes | Template:No | {{Main}}, disambiguation, etc |
| Redirects | 1 | 2 | Template:No | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | Plurals, synonyms & abbreviations |
| List conversion | 1 | 1 | Template:Yes | Template:No | Template:No | |
| List break-outs | 2 | 2 | Template:No | Template:Partial | Template:No | Some new lists from text |
| Wiki tables | 2 | 2 | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | Template:No | Most tables are images; onerous |
| LaTeX equations | 1 | 3 | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | Template:Partial | Some hand-coding, checking needed |
| Figures | 1 | 2 | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | Template:No | Figure placement, cross-refs |
| SVG conversion | 3 | 3 | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | Template:No | Might be hard, prioritize |
| Hot-labeling images | 3 | 3 | Template:No | Template:Yes | Template:No | Time-consuming, prioritize |
| Refs in full | 3 | 3 | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | Template:No | Need to settle on method |
| Glossary | 3 | 2 | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | Template:No | May not be required |
| Intro articles | 2 | 3 | Template:No | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | For high-priority content |
Easier items
- Preserving heading hierarchy, with level 1 headings becoming articles, level 2 becoming level 2 section heads, etc.
- Adding navigation aids, perhaps one for each topic (broadly aligned with chapters in the print edition?)
- Adding category tags based on volume number; anything deeper may require semantic analysis
- Adding plain wikitext references in-line and gathering them at the end of the articles (standard Wikipedia approach)
- Formatting all lists as wiki lists, ordered or unordered
- Formatting images as thumbnails and preserving their captions in the thumbnail and in the file page itself
- Formatting equations as LaTeX, possibly with reference numbers for use in-article
Harder, high priority only?
- Formatting all tables as wiki tables
- Formatting all images as SVGs
- Full citation formatting for references
- Including the tables of symbols at the ends of chapters, possibly with Extension:Lingo
- Dense linking between articles; this could be done from a detailed table of contents coupled with the index. One problem is the large number of synonyms and equivalent phrases used by the broad authorship. Another problem is the staged rollout.
- Cross-references between articles (referencing sections, figures, equations, etc); we could count these to know how big an issue it is
Usability-oriented
Lead paragraphs
- These are intended to be a three to four sentence high level summary at the beginning of an article (similar to an article abstract)
- This is a wiki standard - see Lead paragraph
- Most articles do not have this so they will either need to be written or automatically generated.
- To write these manually we could consider using AAPG staff editors. However, these resources are often constrained.
- Automatically generated lead paragraphs could potentially be done with something like Summly. This needs further investigation.
Other usability techniques
- Adding more headings where appropriate
- Adding more lists where appropriate. Probably a manual process.
- Removing labels from images and adding them back as linked wikitext
- Adding a simple in-page appeal for content where needed, especially more images
Principles and patterns
- It's all about the reader.
- There must be a lede paragraph of 2–5 sentences, and it must give the nutshell.
- If necessary, use {{TOC limit}} to limit the TOC to fewer than about 10–15 items.
- Remove
's and 's mercilessly, unless really required. - Use {{clear}} sparingly.
- All images should be thumb unless there's a good reason to use something else.
- All tables should be class="wikitable"
- All equations should be on a line by themselves (unless very small), and with a single indent (use a colon : ).
- Get familiar with the use of hatnotes and disambiguation in Wikipedia.
- Tags for infoboxes and other organizing tools go at the top of the article.
- The end of every article should have References (if any), AAPG links (or similar), External links, and categories.
- Try to get an image, infobox, or other eye-candy above the fold (i.e. without needing scrolling).
- Link once per section; further mentions of words and phrases don't need links.
- Try not to reword links with aliases, it's confusing for the reader.
- It's all about the reader!
Potential wikification resources
- SME resources?
- Potential volunteer SME resources?
- Anyone else?