Wikipedia:WikiProject International development

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shortcut:
WP:WPID

This project contains suggestions and tools for improving articles related to international development. It is hoped that this project will help to focus the efforts of Wikipedians, and people new to editing Wikipedia. If you would like to help, either jump right in (see Jumping off points, below - but don't forget to come back and visit here), browse this page, or check the talk page.

If you're interested in this area, please consider joining, below.

Contents

[edit] Scope

The vision is to develop a comprehensive, detailed, and accessible guide to International development, covering technical, economic and social issues.

The ultimate goal is to have a powerful, practical and empowering resource which people everywhere can use to improve their own lives. Other people can also improve their understanding, whether they are involved in aid and development, or in politics, or in the broader public, thus raising awareness and understanding of the issues.

Through Wikipedia's inter-language work, this resource can be translated into other languages, greatly increasing the reach.

...and it will benefit you, too:

  • You learn as you research and edit.
  • You get the satisfaction of contributing to international development, even if you're unable to go into the field.
  • If you do work in the field, you'll have a better toolbox of ideas.

[edit] Jumping off points

  • Help expand a stub article: see Category:International development stubs
  • Edit one of the other articles, according to your interest and/or knowledge. (If you have interest but not knowledge, be sure to do your research!)
  • Check the to-do list on the talk page
  • Wondering where to find info? Check the Resources section on this page.
  • Promote the project - don't be pushy, just let people know. Some things to consider:
    • People who work (paid or volunteer) in the development field;
    • People who are into permaculture or sustainability are often into appropriate technology and concerned about international development, so tell them about this project.
    • Politically active people. Many people across the political landscape are concerned about these issues. And they often have email lists or newsletters that you can post a brief notice on.
    • Inside Wikipedia: Paste {{WikiProject International development}} on relevant talk pages. If a topic is only marginally related, then just put a note, telling people about it. (Use [[Wikipedia:WikiProject International development]] to link to the project page.

[edit] New to Wikipedia?

You might want to check this introduction (simple) or How to edit a page (more detailed). Or just click the edit tab at the top of the page you want to edit and figure it out as you go.

A few key things to remember:

  • Wikipedia uses the 'neutral point-of-view
  • no original research. If you have unpublished research, writeups of projects or small groups, personal experience or ideas that you want to share, then please check out Appropedia. (Appropedia is open to anything related to sustainability and development, though its content is largely appropriate technology, so far).
  • No user on Wikipedia 'owns' any of its pages. Your assistance in improving a page is always welcome.

[edit] Advanced editing tools

[edit] Structure

There is no special format that has to be followed (apart from general Wikipedia guidelines - if you're not sure, then just do your best).

For articles about specific appropriate technologies, there should be information on:

  • History (or background)
  • Usage
  • Operation
  • Effectiveness
  • Advantages and disadvantages
  • Cost
  • How to build or where to buy (detailed instructions might be found via a link to another site, especially if they are very long).

[edit] Projects

This section is for organizing group projects. Some WikiProjects have a Collaboration of the week. You are free to suggest that here, although remember that some prefer to work at their own pace - everything on Wikipedia is a collaboration, anyway.

An alternative is to "adopt" an article, meaning that you personally focus on improving a particular article. Of course, others can still edit it, too.

[edit] Templates

[edit] User box

See Members section, below.

[edit] Infoboxes

An infobox on Wikipedia is a consistently-formatted table which is present in articles with a common subject. See Wikipedia:List of infoboxes. There are currently no infoboxes on International development.

[edit] Navigational template?

Priority: Low or Medium
{{Sustainability and energy development group}} is an impressive example of a Navigational template. But these need constant maintenance to keep them complete and up-to-date. {{Navbox generic}} gives the basic code to start from.

[edit] Stub template

Use this template: {{International-dev-stub}} to put this stub notice in an article (below). It also adds the article to the stub category:

This international development-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[edit] Other templates

Use this code: {{WikiProject International development}} to place the following box on article talk pages:

WikiProject International development This article is part of WikiProject International development, which is building a comprehensive, detailed, and accessible guide to International development, including such areas as Appropriate technology, Microfinance, and social issues related to development. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can see a list of open tasks and discuss the project.


[edit] Articles

Articles are found in the Development categories and its subcategories, laid out below.

Main category: Development

Concepts, theory, academia:

Economic & finance issues:

Institutional topics:

Technical issues:

Some articles in these categories may be relevant:

Last updated: 21 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Articles needing attention

To be created, or particularly needing work (please add below):

[edit] Technical articles

  • Vertical kiln
  • Jhai Foundation - how about article on this pedal powered computer...?

[edit] New articles & "Did you know" nominations

Please feel free to list your new International development-related articles here (newer articles at the top, please). Listing the articles often gets other editors to help improve and expand a new article.

Any new articles that have an interesting or unusual fact in them should be suggested for the Did you know? box on the Main Wikipedia page. DYN has a 72 hr. time limit from the creation of the article.

[edit] Translation

Translation can be done on any article, but it's probably most efficient to do it when articles have reached a certain level of quality and stability (to save constant updates of the translation).

[edit] Showing sources

The English Wikipedia article should be shown as the source for the article in the target language (and perhaps a mention that the sources for that are in English - at least then people know where the information is from, and have an idea of what's involved in tracking down the sources - and if they do have some understanding of English, knowing where to find the sources makes it much easier than having to do all the research themselves). If there are equivalent links in the target language, all the better.

[edit] Articles suitable for translating

Please add suitable articles below:

No articles of a suitable standard, yet?

[edit] Articles nearly of a suitable standard for translation

Please add suitable articles below:

[edit] Resources

Aside from googling, you might want to try these

  • Google Scholar A bit hit and miss - some very useful stuff, but also some very obscure, esoteric stuff. Sometimes it's only the title, sometimes it's an abstract, but they can suggest further directions for research.
  • Google Books Lots of info here. It's difficult to read large amounts, but you can always go and find the book if you really want it.
  • A good book on the topic - perhaps from a university library (for the very keen)
  • Explore the External links heading at the end of key articles such as Appropriate technology or International development.

If you're looking for general info that might inspire a new article, these sites are worth a look:

[edit] Technical (appropriate technology) sites

[edit] Sister Project Searches

[edit] Members

If you want to participate in this project... you don't have to add your name or put the userbox on your userpage, but it would cool if you did. If you're not registered, then register first - that makes it much easier to discuss articles, ask questions about edits etc.

Just add yourself to the list below, and add this userbox to your userpage:
This user is a member of WikiProject International development.
Use this code: {{User WikiProject IntDev}}


If you don't like userboxes, then just add [[Category:WikiProject International development members]]


At last count there were 11 members. (10 October 2006 )

Introductions:

[edit] International development Meetups

I'm keen to meet people with similar interests, in Meetups, one-on-one, or visiting projects. Currently in NSW, Australia, till mid-2006. Then I'll be in Asia for the next couple of years (SE Asia then Bangladesh and India). I'm a water & sanitation engineer and would be glad to help when I'm able, though I think of myself as a learner rather than an expert. --Singkong2005 07:24, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Related Wikis and WikiProjects

Similar WikiProjects are:


Collaborations outside Wikipedia:

  • Appropedia (wiki site) "a living library of appropriate technology." Also deals with broader development and sustainability issues, and is suitable for material which does not belong on Wikipedia, for material which is not suitable for Wikipedia (e.g. how-tos and project write-ups).
  • Nabuur.com - "The global neighbour network." Helping specific villages, rather than building an information resource.

[edit] Archives

  • #1 - unused parts of the WikiProject template
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../w/i/k/Wikipedia%7EWikiProject_International_development_85b4.html"